Borneo Highlands QRP: The Sudden Need for Codes
Special to The ARS Sojourner
I finally settled for the Icom IC-706, as it is the smallest multi-band rig that I have. The antenna needs some thoughts, as it has to complement the multi-band rig. I hate carrying coax, even the RG58 (bulky and lossy), so I settled for something much lighter, 300 ohms tubular TV ribbon. The whole antenna and feedlines can thus be wound on a fishing spool (one-foot diameter) for easy transport; i.e. strapped to the waist, like how Xena-The Warrior Princess does it. Hi! As I could not find an appropriate name for the ‘fishing spool antenna’, it shall be commissioned "The Sentah Special".
The sudden need for codes.
As we went around inquiring, some of the school scouts, who are members of our school club (9M8SAR), found out and decided to follow. We agreed, on condition that they helped to carry the heavy stuffs like the lead acid batteries and our supplies . Furthermore, they have been nagging us since who knows when to help them acquire their communication merit badges. Two sets of semaphore flags, a straight key, a Whiterook paddle and extra logging sheets are quickly acquired and brought along for this purpose. Break, see some of them doing the semaphore on a downhill spot. Notice the 2 meters handie. It is often used to relay the semaphore messages!
With all the running around to help the scouts acquire their merit badges, how do we find time to launch the HF antenna and do some QRP Dxing for ourselves. Well, we have plenty of help for the antenna. We made several attempts to launch the mono-filament fishing lines across the branches, and finally managed to position the antenna broadside in the N-S position. See our antenna launcher in action, and the shy antenna hidden among the trees .
I quickly asked some boys to steady the feedlines, and connected it to my Homebrew balanced tuner. After some tweaking on the tuner, I managed to get the SWR down to 1:1 on 40 meters. Vy Sri urs truly 9M8SL is the man in black and facing the rig. After a few shorts CQ QRP calls on 7.030 kHz with about 5 watts, I managed to work JE3MNR in Osaka, Japan. Toshi san gave me 599 report and I quickly signed a "sayonara" es 72’ with him. I checked on 20 meters, and worked JA8SPZ in Ashoro, Japan with my 5 watts. Kazu san gave me a 599 too, and I believed there was a contest going on. Twenty meters were full of contest stations and I stayed on for a while to listen. Then I went on USB to answer a friend, 9M6CT on 10 watts. Phil Weaver gave me a 59 and asked for a number! I gave him a 59 (001), and he told me that the SEANET contest was on that weekend. I say my 73’s and wished him well on the contest.
Then the students started to gather round the rig and I have to give in. They were ready with their log sheets and eager to log the 20 stations required for their merit badges. I let them do their Rx logging on the bands, and I took a 2 meters handie and had some simplex QSOs with hams in Kuching (the capital city of 9M8 Land), about 18-20 miles away. They gave me good reports and some even suggest that it might be a good site for a future repeater. We had to close shop around 08:00 zulu (12:00 UTC) to prepare our dinner and later went on to do something else (mostly horizontal zzz).
I woke up the next morning and worked a LZ1KSD (Bulgaria) on 15 meters. Svet (I think), gave me a 549 report for my 5 watts effort. He was a 559 wid sum QSB hr in Borneo. Gosh! how time flies. We had breakfast at 07:00 hours local, quickly packed our bags, dismantled the antenna, and started our one-hour journey down the mountain. Here are some more photos we took along the way. Enjoy! One last look at the peak; 9W8SM and gang stopping on the fringe of Sentah Village]; Crossing a wooden bridge at the foothills]; Saving the best for last, "Our traditional" Mount Sentah’s Holiday Inn’].
PS. This trip was posted on the Wilderness Alerts for August 1999. We went up the mountain on the 21st and came down on the 22nd of August 1999.
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Sylvester (Sly) Liew, 9M8SL/ARS 586 and Sylvester (Mike) Mijel, 9W8SM are co-founders and trustees of 9M8SAR, The "one and only" School Amateur Radio in Sarawak (East Malaysia) on "The Hidden Paradise of Borneo".