n7df
03-11-2002, 06:03 PM
TREASURE ISLAND 9 M
By: N7DF
When Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote about Cocos Island in his book Treasure Island he could never have foreseen that someday 14 adventurous people would be swarming over the beachs and hills with the goal of talking to the world by short-wave radio.
According to legend, over a billion dollars of gold, silver and jewels lie hidden on the Island but, even if it had been permitted by the vigilant National Park Rangers, searching for it was the furthest thing from the minds of the multinational group of radio amateurs who had come to the Island on February 19, 2002 for a ten day stay.
Getting to the Island had been anything but easy. A landing permit must first be obtained from the Costa Rican National Park Service and then a boat capable of making the 40 hour trip to the Island and serving as a floating dormitory for the radio amateur operators has to be scheduled and chartered. It isn’t cheap; the Park Service admission fee is $15 per person per day and the boat costs about $3500 per day. Added to this is the cost of airfare for the individual team members, equipment, fuel for generators and all the miscellaneous small things that turn out to be indispensable at the last minute. More than 90% of these costs had to be borne by the team members, themselves. Then, in order to operate amateur radio from the Island, there must be the licenses from the Radio Control Office in San Jose, Costa Rica. Both individual operator licenses and a group callsign for the Dxpedition were necessary.
After months of planning, starting in the fall of 2001, the first two team members arrived in San Jose on February 12 and 13. They immediately contacted the Radio Control Office and straightened out some confusion about the licenses. With FAXed copies of home radio licenses and passports in hand they obtained separate licenses for each operator with a /TI9 affixed to their home call and a callsign of TI9M for the group. They also began shopping for a long list of items that needed to be acquired in Costa Rica for the expedition.
As more team members arrived they were scattered around the several buildings that comprised the Hotel La Trinidad in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose. The courtyard of the Hotel began to look like an antenna assembly line as quads and beams were laid out, measured and marked for quick assembly once the Island was reached. More supplies and equipment were purchased; iron rebar for guy line stakes, plastic chairs and tables, marine batteries for power backup, rope, plywood; it seemed as if the list was endless. Team members scattered all over San Jose and its environs to search out the items that were needed.
Finally, early on the morning of February 17 a large bus with MARCO POLO on the front pulled up in front of the hotel. Within minutes everything had been loaded aboard and, as soon as the cameras quit clicking, everyone piled aboard to go to the warehouse where the generators, radios, linear amplifiers and other large items were being kept. Loading was rapidly accomplished and the bus driver agreed to take the group to a fast food restaurant for some breakfast before they started the two hour drive to Puntarenas.
Driving about a half mile from the warehouse he delivered the hungry travelers to the local McDonalds where several of the European team members enjoyed their first ever Egg McMuffins.
The two hour trip through the scenic countryside of western Costa Rica was a pleasant interlude and seemed to be over before it began. Things continued to run so well that the arrival at dockside was earlier than the crew of the Two Can expected. They pitched in to help unload the bus and transfer the cargo to the deck of the boat where it was lashed down and carefully covered with tarps. Sensitive equipment was stored inside in storage areas.
Finally, at 3:30 PM, the big diesel engines were started and the boat pulled away from the wharf, headed to sea and landfall on Cocos Island some 40 hours later.
Daybreak brought a vista of uninterrupted ocean with scattered clouds. A long slow swell rocked the boat enough to make the adage, "one hand for yourself, one hand for the boat" good advice. Late in the afternoon some sea birds joined the boat indicating that land was not far off. By sunrise the next morning Cocos Island was clearly visible ahead.
A final meeting of all team members was held to discuss staging of material and people ashore. Everyone was so excited that the meeting seemed interminable. Finally, though, the boat tied up to a mooring in Chatham Bay and the National Park Rangers came out in their small boat to check the landing permits and clearances.
The Park Officials agreed that a trial installation of one tent, a quad and verticals would be allowed in Chatham Bay. Only battery operation would be permitted through the night. All personnel except for the overnight operators had to return to the boat for the night where they wistfully stared ashore as darkness fell.
The next morning brought a flurry of activity. The Park Rangers had suggested that a station could be set up on a hill overlooking the Bay and no restrictions on operation of generators or erection of antennas would be necessary. It was accessible by a very steep, quarter mile long trail up the face of the mountain. It was ideally suited to setting up a station but getting the 5 KW generator and the radios up there was going to be a problem. The crew of the Two Can came to the rescue by offering to pack the generator up the hill.
It was soon learned how important the tide is in Chatham Bay. At low tide a large, sand beach is exposed, ideal for loading and unloading small boats. At high tide the beach is completely covered with up to 6 feet of water and the surf extends to the rocky shoreline at the edge of the jungle. As the time of the full moon approached, the rise and fall of the tide became more and more extreme. Frequently the surf was 4 to 5 feet high, breaking in spectacular crashes upon the rocks and placing the antennas well offshore and in danger of destruction. Guy lines were reinforced and coaxes were protected with support ropes. Nests of re-bar, driven nearly three feet into the sand and rocks had to be checked and resecured after each high tide. A pathway that had been built in the early stages of the landing to avoid tripping over rocks while carrying heavy loads had to be rebuilt every twelve hours, once the tide receded.
By the afternoon of the second day ashore, the logistics of the hilltop installation had been worked out. The six meter station, a SSB HF Station, one quad and some other antennas were planned for installation. A file of porters, including three of the Two Can crew members carrying the 5 KW generator, began their trip up the steep and slippery trail about 2:00 PM. Less than an hour later setting up of the station began and shortly after 0000 GMT on the 22nd it became operational. From then on there were two distinct groups of operators. The younger team members began regular trips up and down the mountain transporting gasoline for the thirsty generator and food for the operators; alternating their sherpa duties with operating the stations. Each trip up took about 30 minutes. The two sites, Chatham Bay and Hilltop, were kept in communication with each other and the Two Can by a two meter link.
By the third day all systems were operational with RTTY, CW and SSB stations active on 20 through 6 meters 24 hours a day and 160 through 30 meters during greyline and darkness hours. By the end of the day over 9,000 QSOs had been logged in the 24 hour period. The 80 and 160 meter antennas were assembled and installed but did not operate satisfactorily. Throughout the remainder of the stay on Cocos they were continuously modified and adjusted to try to get optimum performance. Despite the troubles with them, extremely good signal reports and QSO rates were realized during several nighttime operations.
As the QSO totals mounted, equipment problems were few and minor in nature. The antennas with feedpoints that were submerged during high tide had to be serviced regularly as the salt water corroded connections. In a few cases coax connectors failed and had to be replaced. The ICOM 756 PRO II transceivers performed flawlessly and held up very well in a difficult environment. The ACOM amplifiers worked well too except when some army ants invaded the pi network capacitors causing occasional arcs.
All too soon the final evening of operation approached. The captain of the Two Can set the departure date and time necessary to catch the rising tide upon return to Puntarenas and a schedule for dismantling the stations and transporting equipment back aboard ship was developed. First to be taken down was the hilltop station. This was necessary so all equipment, especially the generator, could be transported down the trail during daylight for loading at low tide. One of the Chatham Bay operating positions was dismantled and one quad taken down on Friday afternoon. The other quad, as well as the 40, 80 and 160 meter antennas were left up so a Multioperator – Single Transmitter station could be run in the ARRL DX SSB contest from 0000Z to 1200Z March 2. The other station continued CW operations on the bands not being immediately occupied by the contest station.
Promptly at 1200Z the switches were turned off and the generator shut down. TI9M was only history. Within two hours everything had been packed away and taken out to the Two Can. The final farewells with the Park Rangers were difficult since everyone had become such close friends.
At 10:00 AM local time the mooring lines were taken in, the engines started and the Two Can turned northeastward for the mainland. Everyone sat in silence watching Cocos Island sink into the sea; reliving their private experiences.
Calm seas permitted a rapid passage back to Puntarenas where the bus arrived shortly after the Two Can tied up at the wharf. Reloading the remaining gear took only a few minutes.
A scenic ride back to San Jose allowed everyone to unwind and get ready for closing out the Dxpedition. A stop at Rex International Shipping permitted the large items such as transceivers, amplifiers and some antennas to be shipped back to the USA. This was followed by a return visit to the local McDonalds and finally back to the Hotel La Trinidad.
That evening a farewell dinner was held at a local restaurant. At 4:00 AM the next morning the first team members began departing homeward with more leaving periodically through the day. By March 7 everyone was safely home and Treasure Island 9 M had become a memory to cherish forever.
For more details on the operation, including log checking, pictures and statistics check the web page at http://qsl.net/ti9m. Please sign the guestbook while you are there.
Watch for detailed stories about the operation coming up in major magazines.
All QSL cards go to AK0A
By: N7DF
When Robert Lewis Stevenson wrote about Cocos Island in his book Treasure Island he could never have foreseen that someday 14 adventurous people would be swarming over the beachs and hills with the goal of talking to the world by short-wave radio.
According to legend, over a billion dollars of gold, silver and jewels lie hidden on the Island but, even if it had been permitted by the vigilant National Park Rangers, searching for it was the furthest thing from the minds of the multinational group of radio amateurs who had come to the Island on February 19, 2002 for a ten day stay.
Getting to the Island had been anything but easy. A landing permit must first be obtained from the Costa Rican National Park Service and then a boat capable of making the 40 hour trip to the Island and serving as a floating dormitory for the radio amateur operators has to be scheduled and chartered. It isn’t cheap; the Park Service admission fee is $15 per person per day and the boat costs about $3500 per day. Added to this is the cost of airfare for the individual team members, equipment, fuel for generators and all the miscellaneous small things that turn out to be indispensable at the last minute. More than 90% of these costs had to be borne by the team members, themselves. Then, in order to operate amateur radio from the Island, there must be the licenses from the Radio Control Office in San Jose, Costa Rica. Both individual operator licenses and a group callsign for the Dxpedition were necessary.
After months of planning, starting in the fall of 2001, the first two team members arrived in San Jose on February 12 and 13. They immediately contacted the Radio Control Office and straightened out some confusion about the licenses. With FAXed copies of home radio licenses and passports in hand they obtained separate licenses for each operator with a /TI9 affixed to their home call and a callsign of TI9M for the group. They also began shopping for a long list of items that needed to be acquired in Costa Rica for the expedition.
As more team members arrived they were scattered around the several buildings that comprised the Hotel La Trinidad in Alajuela, a suburb of San Jose. The courtyard of the Hotel began to look like an antenna assembly line as quads and beams were laid out, measured and marked for quick assembly once the Island was reached. More supplies and equipment were purchased; iron rebar for guy line stakes, plastic chairs and tables, marine batteries for power backup, rope, plywood; it seemed as if the list was endless. Team members scattered all over San Jose and its environs to search out the items that were needed.
Finally, early on the morning of February 17 a large bus with MARCO POLO on the front pulled up in front of the hotel. Within minutes everything had been loaded aboard and, as soon as the cameras quit clicking, everyone piled aboard to go to the warehouse where the generators, radios, linear amplifiers and other large items were being kept. Loading was rapidly accomplished and the bus driver agreed to take the group to a fast food restaurant for some breakfast before they started the two hour drive to Puntarenas.
Driving about a half mile from the warehouse he delivered the hungry travelers to the local McDonalds where several of the European team members enjoyed their first ever Egg McMuffins.
The two hour trip through the scenic countryside of western Costa Rica was a pleasant interlude and seemed to be over before it began. Things continued to run so well that the arrival at dockside was earlier than the crew of the Two Can expected. They pitched in to help unload the bus and transfer the cargo to the deck of the boat where it was lashed down and carefully covered with tarps. Sensitive equipment was stored inside in storage areas.
Finally, at 3:30 PM, the big diesel engines were started and the boat pulled away from the wharf, headed to sea and landfall on Cocos Island some 40 hours later.
Daybreak brought a vista of uninterrupted ocean with scattered clouds. A long slow swell rocked the boat enough to make the adage, "one hand for yourself, one hand for the boat" good advice. Late in the afternoon some sea birds joined the boat indicating that land was not far off. By sunrise the next morning Cocos Island was clearly visible ahead.
A final meeting of all team members was held to discuss staging of material and people ashore. Everyone was so excited that the meeting seemed interminable. Finally, though, the boat tied up to a mooring in Chatham Bay and the National Park Rangers came out in their small boat to check the landing permits and clearances.
The Park Officials agreed that a trial installation of one tent, a quad and verticals would be allowed in Chatham Bay. Only battery operation would be permitted through the night. All personnel except for the overnight operators had to return to the boat for the night where they wistfully stared ashore as darkness fell.
The next morning brought a flurry of activity. The Park Rangers had suggested that a station could be set up on a hill overlooking the Bay and no restrictions on operation of generators or erection of antennas would be necessary. It was accessible by a very steep, quarter mile long trail up the face of the mountain. It was ideally suited to setting up a station but getting the 5 KW generator and the radios up there was going to be a problem. The crew of the Two Can came to the rescue by offering to pack the generator up the hill.
It was soon learned how important the tide is in Chatham Bay. At low tide a large, sand beach is exposed, ideal for loading and unloading small boats. At high tide the beach is completely covered with up to 6 feet of water and the surf extends to the rocky shoreline at the edge of the jungle. As the time of the full moon approached, the rise and fall of the tide became more and more extreme. Frequently the surf was 4 to 5 feet high, breaking in spectacular crashes upon the rocks and placing the antennas well offshore and in danger of destruction. Guy lines were reinforced and coaxes were protected with support ropes. Nests of re-bar, driven nearly three feet into the sand and rocks had to be checked and resecured after each high tide. A pathway that had been built in the early stages of the landing to avoid tripping over rocks while carrying heavy loads had to be rebuilt every twelve hours, once the tide receded.
By the afternoon of the second day ashore, the logistics of the hilltop installation had been worked out. The six meter station, a SSB HF Station, one quad and some other antennas were planned for installation. A file of porters, including three of the Two Can crew members carrying the 5 KW generator, began their trip up the steep and slippery trail about 2:00 PM. Less than an hour later setting up of the station began and shortly after 0000 GMT on the 22nd it became operational. From then on there were two distinct groups of operators. The younger team members began regular trips up and down the mountain transporting gasoline for the thirsty generator and food for the operators; alternating their sherpa duties with operating the stations. Each trip up took about 30 minutes. The two sites, Chatham Bay and Hilltop, were kept in communication with each other and the Two Can by a two meter link.
By the third day all systems were operational with RTTY, CW and SSB stations active on 20 through 6 meters 24 hours a day and 160 through 30 meters during greyline and darkness hours. By the end of the day over 9,000 QSOs had been logged in the 24 hour period. The 80 and 160 meter antennas were assembled and installed but did not operate satisfactorily. Throughout the remainder of the stay on Cocos they were continuously modified and adjusted to try to get optimum performance. Despite the troubles with them, extremely good signal reports and QSO rates were realized during several nighttime operations.
As the QSO totals mounted, equipment problems were few and minor in nature. The antennas with feedpoints that were submerged during high tide had to be serviced regularly as the salt water corroded connections. In a few cases coax connectors failed and had to be replaced. The ICOM 756 PRO II transceivers performed flawlessly and held up very well in a difficult environment. The ACOM amplifiers worked well too except when some army ants invaded the pi network capacitors causing occasional arcs.
All too soon the final evening of operation approached. The captain of the Two Can set the departure date and time necessary to catch the rising tide upon return to Puntarenas and a schedule for dismantling the stations and transporting equipment back aboard ship was developed. First to be taken down was the hilltop station. This was necessary so all equipment, especially the generator, could be transported down the trail during daylight for loading at low tide. One of the Chatham Bay operating positions was dismantled and one quad taken down on Friday afternoon. The other quad, as well as the 40, 80 and 160 meter antennas were left up so a Multioperator – Single Transmitter station could be run in the ARRL DX SSB contest from 0000Z to 1200Z March 2. The other station continued CW operations on the bands not being immediately occupied by the contest station.
Promptly at 1200Z the switches were turned off and the generator shut down. TI9M was only history. Within two hours everything had been packed away and taken out to the Two Can. The final farewells with the Park Rangers were difficult since everyone had become such close friends.
At 10:00 AM local time the mooring lines were taken in, the engines started and the Two Can turned northeastward for the mainland. Everyone sat in silence watching Cocos Island sink into the sea; reliving their private experiences.
Calm seas permitted a rapid passage back to Puntarenas where the bus arrived shortly after the Two Can tied up at the wharf. Reloading the remaining gear took only a few minutes.
A scenic ride back to San Jose allowed everyone to unwind and get ready for closing out the Dxpedition. A stop at Rex International Shipping permitted the large items such as transceivers, amplifiers and some antennas to be shipped back to the USA. This was followed by a return visit to the local McDonalds and finally back to the Hotel La Trinidad.
That evening a farewell dinner was held at a local restaurant. At 4:00 AM the next morning the first team members began departing homeward with more leaving periodically through the day. By March 7 everyone was safely home and Treasure Island 9 M had become a memory to cherish forever.
For more details on the operation, including log checking, pictures and statistics check the web page at http://qsl.net/ti9m. Please sign the guestbook while you are there.
Watch for detailed stories about the operation coming up in major magazines.
All QSL cards go to AK0A