An Exotic QSO : VU4PB DX-pedition to Andaman Islands

Members of Amateur Radio Society of India succesfully planned and executed a DX-pedition to Andaman Islands from 15th to 31st March 2011 with callsign as VU4PB . Permission was obtained and there were 4 stations active out of Port Blair, Andaman Islands,India.

The Andaman and Nicobar Islands are a group of islands in the Bay of Bengal and a Union Territory of India. The territory is located geographically 150 km (93 mi) north of Aceh in Indonesia and separated from Thailand and Burma by the Andaman Sea. It comprises two island groups, the Andaman Islands and the Nicobar Islands, separated by the 10° N parallel, with the Andamans to the north of this latitude, and the Nicobars to the south. The Andaman Sea lies to the east and the Bay of Bengal to the west.

A DX-pedition is an expedition to what is considered an exotic place by amateur radio operators, perhaps because of its remoteness or because there are very few radio amateurs active from that place. This could be an island, a country, or even a particular spot on a geographical grid.

The first batch of operators and installation personnel consisted of VU2GGM-Poru, VU2RCR-Chandru, VU2GMN-Gopal,VU2MTT-Murthy,VU2ABS-Aravind,VU2CDP-Deepak,VU2SJD-Sanjay and VU2LU-Ramesh. Among Chennai Hams VU2GMN Gopal , VU2ABS Aravind, VU2DH Das and VU2SJD Sanjay participated . Operations were from 160 meters to 10meters and totally almost 32,000 QSO's were made.
A large number of log check requests were generated due to the pirate activities that unfortunately took place. The breakup of QSOs by Continent for the operation which logged around 33,000 contacts is given below:
EU – 45%
AS – 30%
NA – 20%
Others – 5%

A Small Photoprofile below:

The first batch of personnel(ops and logistic team)
Rear (left to right) VU2SMN-Suhas (rear left), VU2DH-Das,VU2MTT-Murthy, VU2GGM-Poru, VU2LU-Ramesh
Front (left to right) vud2CDP-Deepak, VU2NXM-Basappa, VU2GMN-Gopal, VU2RCR-Chandru, VU2ABS-Aravind, VU2SJD-Sanjay

Equipment used during VU4PB:

RIGS:
Elecraft K3
Two Kenwood TS-2000
ICOM 756 Pro II
ICOM 756 Pro III
Yaesu FT 847
Kenwood TS-950
Antennas:
Two Spider Beams (20-17-15-12-10m)
SteppIR 2-element Yagi (20-6m)
SteppIR 3-element Yagi (40-6m)
SteppIR Big IR vertical (40-10m)
Wire and vertical antennas for low band operation (160-80-40-30m)
18m Spider poles for Low band antennas (160-80m)
Force12 C3S Yagi (20-10m)
Amplifiers:
Yaesu Quadra VL1000 Amp
Kenwood TL-922 Amp
Yaesu FL2100 Amp
TenTec Hercules II
Ameritron ALS-500 Amp
Ameriton AL-811H Amp
Digital:
MicroHAm MicroKeyer II
RigExpert Standard
Signalink USB

For full photo profile, pls click on below links.

http://vu4pb.info/

The unusually bad weather made things very challenging at times. Having to frequently check if your antennas have not been blown away by the storm force winds tends to slow things down for sure. Band conditions were not been ideal either with a lot of QRN.

However certain mornings the weather was better which permitted low band antennas to be putup and used . VU4PB went QRT as scheduled at 1829z on 31st March 2011 and the various operators have headed home to get back to their normal lives.

I am sure it must have been a once a lifetime experience for all those who participated.

G.Vipin Shankar
ChennaiHamsBlogspot Team