5R8TD – The Report

The idea to go in Madagascar for our holiday was already on the plan since 3 years, then me and my wife decided to go elsewhere; but this time has been succeeded, from May 27th until June 11th we became Malgascian !

The original plan was to stay 2 weeks in Tsarabanjina Island (IOTA AF-057), in the Mitsio Archipelago, a real paradise for about 50 guest only, just beach, sun, and rhum ! But we found just one week availability, so for the first week we found another nice Resort in Nosy Be, called Royal Beach Andilana.

So I setup the request of the callsign, and was quite easy to get what I wish… as in the past I was 8Q7TD from Maldives, this time I requested 5R8TD. The callsign arrived in about one months. When I’m travel with my radio, the setup is quite consolidated… I have everything (or almost) in my radiobag, which allow me to be on the air very soon, and all the device are already plugged and ready to go…

About antenna, as the distance was about 8000 km, I decided to bring with me several solutions… so I got Vertical Monoband for 10, 15 and 20 meters, a vertical multiband (Rybacov) and an Endfed.

About the first week there is not much to write about radio, as unfortunately I got a nice room with a small garden, but not good at all to hang my antennas; from the inspection made with Google Map, I have ask the garden instead of the upper level because the roof of the building was covering for a good part the balcony, so probably impossible to hang my vertical antenna; I was thinking about the garden… but when I saw the room I realize immediately that this was too small to be used…. I tried to install my multiband using a palm tree as support…. But the problem was the building, to way close to the antenna so really not good.

In a second time I tried to hang the Endfed, but also with this the result was really poor… plus, the position right in front of the main walkroad , so I was forced to do not invade to much that area…. I went to the Director of the Resort, asking if was possible to move my room in the back of the building, where was standing a bigger garden … but unfortunately he said he did not has the same room for the whole period of my stay… at the end I had to renounce…. My wife was of course very happy, because we could have me for the whole time then !!

So the week was dedicated to the beach and making some nice tour around the Island… I have unbelievable memory about this nice tour… Madagascar is nr. 6 poorest Country in the World, and it is amazing seeing how they lives… like 300 years ago, but always with a smile in the face…. a bit scaring the hygenics conditions, I guess this people has develop very high self defense against bacteria….

On the second week everything was much better… we took the boat that after 1 hours landed us on the Tsarabanjina Island, a small paradise in the middle of the Ocean… the smiling staff of the Resort welcome us, and somebody started already asking what could that big and heavy black box contain … as I usually do I informed the Manager of the Resort who I was and what is my intention.. the reply was just great … “ You are in paradise… have fun with what you like to do “

After 2 hours from our arrival my monoband for 20 meter was already setup… I also mounted the Enfded, just in case…. all the rig was then ready to go, and I was quite anxious to start the operation….After dinner I start to explore the band, and usually I like to operate around 14.255… it was enough to call just 3 times, then the frequency start to be very busy…..

I was so happy !!! After the big disappointment of the previous week, now I was ON AIR from Africa ! There was really a lot of people waiting, as I did quite a good “tam-tam” on all the dx bulletins ! After 15 minutes start to become a bit hard as the number of callers was higher and higher, then I start operating in split, and then was definitely much better….

All signal was quite high, and from that location there was not too much noise.. the antenna was practically in front of the beach, mounted on my 10 meters Spiderbeam mast, and hanged to a small wooden railing …. so the top of the antenna was at 10 meters high, means the bottom was over 5 meter on the ground, enough to have then the 4 radials perfectly mounted at 120 degrees, and safely fixed using a small rope.

The first night I worked 241 HAM in about 2 and half hour, so quite happy… on the second day, which was the best one, I reach the300 qso, about in the same time… also the following days, numbers was similar… I have to say was for me very comfortable to work in the evening… the timing was good, for me right after the dinner, and for the caller across the dinner time.

I also tried during the days a couple of time, but there was no condition,until I tried the last day on 15 meter, and I was able to put in the log some Japanese people.

I have dedicated 3 days to 20 meters, and 3 days to 15 meters… I left the 10 meters as the propagation on this band it could take long time to get there, and I would maximize the time I spent in radio…

On 20 meters there was always more activity, but I made less but longer distance…. in total was worked 72 Country, 19 CQ Zones, 24 ITU Zones… Top 10 Country are reported below…the Farest DX was with FK8IF, a QRB of about 17000 km !! No bad for a small wire vertical !!!

More details about numbers of the activity are available here, thanks to my friend Claudio IW1QLH

I close the operation the day before leaving the Island, as the departure was early in the morning; on the log at the end I counted 1555 qso…. the rate QSO/H was pretty good, with some peaks of 216 (5 minutes period), 192 (10 minutes period), 139 (60 minutes period) and with an overall rate of 93 qso/hour.

Qsl will be ready very soon, and will be sent to all that will request in the time and mode indicated on my blog. Of course for all Mediterranean DX Affiliated will works the internal Buro; thanks to all HAM that had a qso with me from that wonderful Land, despite my 33 years HAM career, it is so fun every time you go out of your home shack, it is always so useful and addictive, lot to learn !

And thanks to my wife Cinzia, thanks since more then 30 years supports and endures my HAM activity !