ZA3HA

On Tuesday we had better weather. It was still rainy and windy, but far from what we experienced on Monday. We were able to complete and push up one of the SpiderBeams. Today we found that our lightweight TV-antenna rotor was not strong enough to turn the SpiderBeam in the strong winds next to the sea. So we decided to live without the rotor, and – like good sportsmen – we will run up to the roof and re-anchor the antenna when needed. Once the beam was in the air, we went on air to try how it worked in reality. Wowww. We tried 20, 17 and 15 meters, and with the radio barefoot (100W) we had a very nice pileup from North America, and also worked Europe. Looks promising. At the moment we have three antennas up, a vertical for 40m, a 160/80m inverted-V and the SpiderBeam for 20m and above. We will try to have some more antennas, but we are tired and also we want to make QSOs, not just do physical exercises on the windy roof.

We try to operate two radios at the same time, we are amazed that even without filters, we can usually work with 100W without disturbing each other. Today we plugged in one of the two bandfilters we have, and could run 160/80 and 40 meters at the same time, absolutely no QRM.

We had no electricity since Sunday. It made things quite tough. Fortunately power is now back on and we have lights at the apartment. It was difficult soldering, operating, cooking or doing anything at torchlight. We hope it will not black out again, if so will have to forget using our tubed linears, and remain with the 300W solid state amplifiers which can run from batteries.

Today we had a QSO with ZA/HA1ZN. He and Joska, HA1DRR are also in Albania now. HA1DRR works in Albania and has secured a construction site as their QTH, where they are able to use cranes to hold their antennas. They will run in the CQ WW contest as ZA/HA1ZN and ZA/HA1DRR. Albania is about to buzz during the contest! Good luck, guys!

Gods seem to be against us, but we have not given up   After all the obstacles on the road, we arrived to the Bay of Vlore Sunday afternoon.  We very quickly found a reasonably good QTH. We had excellent weather, and we started to set up antennas immediately. But darkness fell quickly and we were working on the antennas in almost total darkness, using lights attached to our forehead. The first SpiderBeam got assembled, but we still need to raise it on the mast and tune it. A vertical was also erected. However, even though the external tuner createad 1:1 match on this vertical, and we heard several stations on many bands with S9++ signals, we got awful reports and it was evident people did not hear us. Then I had the idea to connect the vertical through the UNUN I normally use for my verticals, and use the radio’s own ATU to do the matchmaking. Wow, we had the first pileup. Then we quickly went to sleep with the intention to continue the setup process and repair early in the morning. But gods are against us. During the night, electricity cut off, and even now – late afternoon – there is none, except for the power coming from our small generator. We had expected electric cut-offs, as they are quite regular in Albania, but what really puts us back is weather. We have had very strong winds and a lot of rain all day, making antennawork almost impossible. So we were working mainly inside today.

As I am writing this, the rest of the team is busy working on the antennas, but it is getting very dark. The only thing I see outside is what is lit by thunders.

Having all those awful border crossing customs experiences in Macedonia, but especially in Serbia, entering Albania was a most calming process. Truly helpful, professional, well organized and friendly customs and police officers, who all speak immaculate English,and getting all the clearance took some 5 minutes for the whole group and equipment. Thumbs up, Albania, we already feel at home!    Now we are at a hotel near the border.  We had a fantastic dinner with great wine and Tirana beer a nice chitchat with the staff. We are all very tired after this long and really nerve-probing journey, so we will stay at a hotel near the border and start on towards Orikum in the morning. This causes a delay in the start of our operation, but there is no point in crossing the whole country at night after not having slept for the last two…

we were literally taken hostage by Serbian customs officers. After paying about 50 euros for nothing, and having spent several hours locked between two countries, we are now back to Hungary. We now have three options. We are now heading Szeged where we shall sit down and discuss these options. More details later.

***UPDATE  at 4:08 am local time!

We lost several hours, 50 euros, several kilometres but we are finally driving in Serbia. Route: Beograd-Nis-Vranje. Let’s hope we will have less trouble crossing the two borders ahead…

***UPDATE at 9:14 am

We stopped for breakfast at Nis. Great pleskavica and cevapcici. Starting out fast to be able to reach the mountains before sun goes down.

These are busy hours before we start off from Budapest this afternoon. Although we had several weeks to arrange for everything, many things (most things? ) remain last minute.  It was only yesterday that we finally got the ZA3HA licence. It was not an easy procedure to get a special callsign in Albania, even though we got an immense lot of help from Esmeralda, Fatos, Lazer, and perhaps even more people in the background. We are told this is unprecedented in the history of amateur radio in Albania that a foreign group receives a special group licence and group callsign. No wonder we are very happy and proud to have no less than two group licences now, numbered 001 and 002!   We have many callsigns to choose from now, the group can run as ZA3HA or as ZA/HG6M,  while all the team members also have their own ZA/HA… format individual callsigns and licences.It is only now, that we have the licence that we can arrange for things like LoTW certificates, eQSL registration, ClubLog logsearch and make some final touches to our own website, OQRS, etc…etc…etc.

Also, of yourse, we are lazy folks. Although we had been preparing for long long weeks and we had known what we still have to buy or borrow, many of these remained for the last day and half. Coaxial cables, connectors, pegs for the antenna masts,  sleeping bags, batteries, and who knows what else…  Anyway,this we think is the normal way expeditions set out We are grateful to all the people, who help us getting things ready these final minutes!

So these are our final hours in Budapest. Some of us will still be at work until noon or so or arranging these last minute purchases, then we jump in the cars are off we drive.  We hope there will not be problems at border crossings and that we can arrive to Albania tomorrow (Saturday).   We will be posting updates and information continually, so keep an eye on this blogspace and our facebook page.

See you on air from ZA!