This trip started for me when Jan, LA5QFA asked me on N1RZ chat page if I wanted to go to JW. At first I thought it was a very short notice. I didn't think much more about it until Jan called me on the phone. He is very good in convincing people. Well, after that, it was settled, I was coming along as well. Our main focus was going to be 6M.
Departure was late sunday evening january 13. I was flying from Gardermoen up to Tromsø where Jan would join me on the plane. The flight went very well, and we landed early monday morning. The airport was very small, but we were at 78 degrees north. It was kinda chilly, but I was prepared for that. What can you expect when going to Svalbard in the middle of the winter. Normally people go south to hot places with lots of sun. But, as most of you know, radioamateurs are crazy!
We grabbed the bus from the airport. It dropped us a few hundred meters away from the cabin. After struggling with our baggage, we could finally sit down and relax. It was nice and hot inside. The cabin had electricity, but no running water or toilet.
It didnt last long before the shack was inspected. Jan had been here several times before, so he pretty much knew what to expect. I, on the other hand, didn't have a clue. After a quick check, we found out that the antennas for 160 and 80 meters were not ok. After we had unpacked the equipment we had brought along, the radios were turned one. 6M was dead, but this was expected during middle of the night. I started out on 20M. Here 9K2GS had a very big signal. He was the first station that made it into my log. The qso'es came quick, and I made about 60 qso'es before I went to bed.
When we got up, we started to rearrange the shack a little bit. We had 4 HF radioes, several amplifiers and lots of other equipment to set up. I started to work some qso'es on 10M SSB. After about 1/2 hour in the pile-up, IK5YJY called to say that he was hearing the JW7SIX beacon. 6M was checked, but the band was still dead at our location. I continued to work 10M a little while. Then I switched to 6M, and called cq on 50145. Nothing, so I started tuning, and I6BQI was heard. I called him, and he was our first 6M qso logged. During a few hours, we logged 24 qso'es. Not bad at all. Signals were very weak and had lots of qsb. Afther logging EH7GTF, the band was pretty much dead. Some tv transmitters were heard, but no replies to our endless cq's.
Later that day, JW5NM visited us. He drove us to the shop. We bought some food and lots of soda.
I continued to work some hf when I got back. I never realized that JW was so wanted on HF. The pile-ups were very big. I worked 45 states and 460 qso'es the first day.
The next morning I was up pretty early. I worked ZK and KH4 very easy on 20M. It was fun to work pacific with nice signals. Also worked a bunch of JA's. 6M also opened this day, but only a few stations worked on F2. 9A7W and 9A1CCY called me, and the both had pure aurora tone. We were beaming south, so I have no idea what kind of propagation this was. Heavy doppler that made is sound like aurora?? Anyway, when evening came, we worked OH, SM and LA on auroral-e. Signals were not too strong here either. On HF I continued to work a big mass of stations from north-America.
Jan repaired the antenna for 80M. I climbed the tower to try to turn the 4 el yagi for 6M, but it was tightened too good. There was no way we could get to the beacon QTH. The roads were closed, and the water had no ice, so it was not possible to cross that either.
After the second day, I had worked 848 stations, including several duping stations from USA on 10M SSB.
Wednesday Jan was up early. He worked some DX on 80M. I was up a little bit later. I worked a few hundred qso'es on 12M CW. 6M was not very good this day. We did work UT5JAJ with our yagi beaming EA. Only 7 QSO'es worked on F2. Jan built a 7 el deltaloop beaming north-America. I did help a little bit, but Jan was the one doing most of the work out in the cold.
As some of you perhaps noticed, we had no running water, so we took a taxi to the hotel for a nice and long shower. They also had a sauna where we spent some time. Afterwards, we went out for dinner. We walked back to the cabin. It was very cold outside. I think the temperature was around minus 25 C. Inside the cabin, ice froze on to Jan's glasses.
I didn't go to bed until very late. I worked KC4AAA on 20M SSB. Afterwards, I went up a few KHz and started to work several stations. Last station logged was 04:24. I was so sleepy, that I must have sounded like a drunken man. I couldn't speak normally. I almost fell over when I stretched and leaned my head backwards before going to bed.
Thursday, Jan was once again up early. I think he worked a big JA pileup on 10M SSB. I got up several hours later. 6M opened 10:20z where UT2IO was worked. 73 qso'es was worked in EU today. Last qso was made with OH8GDY. On HF I focused on 12M and 30M CW where I worked several hundred qso'es.
The 7 element deltaloop had to be taken down. It was blocking the road. The weather was very cold, around minus 30 C. Also the wind was blowing, making it feel like minus 50 C. Antenna work was not very pleasant at all. We tried to match a 2 el yagi for 6M. It had been sitting on the roof, but the swr was not very good. The antenna was set up next to the big tower, beaming to the west. Jan started bulding a 7 el wire yagi for 6M pointing west for north-America. He finished it late at night. Now we were fit for the big NA opening.
I continued to work several qso'es on HF. I went to sleep around 0300z, I think, don't remember... When will I ever learn :-)
Friday was not very good regarding 6M F2 to EU. Only station worked was UT2IO. I tried to work 40M and 30M CW. On 40M, W1-7, JA, ZL and Europe was all worked at the same time. Propagation is really magic up here.
Jan
had arranged for us to borrow a car from some people he know here. First
we went shopping, then Jan drove to DL3NRV's setup with about 350 4el
yagies for 50MHz. They were all pointing straight up. DL3NRV is doing
some northern light research with them. We were tempted to bring a few
back, but didn't want to risk getting caught :-)
On the picture you can see some of his antennas. Click on it to get a larger picture.
SM0KAK alerted us 18:50z that K8MFO was hearing JW7SIX/b. Jan got up and ran to the 6M rig. He called one CQ and K8MFO came back 59+20db. Jan almost fell of his chair. He continued to work several stations, before I took over and worked some stations on CW. A total of 50 W qso'es was made. W1,2,3,4,5,8,9 and 0 was worked. I think the longest qso made, was with 2 stations in TX. The wire yagi Jan had put up (now only 4 el cause 3 fell down), sure did it's job. I tried to speak with Jan during the opening, but I had to give up. He was in his own world! We finally got the opening we had waited all week for.
Later I got on 80M qso'es and worked several QSOes. I didn't learn this time either. I went to bed 0600z saturday morning after working too many stations :-)
Saturday morning, I was up a bit late. Jan, as always, was up pretty early. First station on 6M was logged 11:29z. 87 F2 qsoes was made. At times, Jan had a pileup. There was even an OE station calling cq JW4X, cq dx on 50145. Jan called him, the station said he couldn't believe it.
I walked up to the city to buy some stuff to bring home. I bought some postcards and some other souvenirs.
For me, the first HF qso was made at 14:45z. I continued to work several QSO'es that day. 6M had an auroral-e opening during evening where 12 QSO'es were worked. I went to bed somewhere around 0300z. Jan, as always, had gone to sleep a few hours before.
Sunday was our last day. 6M was dead, so I worked HF. We slowly started to pack our things and cleaning up after us. I had to climb the tower once more to take down an antenna. It was very cold, and my eyelashes had frozen to ice when I got down again.
Too bad this was our last day. I wouldn't mind staying longer, but I know that I'm gonna return, cause this was very fun. The plane left early monday morning at 0325z.
When I got home, cards had already started coming in...
Some memorable moments:
- Running a 20M CW pileup for several hours with the attunator on. I didn't know this rig, so I had no idea.
- Running the 6M beacon for about 1 hour with no antenna connected. Jan had changed the way the antenna were connected, and I didn't know. The rig was OK even though it had been running full power. Quality for sure, JRC JST-245.
- Learning the hard way that the CW filter in my kenwood TS-690 was way too wide to run a full pileup on 30M. I had to go qrt to change to another rig. If you've seen the VK0IR video where they turn the dial over the CW pileup, you know what I am talking about. Of course the pileup wasn't so wide, only a few KHz with chaos.
- Propagation was great. In almost every pileup from NA, several JA's would call in as well. The bands were open to several continents at the same time.
- Working VP8THU VERY EASY on 20M SSB.
- The flight home, where we laughed to our tears...
Thanks goes to the following persons:
- JW5NM for the use of the JW5E Club house
- LA5QFA for convincing me to come with him to JW
- OH3NWQ for SMS info and for sending our info out
- PA1SIX for updating us on 6M propagation via SMS
- SM0KAK for updating us on 6M propagation via SMS, and alerting us that USA was spotting JW7SIX/b. Without him, we might have missed the opening where we worked 50 W's
- And finally to all that called me. I sure enjoyed the big pileups I had.