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TX6G - Raivavae island [OC-114] in the Australs
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| Don G3BJ, Justin G4TSH, Hilary G4JKS, Chris G3SVL, Don G3XTT and David G3WGN on the flight from Tahiti to Raivavae. |
Window seats for Justin G4TSH, Chris G3SVL, David G3WGN and Don G3XTT on the ATR-72 [F-OIQN] from Tahiti to Raivavae. |
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| The TX6G team are greeted with floral garlands on arrival at the airport on Raivavae. |
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Chris G3SVL and Don G3BJ at one the two beach huts used as shacks for TX6G. Initially there were two stations in each hut. |
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| Vertical Dipole Arrays (VDAs) were used to good effect on the five HF bands (10m-20m). |
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Dunestar Central : Operators selected the correct filter for the band they were using. |
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Pension Raivavae Tama is run by Eléonore and Dennis. Truly excellent hosts for TX6G. |
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| White sand, blue sea and a motu (small outer island) in the distance. Raivavae is an idyllic location for DX-peditioning. |
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Justin G4TSH runs a CW pile-up at the one station using a THP HL-550 FX amplifier. The other stations each used KPA-500s amps. |
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| Time off from running pile-ops to visit the one remaining tiki on the island of Raivavae. |
A short tourist stroll along the one road which crosses Raivavae. The only other road just goes round the outside of the island. |
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Don G3XTT operates one of the four Elecraft K3s which had been taken on the TX6G DX-pedition. |
Chris G3SVL operating the RTTY station using N1MM in multi-channel mode. All TX6G RTTY QSOs were made on 15m. |
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| "Practical Wireless" Editor (Don G3XTT) works on finalising the next issue of the monthly magazine while away at the TX6G DX-pedition. |
The north-facing beach at TX6G provided an excellent take-off to the three main regions of the world : EU, USA and JA. |
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| One brief tourist visit was made around the island by the whole TX6G team in an open truck run by the Pension Raivavae Tama. |
The dining room had a map on the wall showing Raivavae island with its outlying small islands (motus). It was about 15km around. |
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| The five VDA antennas (10m, 12m, 15m, 17m and 20m) were spaced along the beach. |
Don G3BJ and Hilary G4JKS working on the 80m vertical antenna at TX6G. |
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Each VDA had an excellent take-off. Despite the proximity, there was no interference. |
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| Justin G4TSH sorts out a guy. Note the use of dead-man blocks buried in the sand. |
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The QSO total on Win-Test was 73,265 with another 3,599 RTTY QSOs logged in N1MM. |
At the end of the trip Don G3BJ digs up one of the dead-man guy blocks from the sand. |
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| Don G3BJ says farewell to the DX-pedition's host Eléonore from the Pension Raivavae Tama. |
Don G3XTT, Eléonore, David G3WGN at Raivavae Airport awaiting the flight back to Tahiti. |
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| Clive GM3POI gets into the TX6G RTTY log on 15m. Note the use of multi-channel operation for decoding RTTY with N1MM. |
Justin G4TSH with the simple patch panel designed by David G3WGN which allowed fool-proof band changes between stations. |
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| Don G3XTT at the tiny Raivavae airport. Although we had flown out directly from Tahiti, our return flight took us to Tubuai first. |
There are four churches on Raivavae. This church was right next to where we were staying. Social life centres around the churches. |
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