[CQ-Contest] CQWW CW from HS0AC

[Fred Laun K3ZO]

I really enjoy contesting at the home station I have had optimized
for contesting over the years according to my specifications.  Thus
it was with some reluctance that I accepted the invitation of the
Thailand Group 96 (TG96) gang to join their CQWW CW multi-multi
operation at the Radio Amateur Society of Thailand's (RAST) club
station HS0AC.  But really I couldn't find a good excuse not to
accept as I would be in Thailand anyway the weekend prior to the
contest for the Southeast Asia Net Convention.  Besides that I
really felt that I should accept this kind invitation as a
demonstration of support for this group of enthusiastic, mostly
young contesters/DXpeditioneers.  Bernie, W3UR, said that he would
be glad to put my home station through its paces in my absence so
that PVRC's point total would be spared the loss of my score, and
that sealed my decision to join the Thai gang.

Please allow me to digress for a moment in order to provide a
snapshot of the ham radio situation in Thailand which will give the
reader what I believe is necessary background information so that
this story can be fully appreciated.

Several weeks ago a member of the ARRL HQ staff called me with a
query.  ARRL, which serves as the Secretariat for the International
Amateur Radio Union (IARU), had been compiling the results of the
annual questionnaire sent to IARU member national Amateur Radio
societies around the world, and had been struck by the fact that
Thailand apparently had the fourth or fifth-largest ham population
of any country in the world.  If this was so, he asked, why were so
few Thai stations heard on the air?

The fact is that some 175,000 Thais have passed the Thai Novice
Class examination since Amateur Radio in Thailand was legalized in
1987.  The Novice Class is a VHF-only no-code license.  Of these,
perhaps only 125,000 actually took the next step after passing the
examination, which is to request a call sign and pay the license
fee.  The explanation is that a large number of students take and
pass the Amateur Radio examination only in order to have an
additional item to add to their resumes when job hunting.  They
have no intention of actually getting into ham radio. 
  
There is no question, however, that a large number of callsigns
have been issued.  There are nine call areas in Thailand.  The
Bangkok metro area was originally HS1 with HS0 later added as an
overflow prefix.  When it became apparent that soon all of the HS0
calls would be used up, Thailand went to the ITU to ask for another
prefix.  The ITU is running out of prefixes and was reluctant to
provide Thailand with a second prefix, but finally allotted the E2
prefix to Thailand.  So the authorities began to issue E21 prefix
calls to Bangkok-area hams, and those have now been used up.  So
now the authorities are issuing E20-prefix calls to Bangkok area
hams, and those are rapidly being used up.  I know for a fact that
E20REX and E20RRW have already been issued because they are among
the TG96 Group members.

The Thai PTD received so much QRN from the ITU when they asked for
an additional prefix the first time that they have resolved not to
go back to the ITU and ask for any more prefixes.  So when the
Bangkok area uses up all the E20 prefixes the PTD has resolved to
assign the E22, E23, E24, E25 and E26 prefixes in turn to the
Bangkok area.  The other eight Thai call areas will have to share
the E27, E28 and E29 prefixes among them when their respective HS
calls are all used up.  I understand that the HS2 and HS7 call
areas are getting near the end of their allotment of HS calls
already.  HS2ZIU was another of the ops at HS0AC.

So, to go back to the original question, where are all these hams? 
Why don't we hear them on the air?  The answer is that only some
600 or so Thais have thus far managed to upgrade to the
Intermediate Class license which carries with it HF privileges. 
No, the 8 WPM CW test is not the problem.  Thai hams are eager to
use CW because they consider it the great equalizer on the DX bands
as many of them speak little English.  The problem is the written
examination.  There is no reliable study guide.  The examination
changes completely every time it is given.  Usually there are only
two Intermediate Class examinations given per year, and they are
only given in Bangkok.  The fellow who makes up the examination
delights in throwing in questions which have little to do with the
knowledge required to operate an Amateur Radio station on the HF
bands, such as the meaning of each of the "Z" signals used by
military and commercial stations.

Even after a person obtains his Intermediate Class license,
bureaucratic hurdles remain before he can actually set up a station
at his home.  Thai Amateur Radio stores do not stock HF gear
because there are so few potential buyers.  HRO Anaheim has
probably sold more HF radios to Thai hams than any other dealer
anywhere in the world because Janet knows how to get the radios
aboard the daily Thai International flight to Bangkok according to
the purchasers' specifications.  Thai hams importing radios must
pay import duties which, along with shipping and handling costs,
almost double the price that you and I would pay at the average
U.S. radio outlet.  Once a Thai has imported his HF radio and
retrieved it from customs, he has seven days in which to take it to
the Thai PTD's lab for testing.  The authorities there may not get
around to testing the radio for months, depending on how busy they
are.  Finally, once they have proven to themselves that the radio
cannot transmit outside the ham bands, they will inscribe a serial
number in Thai numerals on the case and release it for use by the
owner.  

Before the owner can set up a station at his home, however, he must
get permission to do so from the PTD.  If he rents his home or
apartment, this means he must get a written release from the owner
before he can put a station there.  Then the PTD must inspect the
installation in question before the ham can go on the air from
there.  The only part of the process in which an American ham might
actually envy the Thai ham is that if the PTD says you can put up
a 60-meter-high tower, its word is final.   Neither the neighbors
nor the local government district office has any say in the matter; 
the PTD's word is the law.  The Bangkok area sports a fair number
of 160 foot towers with twin 11-element stacked vertically-
polarized 2 meter beams belong to Thai VHF DXers vying to work all
76 Thai provinces on 2 meters FM simplex.  I am told that a YL
operator, E21DKD, has actually done so.

With all the bureaucracy required to obtain an HF home station
permit, only about 100 Thais have managed to set up HF stations in
their own homes.  Fortunately the law does permit hams to use their
personal callsigns at other stations if they wish.  Thus RAST's
club station HS0AC has been a valuable resource for the young,
largely college-age TG96 contest gang.  In recent months under the
leadership of HS0AC Station Manager/RAST International Secretary
Ray, G3NOM, and Deputy Station Manager/RAST Internal Secretary
Winit, HS1CKC, the HS0AC shack has been cleaned up and redecorated
by these young enthusiasts with lots of displays on the wall
(including the QSLs from FRC stalwarts K3WW and N2LT).  

Actually the existing HS0AC shack has been around for a long time. 
I remember operating contests there in the 80's when the station
was known as HS0A.  It is located on the semi-rural campus of the
Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) about 30 minutes north of
Bangkok Airport under normal traffic conditions (15 minutes on a
Sunday morning).  The station facilities were obtained for RAST use
in the 1970's by a visiting professor at AIT, WA3SLK, and a
visiting professor from Japan whose JA1 call escapes me.  The
station is on the ground floor of a student dormitory building and
RAST is free to use the roof of the building for its antenna farm. 

The TG96 contest gang had worked hard on the antenna farm prior to
the beginning of the 2000-2001 contest season, and in addition to
the TH7DXX and A3S triband Yagis which have long been used by the
station, the roof now also supports a 5-el homebrew 10-meter Yagi
and -- to my mind the crown jewel of the antenna farm -- a 3-el
full sized 20 meter monoband Yagi designed and built by HS0ACT. 
Since there as yet exists no rotor for this antenna, for the
contest it was aimed at the USA short path which makes it only a
couple of DB down on one side for JA and on the other side for
Europe.  I fell in love with this antenna after using it for a bit
before the contest and observing a full 2 S-unit advantage over the
TH7DXX on the TS-940 S-meter.

Also on the roof are a full-wave loop for 40, a half-wave inverted
V dipole and a half-sloper for 80.  A half-wave inverted V dipole
for 160 was erected during the contest -- the AIT management has
asked that this antenna be taken down after each contest as it
overhangs the building by too much and is considered a high voltage
hazard to the students.

My involvement with the contest actually began on the Wednesday
evening prior to the contest.  Wednesday evenings are the time for
the weekly informal meeting of the operators at the station, as
HS0AC is the net control on Wednesday nights for the Southeast Asia
Net.  RAST members know that someone will always be at the station
Wednesday nights so they drop in when it's convenient for them. 
After the SEANET and the Thailand-Malaysia 40 meter net most of the
gang move the meeting to a nearby open-air restaurant where
delectable dishes of spicy Thai food are washed down by copious
amounts of Thailand's Singha Beer.  Age limits for alcoholic
beverage consumption are unknown in Thailand -- if your money is
the right color you can order a beer -- so all of the TG96 Group's
college-age members are able to fully partake of the festivities. 
Amid enthusiastic discussions about the merits of CT vs TR-LOG,
Yagis vs Quads, last year's score vs this year's plans, etc, the
happy meeting went on until about 11 PM at which point I returned
to the AIT campus and checked into the AIT Center Hotel which is
conveniently located easy walking distance from HS0AC.        

Thursday was spent entirely at HS0AC where I tried to get a feel
for the band conditions.  Using my personal Thai call HS0ZAR I hung
around the Chinese calling frequency 21400 and worked at closer
range some of the BA/BD/BG gang I have been working from K3ZO. 
Then I had a nice long rag chew with Paul, BV4FH, organizer of the
BQ9P DXpedition.  Then I put in an appearance on 29600 FM where I
engaged in one of my traditional activities every time I am in
Thailand -- working the low powered Chinese novices who in many
cases only have the 3-watt crystal-controlled FM kits distributed
to them by their national society CRSA free of charge.  As always
we shared the frequency with Chinese fishing boats but I managed to
put a few BG's (and JA's) in the log.

At the time the 3-el 20 meter Yagi was aimed at Japan, which
happens to be the same direction as the long path to
CE/CX/LU/PY3/PY5/ZP, so a couple of hours before Thai sunset I put
out a Spanish CQ in 14181 and was kept fully occupied for the next
two hours by South American hams surprised to find an HS speaking
Spanish.  Then I moved to 40 CW and managed to get a combined JA/W
pileup going until HC8N moved in 1 KHz below me and put his "up"
pileup right on top of me.  About that time I noticed that the
output of the TL-922 had dropped to less than half of what it had
been.  Apparently I was really "smoking" along and had caused
solder on a pin to melt, breaking contact with the filament and its
voltage supply on one of the 3-500Z's.  So I closed down and went
back to the hotel where I found a note to the effect that FRC's
W2YR had checked in and had wandered around the campus looking for
HS0AC in the dark without success.  I knocked on John's door and we
agreed to get together Friday morning for breakfast at the hotel's
coffee shop.

John and I arrived at HS0AC mid-morning and since I had told him
the Thai gang were expecting to use his expertise on computer
networking to link the four laptops with CT for the contest, he
proceeded to diagram the networking arrangement which had been used
successfully at V26B so that the Thai fellows would see for
themselves what it was all about.  As the day went on different
Thai hams dropped in and began to assemble the multi-multi setup
consisting partly of HS0AC's own gear and partly of members' gear
brought in for the occasion.  Among them was crack CW operator
Tham, E21CJN, who did not join us for the contest but dropped in to
lend his moral support. 

My XYL Somporn and I had donated to HS0AC W3NQN bandpass filters
purchased from WX0B so that the station would be able to operate as
a full multi-multi from now on.  These were dragged out of storage
and installed at each position by Champ, E21EIC.  We had four
operating positions: 40 meters was a TS-950 driving an FL-2100
amplifier; 20 meters a TS-940 with an NCL-2000 amp; 15 meters (160
meters after 15 went dead) was an IC-781 and TL-922 amp; and 10
meters (80 meters after 10 went dead) was a TS-940 driving a Henry
2K.  With W2YR working with Cy, HS0GBI; Winit, HS1CKC; Piak,
E20GJW; and Sam, SM3DYU, technical problems were overcome and the
station gradually took shape.  As we headed back to the hotel
Friday night everything seemed to be "go" for the contest.  Little
did we know that Murphy had a few surprises in store for us.

In Thailand the CQWW begins on Saturday morning at 7 AM.  W2YR and
I were banging on the HS0AC door just before 6 AM and we finally
aroused E20GMY, who had been designated to stay overnight at HS0AC
to guard the valuable gear, from a deep sleep.   7 AM came and
nobody else showed up.  I started on 40 S&P but could only attract
the attention of four stations -- HZ1AB, SU9ZZ, 3V8BB and HC8N --
not bad mults at that! -- before going over to 20 to run the US
East Coast interspersed with JA's.  Because there was a problem
with the amp on 15 meters, later found to be an interlock problem,
W2YR took the helm on 10 meters and E20GMY, whose CW is still a
work in progress, did S&P barefoot on 15.  Everything went along
pretty well until about 9 AM (0200 Z) when suddenly the power went
out.  E20GMY called the AIT management on the landline and quickly
determined that the power company had announced a planned outage
until 1600 local (0900 Z).  Yes, the University had a generator to
keep "essential operations" running in the meantime, but the ham
radio station was not an "essential operation" so we resigned
ourselves to the loss of seven hours of prime operating time.  I
remarked to John that the pile-ups would be that much bigger once
the power came back on.  (It appears that HS0AC will be able to
hook up to the campus generator in the future as long as RAST pays
the entire cost of cable, labor, etc, to make the hookup possible.)

So W2YR and I went back to the hotel for a leisurely breakfast and
some sack time.   We lunched at the hotel and got back over to
HS0AC about 2 PM.    Another good CW op, E20HHK, showed up to
operate with his 6 year old son -- who already knows CW -- in tow,
but no lights, so after we had a very pleasant conversation, he
left.  My XYL Somporn showed up with a care package -- a bucket of
KFC and several bottles of Classic Coke -- so we were in business
for the overnight shift if and when the power returned.

By now a number of the TG96 gang had arrived and we were finally
fully staffed for a four-position multi-multi, as soon as the power
returned.  The reason we had been short-handed at the beginning of
the contest was finally explained.  Severe flash flooding due to a
stalled weather front had hit South Thailand and Northern Malaysia,
and, there not being that many HF operators to go around in
Thailand, several of the TG96 gang, including HS1CKC, had been
pressed into service on 40 meters to relay emergency traffic out of
the flood area to Bangkok where VHF-only hams could make H&W
queries crossband through HS1CKC or E21EIC about relatives in the
affected area.  The water rose so rapidly in the affected area that 
everyone was caught by surprise.  HS9CA's TS-50 went underwater in 
a hurry.  HS8RJ's experienced flood emergency group was dispatched
to the area since the local hams had largely not been able to
salvage their gear before being flooded out.
 
The lack of power prevented us from putting up the 160 meter dipole
for the first night's operation, because false readings on a
battery-operated MFJ SWR bridge caused by RF from nearby
broadcasting stations prevented determination of resonance.  The
JA's to whom we promised 160 meter QSO's would have to wait till
the second evening.  

Finally at 4:15 PM local (0915 Z) the power suddenly returned.  It
seemed like eternity as we waited for W2YR to carefully power up
the laptops and get them all back in sync -- one had no battery so
had not been able to save data before being turned off after the
power went out, but the data was saved on the network.  At about
0925Z we were finally back on the air.  SM3DYU had delivered a pair
of new 4-400'S for the TL-922, advising that they could be used
without modification of the tube sockets as long as they were
paired together, so W2YR and E21EIC proceeded to make that
installation while I took 20 meters.  

Most of the TG96 group was off again, this time to a presentation
on contesting and DXing to members of the Saraburi Province Radio
Club (HS1AR) 70 miles up the road, touting the enchantment that
awaited them on HF to a bunch of VHF-only operators who had
requested enlightenment.  While there our gang found us on 20
meters and made sure we had a Zone 26 mult on that band from
HS1AR/p.

They left Champ, E21EIC, with us at the station, however, so we had
20, 15 and 10 covered competently by myself, E21EIC and W2YR
respectively.  E21EIC has world-class CW operating skills, and I'm
sure W3LPL would make him the lead operator on one of the bands if
he had him here.  Tom, N0SS, had made a CW pile-up tape for me to
run at the Southeast Asia Net Convention the weekend before, and
E21EIC had tied N4PN for second place while JA0DAI took first place
honors.  I don't even know how 80 meters sounded because we left
that band to E21EIC and HS2JFW with some help from W2YR and SM3DYU. 
All I can say is that even though our frequency range on 80 was
limited to 3524-3526 and 3534-3536 by Government edict, we ended up
with more QSOs on that band than we did on 40.

E21EIC was also the main man on 15 meters all through the contest. 
Champ has some call sign savvy too; at one point I watched talk
messages fly back and forth across the laptop I was using as Champ
convinced John that the "A52R" he had just worked was really AH2R. 

Operating a major worldwide contest at HS0AC is really a feast-or-
famine affair.  We could run W's on 10, 15 and 20 as long as there
were no conditions from the USA to Europe on the band in question. 
If the Europeans were in to the USA on a band, it was strictly S&P
for us -- or we could limp along running one-point JA's.  Even that
was often questionable.  My impression is that there are as many
JA's on CW as there ever were, but a great number of the older JA's
have stopped being serious contesters and are strictly DX'ers in a
contest, looking out only for new band-countries.  Since almost all
of them have HS confirmed on the normal HF bands, we would never
get much of a JA pile-up going on us but would often notice a
massive JA pile-up on some Caribbean operation, and observe that
most of the calls in that pile-up were not in our log on any band. 

By the same token we could create decent run rates into Europe on
10, 15 and 20 from about 0400Z onward until those bands opened into
the USA, after which time it was strictly S&P as all of the
European antennas rotated around toward the USA.  

I operated some on 15 meters Saturday from 1100 Z onwards, and
while I could run Europeans at a slow rate, the band seemed
strangely flat.  40 wasn't all that great either and I was reduced
to S&P there.  I had been warned by G3NOM that the 40 meter loop,
while a great receive antenna, had turned up wanting on transmit,
and I have concluded that he is correct.  The irony is that a full-
size 2-el 40 meter Yagi built many years ago by K2BA has been lying
forlornly on the HS0AC roof ever since.  They have never had a
tower strong enough to support it.  The towers at HS0AC are the
Thai equivalents of Rohn 25 and Rohn 45.  

Later that evening after the gang returned from the presentation at
HS1AR, we were finally fully staffed to run all four operating
positions.  Then Murphy threw us another curve as a Thai graduate
student in the dormitory dropped in to complain about TVI when he
was trying to watch the Thai version of "Millionaire."  Other
students watched the university's community satellite TV system
which was TVI-proofed, but this guy brought his own set to his room
and insisted on using it.  The lovely Gorn, E20REX, was dispatched
to his room with high pass filter in hand to try to use all of her
persuasive charms to get him to desist, but the filter did little
to solve the problem.  With Gorn on the phone we operated one
station at a time to see which one was causing the problem.  The
answer was that 15 and 40 were clean but 10 and 20 were causing TVI
so we lost two stations for almost two hours until the viewer was
finished watching his favorite program.

The addition of Sonthaya, HS6NDK and Cy, HS0GBI, two very competent
CW operators, really helped raise the Q rate.  Meanwhile E20GJW, a
crackjack engineer who has some Thai patents to his credit, moved
from position to position to correct nagging problems that had
showed up: an intermittent interlock problem on the 15/160 meter
position;  a relay control problem on the 40 meter position, etc. 
Finally after about 1700Z on Saturday all positions were up and
running normally.  We aren't talking about a lot of power by
today's standards -- the wattmeters I observed over the weekend
were all showing 600 to 800 watts output depending on the band, but
it was enough to keep us moving.  

I was especially proud of the NCL-2000 at the 20 meter position.  
This had been my old linear amplifier when I had operated as
HS3AL/HS5ABD in 1968-1970.  When I left Thailand in 1970 never
expecting to be reassigned to Thailand again, I had donated my
Drake B-line and NCL-2000 amp to RAST.   They sat around forlornly
in HS0AC for years in some state of minor disrepair.  Finally last
year SM3DYU, whose job is keeping all the electronics going aboard
a modern fleet of Norwegian chemical tanker ships, decided to get
the NCL-2000 back in shape.  One locally-rewound HV transformer
later, the NCL-2000 purrs smothly along, still running on the
original 8122's.  It was the most trouble-free amp of the bunch in
the shack during the weekend.  Meanwhile G4UQF, recently assigned
to Thailand to maintain air traffic control electronics in the
region, fancies old Drake lines and is busy getting my old B-line
back into shape for the club.

With a full complement of operators in place, I busied myself
during the hours of darkness doing S&P on 40 meters.  When Slovenia
was assigned the S5 prefix a few years ago, little did Thailand CW
hams realize that they were to suffer as a result.  Most of the
Europeans I called, trying to dig my signal out through heavy QRM,
made "S50AC" their first guess as to our call.  While half of them
eventually got it right, the other half gave up and lost a Zone 26
double mult as a result.  As I have written before, I have adopted
the N5KO practice of never sending an exchange until the other
station gets my call right.   

On the other hand I was surprised at how quickly some ops
immediately came back with the right call even though they might
not have expected to be called by Thailand given their distance
away.  Whoever was operating at 8P9Z really impressed me.  I was
the op who called them on 15, 20 and 40, and each time they came
right back with the correct call.  Another was Bob, KQ2M, on 15,
who was the only US East Coast to answer me on that band at the
time I worked him, as I went S&P up the band trying to get through
to the East Coast with everyone else CQ'ing in my face.

Everyone always wants to know how loud they are compared to the
other guy and since I was limited almost exclusively to S&P on 40
I had a good chance to make relevant observations there.  As far as
the US West Coast is concerned, W7RM was the first in and last out
on that band, but W6KR was the strongest at the peak of the
opening.  Other notable signals were N6RO, K6NA, KC7V and K7ZZ.  

Nothing was heard from the Midwest.  As to the East Coast, the best
time to be heard was 2130-2300 Z and not 1100-1300 as you might
have expected.  K3LR was head and shoulders the champ, and the op
was savvy enough to listen on the SE antenna from time to time so
we actually worked him.  Very few other signals were heard as they
were presumably beaming Europe all the time, but K4JA was loud 
even though we never managed to work him (but HS1RU, with his 2-el
Yagi, did).  We almost got NY4A but he couldn't quite drag the
correct call through.  And we could hear N3RS weak but readable a
lot, but he couldn't hear us.  Other than those four, NO East Coast
signals were heard on 40.

As to Europe, there were lots of loud signals but RU1A was the
absolute champ with a signal that threatened to overload the TS-940
receiver at times -- yes he didn't have any trouble hearing us
either.  ZS6KR and CX5BW were the champs from their respective
continents.  HZ1AB had a monster signal though not as loud as RU1A. 
JA3YBK was the best out of Japan and every one of the few Oceania
signals on the band was loud and easy to work except VK9NS who was
only working NA.                                            

I did get an impression of East Coast signals on 20 during the
first two hours of the contest when I was still alert and able to
make some observations while logging.  Of course many of those I
heard or worked were probably beaming Europe so the observations
may not mean that much, but my impression was that W2FU was the
loudest signal by just a bit, with K1ZZ a close second.  During the
time he operated 20, W2YR kept raving about the big signal from my
old college chum at UW-Madison, K9CAN.  

The second day I operated a lot of 15 meters, and the long path to
Europe was rather spectacular during the hours 0800-1100Z.  It was
hard to decide whether to CQ on the short path and work mostly Zone
15/16 stations or CQ on the long path and work mostly Zone 14
stations.  The long path was great for S&P in picking off a few
mults like EA9EU, 3V8BB and 9G5AA.   By the way, HC8N was heard
everywhere all the time! 

One reason Somporn and I donated the bandpass filters to HS0AC is
that we wanted the station to become a true multi-multi so HS0AC
could have run stations on each and every band when it was
convenient to do so.  This is because the Thai club has been
exhorted by many operators around the world to make 80 and 160
available from Thailand for single-band DXCC chasers.
  
Thai hams are not normally allowed to work the 80 and 160 meter
bands, but the authorities, not wanting to put Thai hams at a
competitive disadvantage to hams in surrounding countries, do allow
operation on both bands during major contests in a very limited
spectrum.  The official PTD memorandum to this effect is posted on
the HS0AC bulletin board, and the frequencies in question are 3524-
3526, 3534-3536 and 1834-1836.  

I didn't operate on 80 at all but basically we spent all of our
time CQ'ing and running on 3524 and the 80 meter antennas seemed to
work well as we had more Q's on 80 than on 40.  Most of the
stations we sent to 3524 from other bands were successful in
getting their Zone 26 QSO on 80.        

As I have already said we didn't have our 160 meter antenna ready
the first night, but it was peaked and tweaked and ready for action
the second night, so once 15 meters went out the IC-781 and TL-922
were fired up on 1834 and I should say that the output was pretty
close to a KW on that band by the time all the peaking and tweaking
was finished.  HS1CKC and E20REX started out on that band and
before long I received an SOS to man the 160 meter position as the
pile-up was getting out of hand.  YC0LOW and UA9YAB were already in
the log when I got over there and there was a mass of callers
grinding away on frequency.  I managed QSOs with VQ9QM and A61AJ
(and what I thought was A61AJ again but we eventually figured out
was really A61AO -- I wondered why they called us twice!).  Then
came three monstrous signals from the same oblast in Russia and
they sounded like they were all putting Svetlana products to good
use:  RN3QY, RN3QO and UA3QDX.  Then I managed to indicate to the
remaining multitude that we would thereafter QSX on 1840 to make it
easier for people to hear us through the long callers.  Several
more QSOs resulted that way.  

I was surprised at how quiet the band was.  We didn't have any
beverages up but were receiving directly on the transmit antenna. 
There was absolutely no thunderstorm-type QRN despite our being in
the tropics and despite the flooding rains in HS9-land.  There was
a nasty intermittent line noise, but it would stay off for long
periods and the band was full of signals when it was off.  

We had promised the Japanese through Watt, JA0DAI, that we would
give them a real shot at HS during Japanese sunrise.  So I shortly
shifted my QSX frequency to 1822 per Watt's pre-instructions and
the JAs came, just a few at first including Watt himself, but the
number of callers grew rapidly.  Unfortunately during times when
the line noise came on we couldn't hear anyone so E20REX set up CT
in beacon mode to call "CQ TEST HS0AC 1822" in very slow CW during
these times.  Once we came back to normal speed it was the heads-up
to everyone that we were able to hear again.  At the Japanese
sunrise peak the pile-up was incredible -- there must have been
over 100 different JA's calling, and it was just not possible to
put them all in the log before the band dropped out.  Now that the
HS0AC gang knows that they can make 160 work, I'm sure they will be
back for the CQ 160 Meter Contest in January when everyone should
have a much better chance to work the station.

Before winding up my description of the contest, I should mention
that HS2ZIU (another YL) was also one of our HS0AC ops in this
contest.  We ended up with 4019 Q's and 5.3 million as the final
score.  Not in a league with A61AJ but better than the HS0AC gang
had ever done before in this particular contest.  Look for heavy
action from the HS0AC gang in the 2001 WPX Contest, both modes. 
Some of the ops are also interested in RTTY and I believe HS0AC
will be a growing presence in the contests on this mode.      

I am not a particularly modest fellow and I would like to take some
credit for having had a hand in the development of a committed and
growing group of HF contesters in Thailand.  Though there is plenty
of room for improvement in the situation in Thailand, when I look
back on my first tour in Thailand in 1968-1970 tremendous progress
has been made.  Even in the 1980's when what's now HS0AC was HS0A,
all of the operators in HS0A contest efforts were non-Thais, with
the occasional Thai ham dropping in for an hour or so to look over
our shoulders trying to figure out what these crazy foreigners were
up to.  

I believe a key point of departure was around 1994 when HS1CHB, a
Thai Army officer who was doing post-graduate work at the Illinois
Institute of Technology, visited me at my home in Maryland to pick
my brains.  What could he do when he returned to Thailand, John
wondered, to improve the situation of the Amateur Radio Service in
Thailand?  

Being an inveterate contester, as I discussed the subject with
HS1CHB it gradually dawned on me that since almost all Thai hams
were on two meter FM, we had to find a way to expose two meter hams
to contesting if we were going to make a contest imprint on the
Thai ham mind.  The only worldwide VHF contest we knew of was the
CQWW VHF Contest, so John returned to Thailand resolved to make
Thai hams a big participant in this contest.

The first big effort in this regard was during the CQWW VHF Contest
in 1996.  Indeed, the TG96 Group I have been mentioning all through
this story considers the 1996 CQWW VHF Contest as the date of the
birth of their organization.  Once exposed to contesting on 2
meters, a number of mostly young Thai hams became fascinated with
the idea of contesting and resolved to upgrade to the HF bands so
they could do more of it.  The TG96 Group is now an enthusiastic
and growing division of RAST and is heavily represented on the RAST
Executive Committee.   

Under the competent leadership of HS1CKC and HS0GBI with the
enthusiastic support of G3NOM and financial support from many
quarters, TG96 has engaged in several IOTA expeditions.  Warren,
K7WX, whose diplomatic techniques for coopting suspicious regimes
into supporting Amateur Radio DXpeditions in their countries have
my highest respect, gave the TG96 gang a wonderful chance to
experience the big time when he invited HS1CKC, HS0GBI, E21EIC and
HS6NDK to join the XZ0A DXpedition.  Thank you, Warren, thank you! 
The guys still talk about the tower climbing techniques they
learned from Milt, N5IA, and they have put them to good use in
improving the HS0AC antenna farm.

At another point in their early history, the TG96 Group was able to
participate in the HS1AZ CQWW Phone Expedition, which took place
from the HS0AC QTH.  They learned a lot from N6AA, W6XD, W6MKB,
KL7Y, N6ZZ and others on that operation.  If N6ZZ could have that
much fun contesting, they reasoned, it must be worth pursuing. 
They also talk about KL7Y's expertise at rebuilding amplifiers on
the fly.  An example of his work was with us during the entire
weekend in the form of the Henry 2K at the 10/80 meter position.  

The TG96 Group keeps close tabs on those who pass the Intermediate
Class examination and thereby pass through the portal enabling them
to use the HF bands.  These people are invited to join RAST and
TG96, visit HS0AC and witness for themselves the magic of HF
contesting.  

HS1CKC, HS0GBI and I discussed at length during my trip how we can
broaden the exposure of Thai VHF-only hams to contesting now that
my good friend W3ZZ has taken on the job of CQWW VHF Contest
Chairman.  The TG96 Group will probably serve as a collection point
for Thai log entries, engage in widespread pre-contest publicity,
get university radio clubs involved in competing with each other,
etc.

In summary, Thailand now has a committed, enthusiastic and growing
group of native Thai-citizen contesters which will make Thailand
ever more available in contests as time goes on.  Visit their Web
site at http://www.qsl.net/tg1996 and see for yourself what they
are up to.

And now a word to those of you who travel to countries with little
local Amateur Radio activity in order to participate in contest
DXpeditions:  How about becoming missionaries for Amateur Radio and
for contesting?  The IARU will need support from these countries at
future WRC's.  If contesting and Amateur Radio are seen as
something only the foreign tourists engage in, will there be enough
local political support for these countries' delegates to support
measures favorable to Amateur Radio when they go to these
conferences?

Several ideas come to mind:

1) Instead of just dropping in at the PTT or MOC to pick up your
license, why not find out if you can help those fellows by
providing more resources to them to do their jobs?  Can you help
them improve their licensing records and databases?  Can you offer
to help them provide their databases to the Callbook, Buckmaster or
QRZ.COM on a regular and updated basis?  Can you help them design
and bring on line their own Web sites?    

2) What facilities are available to the local population to enable
them to become hams?  How do they actually go about getting
licensed?  What sort of study materials are available?  Do they
have a Scouting movement and do their Scout leaders know about
Amateur Radio?  How can a bright young kid who is fascinated by
Amateur Radio afford to get on the air when his father is a taxi
driver or a clerk in a grocery store or an assembly-line worker in
an umbrella factory?

3) If the country in question has an IARU-member national Amateur
Radio society, how about checking with ARRL or your own national
society as to how are their communications with this national
society where you are headed?  Is there something you can do to
help improve communications while you are there?  Find out who the
officers of the local society are (the IARU Web Site is a good
source of information) and get in touch with them while you are in
their country.  How can you help them do their jobs?              
                                      
HS0AC was a lot of fun.  Who knows, maybe I'll be showing up there
more often...                                    

 73, Fred, K3ZO    

                  
                             
 

     

 



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