Let's Try Again

Current time on island is about 5:00 a.m.

Insomnia is taking its toll.  Yesterday, the flight from Sydney to LHI was cancelled so the gear could not be here.  The weather conditions are drastic.  The cloud cover was too low for the flight.   It never left Sydney.

Over the night, the winds reached about 50 km/h and I don't know exactly what the mph equivalent is, but the sound of the trees and the horizontal rain that fell all night against the corrugated roof of the paddock was enough to keep me awake all night.

The wind has died down and the rain has stopped.   I am hopeful that the flight will be here today, but you never know until later in the day for sure.

The farm land on which the QTH is situated is ideal for putting up antenna here, and with nothing else to do but wait, I've had time to scope the terrain even more.  I'll be discussing the antenna location with the host of the Lodge and I think a few spots are going to be ideal.

We found among the gear that was left here over a decade ago, bags of old coax and makings for antennas.  Mostly aluminum tube and clamps and guy lines.  I think it is the makings of a beam antenna for the higher bands like 20 or 10m.  Perhaps 6m.  There should be enough tubing here to cobble together a spare antenna.   I have my own gear to expect for the vertical wire antenna, but we will see how it goes.

It is definitely winter time though.  Cold, rain, wind.  I also feel as if I'm probably one of very few visitors to the island.   I can walk or ride a bike along the road that goes along the coast line and not run into anyone else that isn't already a resident.

But the hospitality of the folks who live here is remarkable.  Everyone seems keenly interested in why I am here and when I explain it (the amateur radio DX'p explanation) they are polite to nod along, but I don't think I will try to get into too many details.   One very kind woman who runs a local outfitter shop told me that by now, practically everyone on the island knows why I am here. News travels fast, nothing is a secret for very long.

I moved up the dates of the DX'p (to land on July 10th rather than original July 20th) just for this reason -- in case things go side-ways on the luggage issue.    I'll be making some notes on this and when I get back to the States I'll give a brief 10 minute talk about the situation and some key points learned when the Western Washington DX Club has their convention in Everett, WA later in August.

At any rate, the battery is running low and all of the equipment I need to facilitate the station is still in Sydney.   If all goes well, I'll have the gear transported here to the Lodge and begin the process of stringing out radials, putting up antenna and connecting the K3/KPA station and try to listen for the band-conditions and check propagation.

As I said before, things are looking up.  That's the only direction to look at this point.

Until then,  CQ soon.

Jeff