Chris just called me in a rather sullen mood. The ship is anchored
off the island, and a new linear amplifier has been installed.
However, a work crew has started taking down all the tall towers!
Apparently, the HF system is being downgraded to a single wide band
dipole (read: air cooled dummy load), on a single tower.
The environmentalists have objected to the terrible towers and
Rhombics, and have won the day. With a satellite telephone system,
the Rhombics are no longer the primary antenna system. Chris had no
advance warning. Obviously, this news will also impact severely on
future Marion Island operations. In the past, operators have had to
do relatively little antenna work, and have managed to produce fair
signals despite the remote location. In future, they will probably
have to carry their own antennas, and will have to obtain prior
permission.
Chris promises to try his best to work some stations in the coming
weeks, but with only a resistively loaded dipole at modest height, it
is unlikely that he will work much on 160 again.
QSLs have essentially all been answered, although a few hundred cards
have yet to be mailed. I expect these to be mailed early next week,
after which all the Not in Log contacts will be fully investigated
and returned.
Incidentally, I recently had a very irate message from someone about
the information I published on the Reflector. The objection was that
he'd lost several nights' sleep, and hadn't managed to work Chris.
I'm afraid Chris has had rather poor results the past few weeks, but
not for want of trying. Conditions have been really poor, and noise
levels are still relatively high. As an indication, I've spent half
a dozen nights on 160 in the past few weeks. I have exactly three
contacts to show for it; one 9X, one YB and one G3. Apart from these
three stations, I only heard two others. None of these were Q5 copy,
even out in the countryside, with a Beverage for Europe.
Chris R. Burger
ZS6EZ
QSL manager for ZS8IR (gee, I can almost resume a normal life!)
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