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CW operation by G3SXW and G3TXF
FW - Wallis et Futuna
Roger G3SXW and Nigel G3TXF operated as FW/G3SXW and FW/G3TXF from 11 May to 23 May 2000 from Wallis Island (OC-054) (DXCC = Wallis & Futuna), making a total of 27,966 CW QSOs.
This was a two-station CW-only operation on all bands from 80m to 10m, with FW/G3SXW (15,201 QSOs) operating on the usual HF bands, and FW/G3TXF (12,765 QSOs) exclusively on the WARC bands.
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Regional Analysis : Despite being on the 'other side of the world' every effort was made to make best use of any openings to Europe, where the demand for FW is higher than in other regions. Both operators achieved about 50% EU QSOs. Unfortunately the timing of the FW trip was not good for LF openings to EU with there being no common darkness with Western Europe.
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Call
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Call
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QSOs
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| FW/G3SXW |
80m
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163
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| FW/G3SXW |
40m
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922
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| FW/G3TXF |
30m
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2,023
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| FW/G3SXW |
20m
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4,055
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| FW/G3TXF |
17m
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5,282
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| FW/G3SXW |
15m
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6,167
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| FW/G3TXF |
12m
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5,460
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| FW/G3SXW |
10m
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3,894
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| Total QSOs |
Farbe |
27,966
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Bands
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Operator
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QSOs
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80-40-20-15-10m
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FW/G3SXW
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15,201
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WARC
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FW/G3TXF
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12,765
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Total QSOs
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Farbe |
27,966
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QSLs via the home calls.
All QSLs will be answered 100%, whether they are received DIRECT or via the BURO.
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FW/G3SXW and FW
| Click here for four more FW photos : |
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| 1. Guy FW5ZL helps Roger G3SXW with building the A3S HF beam |
| 2. Guy FW5ZL at his QTH on Wallis Island |
| 3. FW/G3SXW's DX-pedition QTH and beam |
| 4. FW/G3SXW and FW/G3TXF collect their Licences |
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/G3TXF operating from Wallis
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| Region |
FW/G3SXW |
FW/G3TXF |
| Europe |
48.4%
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50.2%
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| N America |
29.0%
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25.4%
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| Asia |
20.5%
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22.6%
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| Others |
2.1%
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1.8%
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| Country |
FW/G3SXW |
FW/G3TXF |
| W |
4,231
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3,012
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| JA |
2,600
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2,472
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| DL |
1,289
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1,303
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| UA |
847
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616
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| I |
542
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364
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| SP |
520
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534
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| UR |
489
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332
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| UA9 |
459
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285
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| G (all) |
455
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439
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| OK |
422
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468
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| VE |
247
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142
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| F |
287
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254
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| EA |
232
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141
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| HA |
202
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119
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| OH |
256
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251
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| SM |
245
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230
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| Countries : The table shows that country break-down by operator across all bands, with DLs leading the EU-pack. It is interesting to note the huge number of SP and OK DXers who now swell the pile-ups.
Spectrum : There were frustrations at both end of the spectrum. Whereas 24MHz was opening to Europe for several hours on end on most days, the openings to Europe on 28MHz were much rarer. It was frustrating for FW/G3TXF often to be asked on 24MHz : "when QSY 28MHz?" while FW/G3SXW was actually already on 28MHz trying to work EU, but without any propagation. The spectral distance between 24.9MHz and 28.0MHz made a huge difference to propagation.
At the other end of the spectrum 30m, 40m and 80m were also difficult or impossible for EU. On 30m the 18z grey-line gave useful propagation as far west as Ukraine, whereas the 0530z grey-line allowed a few stations at the south western edge of Europe (EA7, CT) to put good signals into FW for a short period. However for the bulk of EU stations located between these two extremes, 30m was usually a difficult QSO.
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| Worked |
FW/G3SXW |
FW/G3TXF |
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DXCC
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102
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111
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| HF or LF ? : A handful of EUs were worked on 40m, but usually only those with substantial antennas. There was no EU propagation on 80m. The occasional visits to 80m by FW/G3SXW usually coincided with either a JA grey-line or, more often, with a W6/W7 grey-line. The demands of the HF bands precluded the complete tracking of the North American grey-lines from East to West. It was impossible to be in two places at the same time. It was a choice between high EU rates on HF or running a trickle of grey-line W's on the LF bands. |
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| Equipment : Three stations were taken on the FW-trip : two Kenwood TS-570DG's and an ancient Icom IC-735 as standby. The antennas were (a) A3S for the three HF bands, (b) A3WS for the three WARC bands and (c) an HF2V for 40m and 80m. The two beams were each installed on 6m long scaffold poles. When necessary the beams were turned by hand. In general 'North' was the main direction. However the USA was at about 50 deg whereas JA was at about 325 deg. Europe was sprawled between about 320 deg and 5 deg. The plan was to have two fully operational stations, one on the normal HF bands and the other on the WARC bands. It was fortunate that a standby rig had been taken because a brand new Kenwood TS-570 DG failed (for reasons as yet unknown) after only a few days. Two Ameritron AL-811X linears (the smaller 3x811A version) were used to boost the output. |
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| Accommodation : Despite being a luscious island in the Pacific, Wallis is definitely not a 'tourist' location. There are virtually no beaches on the island, and there is only a limited amount of accommodation. In fact the official website says that there are less than 50 'guest-beds' on the island. We stayed at the Hotel Albatros which is just next to the small airport on the northern side of Wallis. We chose this location because it had been used by the FW8ZZ expedition in August 99 and also because it was mentioned by Cedric HB9HFN (FW5FN) as being the best ham/accommodation/location on the island. The proprietor of the small (seven room) Hotel Albatros could not have been more helpful. He provided every assistance with antennas, helping us with sorting out the Licence and generally being amazingly supportive to two crazy English radio hams who had come to Wallis with no purpose other than making thousands of CW QSOs. |
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| Licences : Contact had been established with the local P&T prior to departure, and it had been confirmed that licences would not be a problem. And indeed they were not. It would have been possible to obtain 'local' callsigns (eg FW5SX or whatever) but the FW/home-call option was preferred, because this reduces almost to zero the number of (time-wasting) "QSL via?" queries generated in the pile-ups. |
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| Operating : The majority of the operating in FW was done during the hours of darkness (06z -18z). Wallis is +12 hours ahead of GMT which makes for 'back-to-front' days, especially if you are trying to stay up all night to run the pile-ups! The grey-lines were also times not to be missed, with the 0530z grey-line being the most useful for Europe. The daily routine was to operate from late afternoon (hopefully having had some sleep during the middle of the day) right through until after breakfast the following day. There was no need for any lunch as this was usually sleeping time. The 'working-day' started a few hours before dinner (at 7.30pm local) and finished with breakfast at about 8.30am local. The 7.30pm dinner slot (0730z) was not a good time to be leaving the radio, and some efforts were made to vary dinner times. However given the fact that we were only eating twice a day, there was no question of cancelling our main meal of the day. Both stations had been set up in one bungalow which made for better communication between the operators, particularly when it came to tracking propagation. The two HF beams were about 60ft apart. There was some inter-station interference although this was greatly reduced by the use of Dunestar filters. The demise of one of the two TS-570DG's was a nuisance because the IC-735 caused/received more inter-station interference than the more modern TS-570DG's with their built-in ATUs etc. |
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| Travel : The journey to Wallis from London required four consecutive flights : London to Vancouver, Vancouver to Honolulu, Honolulu to Nandi (Fiji), and Nandi to Wallis. We left London mid-afternoon on the Monday (8 May) and arrived in Wallis, somewhat dazed, 36 hours later on the Wednesday afternoon. We were met at Wallis airport by Guy FW5ZL (the only active ham on Wallis) and the Hotel Albatros proprietor. The hotel was literally only 100m from the main-gate of the airport. Within a few minutes of our arrival we were unpacking equipment and assembling the two beams in the sweltering heat. The FW expedition had begun.
We had hand-carried two stations as well as the two beams, but three packages containing the two linears as well as the spare IC-735 rig and accessories had been sent by courier some two weeks early. The concept of door-to-door courier delivery has not quite reached Wallis yet, and it required a half a day of being taken from one administrative office to another to be able to get hold of the three boxes which were stored in customs at Wallis airport. The first QSOs were at about 0530z (5.30pm local) on Wednesday 10 May and night's operation was barefoot.
There are flights from Fiji to Wallis (and back) only once a week. So it was exactly two weeks (and nearly 28k CW QSOs) later that we returned to the same airport for the long journey home. The route home was to take us to Fiji, Brisbane and Singapore. The timetables meant that we had to overnight in both Fiji and Brisbane. This gave us the opportunity for the first time to take a close look at the FW logs as well as to catch up on some rest. The overnight stay in Fiji was uneventful despite there being a coup on at the time.
We arrived at Heathrow (completing the round-the-world trip) early on the Saturday morning (27 May) having left Wallis on the previous Wednesday afternoon. On arriving home the E-mail in-trays were found to be already bursting with requests for FW QSLs and there were heaps of incoming QSLs on the doormat. The travel and QSO-making part of the FW trip were now over, but the QSLing work had only just begun.
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