PHOTO PAGE 6W/PA3EWP and 6W/GM4FDM

We arrived around 01.00 local time at our destination for the coming 14 days.
When we woke up, we started building the shack.

We put up an additional antenna for 17 meter.
Tom prepared a vertical with elevated radials. This antenna was put up on a 10 meter long fibre stick.
The SWR was perfect, so this antenna was ready for the pile-up.

Later that day we started assembling the 4 square for 40 meters. Before darkness the verticals were up, but with just 1 radial.
It was nearly dark when we stopped.

We put 5 radials under each vertical, and had to buy some more wires. Late in afternoon we bought some drums of copper wire at a cost of €100.

Unfortally we had no time to put all the radials at the verticals, but at least 20 radials were there.
Tom prepared the 30 meter vertical like the 17 meter vertical. Again having been pre-tuned it at home it worked first time.
The SWR was 1:1
Now we were ready.
The 4 square worked perfect, we received strongs signal reports from USA and JA.
Tom started a pile-up on 30 meter.

The whole day we worked on different bands, propagations was pretty good. After the weekend we will build also a 12 meter vertical or dipole.
The 160m contest started at 22.00Z, unfortunately both radio's had no RX antenna input. So Ronald had to listen on the Titanex V80 vertical.
In the beginning of the contest it was impossible to find a clear freq. With only 400 watts the wall from NA and EU was too big. Ronald worked a just few stations,
and wanted to try again later for a couple of hours.
We had also some problems with the laptop of Tom. Vista in combination with Win-test and the Microkeyer doesn't work.
It cost us many hours to find a solution without success.

We changed PC's to get RTTY running from Ronalds laptop and the Elecraft k3 from Tom.
The 160m contest was definitly no succes. It was struggling to find a clear freq and without proper receiving antennas it is a hard time.
Till the end of the contest Ronald made approximately 170 QSO's.
Not a good result, but Ronald is sure that a few op's got a new one on topband.

Today we worked on different bands. In the evening and during the night Ronald worked mostly on 40 meter.
During the night Ronalds amplifier failed and the SWR on 40 meter was also bad.
So around 02.00 local time Ronald quits.

After a quick phone call with Steve PA3GBQ, Ronald was able to repair the amplifier and was ready again for the operating.
The 4 square was checked out to see if all was still good connected. There seems to be no problem. The SWR was fine and alls seemd to be working good.

Tom prepared the 12 meter dipole, SWR was good and he managed to work more than 100 EU and NA stations on 12 meter.
He started in the evening on 40m rtty, it seems to work well on rtty on 40m, a big pile-up.
Unfortunately it seems to be difficult for the calling stations to spread out.
This brings the qso rate down to 1 in 2 minutes.
After 40m rtty Ronald started 80m cw, and managed 500 QSO's in the log. Most of them were into NA.

During the day we were mostly active on 12 meter. Ronald even made a few QSO's on 10 meter with Europe.
In the evening Tom did some RTTY on 40m, more than 400 QSO's are in the log now in rtty on 40m.
Later Ronald started 80 meter again. More than 900 QSO's are logged on 80 meter.

Today nothing special happens, propagation is below normal. During the night approx. 300 QSO's were logged.

Friday February 5th:
Propagation is poor on all bands. During the evening/night it was also difficult on 80 and 160 meter.
The noise level is still pretty high and QSB is deep. Sometimes only 2 letters come out of the noise and then the signal disappears again.
Today it was also extremely hot, the temperature went up to 38 degrees C.

During daytime we were active on the higher bands, but the noise level is killing. On all bands s6 is normal, so the signals have to be very strong to get through this qrm. In the evening Tom was strugling again with the European mess on 40 meter.
After 40 meter Ronald was active again on the low band, switching from 160 to 80 and 40 meter.
Today, was the warmest day till now. Temperatures went up to 41 degrees.

Sunday February 7th:

Today we had many power cuts,everytime for a few hours. But during the time we had power all was fine.

Even the pile-ups were still there, independent of band/mode.

This time we were not active during the night.

Ronald still going.....

.....at 1:42 local time

Monday February 8th:

Around 06.00 Ronald was active on 40 meters and worked many VK, ZL and KH6 stations. They were not all strong but they were workable. Even worked 2 JA's via long path.

During the day there, again many hours of no electricity, even during the evening.

Luckily it happens on the last days instead of on the first days.

We took down the 4 square and the dipole for 12 meter.

Tuesday February 9th:

EArly this morning we had a power cut again, so unfortunately no 80 meter operation during pur sun-rise.

Around 09.00 o’clock we took down the 17 and 30 meter verticals and disassembled the radios. Around 12.00 all was ready for departure. We did some last shopping in the afternoon and Ronald visited also the Lagoon. Around 17.00 we left Dakar to the airport for our final destination: home.

Wednesday Februay 10th:

Late in the afternoon,both Ronald and Tom were back. This was the end of a successful DX-pedition to a semi-rare dxcc-country.

In total we made 17.000 QSO's. We like to thank our host Francois and Corine, they did a perfect job. Don't forget to visit their website for more information.

	4 Square for 40m