Here are excerpts from a note I received from Bob W6RJ/TJ1GB:
"W6KR (my son) and I made 290 160 meter qso's with 28 dupes. The first
qso was OM5XX and soon afterwards W4ZV for our first W/K qso. You were
very good copy. A total of 29 W/K qso's were made including two 7's.
QRN was terrible 8 out of 10 days from thunderstorms coming from the
west coast of africa, and even then we had to wait until an hour or so
prior to sunrise (0455Z) to really hear something. When the qrn was
down we could really hear well as there was no local qrn from man made
sources as the nearest powerline was 35 miles away.
Our operating locations was near Garoua in the NE part of Cameroon. The
site was a safari camp with a generator as power. A 48' top loaded
vertical was used with two elevated radials. There was a 50' drop off
towards a river to the West and Northwest.
This was a real bush location with elephants withing 100 yards of the
base of the antenna. They were a worry because prior to our arrival
they used the exact location of the antenna as their route to the river.
The generator seemed to keep them away and we had no damage whatsoever.
The IC706MK2 and a OH1RY SS amplifier with 700W out seemed to be ok but
the additional 3db of a larger amplifier would have made a big
difference.
The main reason for the trip was for the safari portion which limited
daytime operation. For all the 160/80 guys I guess they would say WHO
CARES about hame radio during daylight."
(For general info, QSL via K6SLO (ex-WA6SLO)...73, Bill W4ZV}
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