[SCCC] E51Z and SCCC make the Cook Is. News

[Tim Goeppinger]

I found this on the DX-QSL reflector.  Is Wild Bill your legal name now? 8-) -Tim K6GEP
Hi All

The following item was in today's Cook Island News and with their permission I have forwarded this on to the wider Ham Radio Community.  I  must personally thank the Cook Islands News for allowing this item to be re-published to this forum.

These 9 Hams obviously had a great time in Rarotonga, South Cooks and certainly enjoyed their time there.

I know nothing more about this DXpedition other than what is in this News Item

Trust you will enjoy reading and I am more than willing to help with any enquiries.

Please feel free to publish this on any other ham radio related forums and please mention the support of the Cook Islands News. 

Best 73's

Ken Holdom  ZL4HU  also  ZL2HU and E51KH (ex ZK1KH)

 
Nine 'hams' hit Raro airwaves

A group of American radio operators catapulted the Cook Islands to the top of the radio circuit at the weekend.

Nine amateur radio operators - or 'hams', as they're known in radio circles - took part in a worldwide competition
to contact as many stations in as many countries in as many world zones as they possibly can.

"Our goal is to do well and put the Cook Islands at the top of the list," ham Wild Bill Wiederhold said.
 "Everybody in the world wants to talk to the Cook Islands because it's not on the air very often."

They had 48 hours to reach as many of the world's hams as they could. They operate in six bands - slices of the
 spectrum ranging from AM up through shortwave and VHF and into microwave - using their receivers, transceivers,
 high-power amplifiers and laptops for logging successful contacts.

For the CQ Worldwide 55B competition the world is artificially divided into 40 zones - some are 'easy', 
like California, and some more difficult, like Zone 23 (Mongolia). 

Richard Norton, informally the group's leader - with a call sign (E51VIP) to prove it - is the only living 
person to have worked this contest from all 40 zones. A radio operator since 1956, Norton is something of a
legend on the ham radio circuit.

With him on their side, the hams - Art Goddard, John Cashen, John Fenoglio, Ellen Utschig, Oliver Sweningsen,
 Michelle Thompson and Marty Woll - are confident they would do well. 

 "The contest is fun but it also helps us build our operating skills," Woll said. "It allows us to stress-test 
the equipment and the station so that in times of real emergency we have a better knowledge of how to put our
equipment together.

"This is a new challenge - we're not sitting comfortably at home, we're assembling our equipment from scratch 
and troubleshooting on the fly. We have to figure it out, fix it and get on with it."

Whilst this is a voice competition, all nine hams are well-versed in Morse code. No longer does the US list
Morse code as a requirement for a radio licence, but those who have been hams for years consider it an essential
skill.

"It's the simplest to send and receive - you don't need special equipment, and under difficult receiving
 conditions you can hear a weak code signal better than a voice (signal)," Woll said.

The hams arrived in Rarotonga last Monday morning and by Wednesday had assembled six antennae ranging in height
 from 10 to 20 metres along the KiiKii waterfront.

They are travelling hams, a subgroup of the Southern California Contest Club of which they have been part for
 decades. Years ago, the group visited Jordan to operate their radios, and from then resolved to travel annually
 together to a faraway place. 

Together they have logged 17 trips to places like French Guyana, Morocco, Galapagos, Jordan, Qatar, Brazil, 
the Caribbean and Alaska. Cashen was the first to operate a ham radio from Penrhyn in 1973, and Goddard has
travelled around the Pacific - Samoa, Palau, Papua New Guinea and Easter Island, to name a few - operating 
his radio.

"It's a huge amount of fun," Woll said, "and a great way to travel. We get in contact with local hams and they
 tell us about their country."

Added Wild Bill: "We have friends all over the world because of it".       - RR