Report of KH0/JR1LZK

  I could have a opportunity to go to Saipan Is. (KH0: Northern Mariana )  with my family from Apr/01 to Apr/04/1999.
  This was a family trip to provide a relaxed time for my wife, and to provide some great experiences for my children. For me? I was playing with my family in a daytime, and worked on the radio in the night and early morning. It was hard but I could enjoy very much on the 4 days vacation. In the last cycle, I went to Fiji(3D2) and Wallis(FW) to operate DXPedition with my radio friends,  I got the taste of Expedition operation there. I was looking forward to having that exciting time again.

Click here to check Log Sheet of KH0/JR1LZK

Location :

 We stayed Plumeria Resort. After check-in, they provided us  a nice view rooms which face to the south. However, from radio operation point of view, I preferred the room face to the north. I asked customer care manager to change one of our room. Thanks to their consideration, I could move to the room facing to the north on 5th floor.
 As soon as room was fixed, I had started unpacking and installation for my small shack. I hung  Hentenna on the top of fishing pole and set up IC-706, Power supply and Key paddle as shown below.
 
View to the north through Hentenna for 6m. You can see there is nothing to the horizon without perm tree forest. I also could see Mariana Resort and Nikko Saipan Hotel from here. Shack of KH0/JR1LZK. Icom IC-706(2.5Kg) + Yaesu FP22(1.3Kg)  This was compact 100w all band station. 
To make the paddle (MK-706) more portable, I removed the weight and stick it on the desk direct by both side tape. 
Total weight of Radio equipment & Antenna was 5.3Kg ! 

 
  This is Hentenna for 6m. This antenna is less than 250g and was hung by FRP fishing pole (5.7m long:420g). I prepared some additional parts to make 1 wave length loop antenna for 10m and 15m. The bottom of element have the capability to connect additional element and feeder using Hentenna feeding element, then this antenna transform to loop antenna. In this case, the loop is vertical long. This makes some gain and low angle radiation but impedance is going down. So, I also prepared 50 => 30 ohm conversion balun. Both Hentenna and Loop antenna were worked very well. Surprisingly, Hentenna for 6m had good performance also on 30m band!. I could contact many JAs, US stations and even some Caribbeans on 30m. I think "L" of the balun worked as shorten coil in the loop.   This is another good performance antenna for 20m band. I tried to feed the frame of Hentenna and used the verandah for the earth. Then it worked on 20m very good coincidentally! After I came back and checked by antenna simulator, it has similar 3-D pattern to a vertical. This antenna brought me a dog pileup from European countries on Apr/2nd 1500-1700Z. I think the antenna had good performance to the north as Hotel building was good reflector. 

6m Open
  On Apr/2nd 0720Z. I heard VR2LC worked with KH2/JA3QGI. I move to 50.110MHz, VR2XMT was calling CQ and I called him. He was very strong 59+. This was the first QSO from KH0 on 6m for me. I got some information about 6m conditions from him and I informed him about my schedule in KH0. After that, I could work some VR2 stations. few minutes later I was calling CQ at 50.110MHz by CW, at 0809Z I was called by JR6QWW and I could work many JA stations after that. Following list is the QSO summary on 6m. On Apr/3rd, I could worked with some VR2s on this day, they were also strong as the day before. VR2LC informed me that he could work with A61AH and he was still on 50.110MHz. He asked me to try with him. we tried some times but there was no propagation between A61 and KH0. After that, I could work with  V73AT but no JA.
 

6m worked summary JA1   2   3 4   5  6   7   8   9   0
VR2
HL
V73
Total
Apr/2/1999
0
4
3
14
6
22
0
0
3
0
12
2
0
66
Apr/3/1999
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
0
6
0
1
7
Worked entities on 6m : JA, HL, VR2, V73

20m Band

 On Apr/2nd, I went to bed about midnight. I was tired as we went swimming, snorkeling to Managaha Island, but I could not sleep well. So that many HAM may do so, I got up and turned IC-706 on again and checked bands. I could hear many stations are on 20m band and I tried calling CQ by CW at 1541Z (0041 local time). I was called by OM0SX and his signal was good. Thanks to packet cluster, I was in a big pileup. I could work many European stations, but the pileup was getting bigger and bigger then copy efficiency was going down even I did split frequency. I was also getting hard and I had known I had to take care my family from few hours later. So, I decided to QRT at 1650Z (0250 Local time ) after 115 QSOs then going to bed again.... If I was there for only DXPedition, I could worked more stations and sleep in the daytime. Sorry to say,

WARC Bands
I could work many stations on 30m and 17m bands. I used Hentenna frame for 17m as well. I somehow shorten the element about 50cm against 20m. It was also worked very well.

QRT
 I worked 14MHz and 18MHz in the morning of the last day. I was QRT at 2346Z on Apr/4th, and started the packing.  I could make 460 QSOs in total in the 4 days vacation.

QSL Card Information
Please send your QSL card to my Home Call JR1LZK via Buro or SAE+IRC.
You can find my address in QRZ call book on the web.

 Thank you for all of stations calling me in the period. I hope I can find another chance to go and operate from Pacific Islands. See you again on the air and FB DX!

DE JR1LZK Taka
 

On the ship to Managaha Island
At Saipan Botanical Garden

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