Another fine sunset on Christmas Island, but this time as seen from behind a pillar.
The high concentration of identical satellite dish antennas in this apartment block was a strange sight indeed on Christmas Island.
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| Tony G2NF, Chris G3SVL, Nigel G3TXF, David G3WGN, and Mike G3WPH made 25,700 QSOs operating as VK9XG from Christmas Island for two weeks in October 2018. |
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| "The Sunset" hotel on VK9X is an excellent DX-pedition location. | VK9XG operated from "The Sunset" hotel on Christmas Island. | |||||||||
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| Mike G3WPH, Tony G2NF and Chris G3SVL at Perth airport with the fifteen items of checked luggage being taken to VK9XG. | VK9XG has four stations in two shacks: two stations were in The Sunset and two were in the Captain's Last Resort across the road. | |||||||||
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| Chris G3SVL putting up one the eight Spiderpoles used at VK9XG. | Christmas Island celebrated its 60th anniversary week just prior to our arrival | The Sunset hotel is aptly named. Many excellent ocean sunsets were seen. | ||||||||
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| Mike G3WPH, Chris G3SVL and David G3WGN reading up on how to operate FT8 while at VK9XG. | David G3WGN operating one of the four Elecraft K3s stations at VK9XG, supported by three KPA-500s and a Juma PA1000 amp. | |||||||||
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| Tony G2NF operates CW. VK9XG had a Begali Traveller at each of the four stations. CW was the primary mode, followed by FT8. | Mike G3WPH fixes one of the many guys on the cliff edge. The steep lava rocks right by the sea made access for guys difficult. | |||||||||
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| G3WPH and G3WGN with Angie who runs the "ultra Amateur Radio friendly" Sunset Hotel at the water's edge on Christmas Island. The Sunset is a popular location for VK9X DX-peditions. | There's a small track between the Sunset Hotel and the top of the cliff over the sea. Our second shack can seen in the orange hut (the CLR) on the far left. The first VK9XG shack was in The Sunset. | |||||||||
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| Daytime / Nightime : Four bands 20m/12m and 17m/10m were shared between two elevated ground planes: the 17m/10m is seen on the left in daylight and the 20m/12m antenna is seen on the right in the dark at night. | ||||||||||
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Another fine sunset on Christmas Island, but this time as seen from behind a pillar.
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| Five of the eight poles at VK9XG were in front of The Sunset hotel. The other three were behind the Captain's Last Resort (CLR). | David G3WGN, Mike G3WPH, Chris G3SVL, Doug VK9XX and Tony G2NF at the 6-inch gun used to defend the island in WWII. | |||||||||
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| David G3WGN and Mike G3WPH operating in the second shack (the "CLR") across the road from The Sunset hotel. | Chris G3SVL with the Captain's Last Resort (the second "CLR" shack) in the background. | |||||||||
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| David G3WGN, Doug VK9XX, Mike G3WPH and Chris G3SVL at the location of a proposed visitor's Amateur Radio station in town. | The sign outside the "Captain's Last Resort" was used as a support for G4TSH's WiFi router which covered both shacks at VK9XG. | |||||||||
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| The 160m top-loaded vertical designed by Mike G3WPH was 15m above the sea. | Chris G3SVL and Tony G2NF at VK9XG. The main logging was done using Win-Test. | Mike G3WPH installed a loop receive antenna which worked well on 160m/80m. | ||||||||
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The high concentration of identical satellite dish antennas in this apartment block was a strange sight indeed on Christmas Island.
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| Tony G2NF, David G3WGN, Mike G3WPH, Doug VK9XX and Chris G3SVL at XCH airport on their way home after VK9XG. | Some minutes after another fine sunset on Christmas, although this sunset was probably blocked by clouds. | |||||||||
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| Phosphate loading gantry on Christmas Island. Like many other island DXCCs (eg Banaba and Nauru) Christmas Island has been hollowed out by the ravages of the phosphate industry. | The VK9XG team were able to collect new DXFC points while passing through Cocos Keeling airport (CCK) on their way back to Perth (PER) from Christmas Island (XCH). | |||||||||
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| The red wire used for the 600ft Beverage antenna at VK9XG can just be seen in this photo. The Bev worked well on both 80m and 160m. | VK9XG : Running CW on 30m : TX on 10124, QSX up one on about 10125. | |||||||||
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| VK9XG made some 5,300 QSOs on FT8. This screen shows many callers on FT8. Depending on conditions: either classic FT8 (on standard freqs) or Fox/Hounds (on specified freqs) was used. | Shows part of the Fox/Hound screen where five stations (DL7YRM, EA7BUU, I1RJP, HB9DCO and 3B8CW) are all waiting in the FT8 Fox/Hounds "selected stations" queue, but using only One Slot. | |||||||||
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