A few days to the cottage

We spent a few days to the cottage to say welcome to spring. Things turned out to be quite different than expected. Spring did not came on time. It was very wet and looked like more as winder. Even the fireplace was acceptable!

The plants, as you can see, were not prepared for such a weather but I remained cool and relaxed. I do not know, nobody knows actually, if there is any correlation with the prolonged sun minimum. By the way the signals were not too bad in my portable wire antennas. So no reason to complain at all. It was a nice break anyway.

VK9GMW: a different style dxpedition

The sun continues its leisure. It behaves exactly as the stoke market: When you believe that it has got a minimum it is going lower. We had great expectations for VK9LA but it turned out to be difficult to get heard. At least to Europe. Under such hostile propagation conditions, two incredible guys,AA7JV and HA7RY went to Mellish reef. Their equipment is very simple but they are quite noisier than expected.   Their camp is just a small tent on the sand. They are working only with 12V DC from batteries and their power does not exceed the 500 watts. Their antenna system is very small also as you can see in the pictures.  In spite of all these they deliver good signals. In the same time between transmissions they catch fish to fresh up their meals!

I love their shack inside the little tent and their high tech illumination system, hi hi. By any means it is the more likable dxpedition of the year. Congratulations guys. This is a real ham spirit!

Photos taken from their site:http://www.vk9gmw.com/