ZD8 land is Ascension Island, located in the
South Atlantic Ocean, some 7° 56' South, 14° 22' West, which equates
to IARU Locator Square I I 22 tb (India India Two Two Tango Bravo).
The island itself is some 34 square miles in area, (90 square km) and is of
volcanic origin. The nearest other habitation is St. Helena (ZD7 land), some
703 miles away. The other major land masses of Africa and South America are
some 1100 miles away, east and west respectively.
I was originally
asked by my company of the time if I would travel down to "ASI" and
carry out some installation and commissioning work for them. I asked the very
nice people who run the BBC World Service Relay Site on ASI if I could stay with
them, and they agreed, so I set off for Two Boats village. Once on island and
settled into my room, I was able to obtain my local licence from the
delightfully helpful folks in the Administrators Office in Georgetown, erect a
G5RV at just a few feet above ground level and get the station working. A
little later on, I was lent a fantastic beam antenna by Ian, ZD8I, who was
resident on the island.
After my initial 3 months or so down there, I
was asked to go back in 2006 and continue the work started earlier, which I was
happy to do until mid-February 2007.
So the ZD8AD station was
operational from the 25th February 2005 until the 8th April 2005 with a variety
of antennas, and then again from 2nd November 2006 until 14th February 2007,
also with a variety of antennas. Several different locations were used around
the island, and these included Two Boats, Georgetown, the Old NASA site and a
couple of mobile trips out to Green Mountain in the hire car. The station is
now QRT until some time in the future, date as yet unknown.
Eventually,
this website will hold a complete, detailed record of my trips to ZD8 land, a
copy of the logbook files and as many photos as I can reaonably cram in to
illustrate the whole thing !
In summary, several thousand contacts were made, and many of those
were into the USA, some 5500 - 7500 miles away. Other states worked included
Canada, South America, large portions of Europe, Japan and some of the islands
in the Indian Ocean, all with 100 watts of RF or less.
I am Andy Digby, a Chartered Engineer, who currently works for Cyrrus Ltd as Principal Consultant (ATC Systems). At the time of my trips to the South Atlantic, I was working for Rockwell Collins (UK) Ltd on the DHFCS Programme. I hold full UK Amateur Radio Licence, GWØJLX, which I have held since 1988. When we moved to Wales in 2017, I was required to add the "W" as a Regional Secondary Locator (RSL) to indicate where the main station is located.
One of the many facets of this wonderful hobby of ours that
I really enjoy is heading off out to hilltops, remote or otherwise, with a
portable HF antenna and rig (and maybe a portable mains generator of some sort),
some shelter to protect from the elements and then work as many stations as
possible whilst sitting in a deckchair in the sunshine. Wonderful !
So it was a real pleasure to be able to work some of you from a
/portable location up at the old NASA site some 1750 feet ASL with the faithful
"Buddipole" antenna lashed onto a lump of concrete next to the car.
Here's a couple of pictures of the 'portable station' as set up in
Ascension Island, using the beam and the doublet HF antennas. The majority of my
2005, 2006 and 2007 QSO's were made from these two locations.
Here's a picture of the main 9-ele Optibeam antenna I was
very kindly lent by Ian, ZD8I, for most of the duration of my first trip as I
mentioned earlier, closely followed by a picture of the station as it was set up
in my accomodation room originally during my first couple of days on Ascension
and the last week, feeding a G5RV (just 6 feet off the ground outside the
windows !)
Sadly, in the last few days of the 2005
trip, the main Optibeam antenna had to come down, as it had only been given
temporary planning permission to be erected by the authorities, so those last
few days of that trip saw some antenna improvisation taking place. I erected
the doublet in place of the G5RV from as high a point as I could reach, and fed
it with some 450 ohm open twin feeder through the window of my accomodation
room, but this ended up being almost a horizontal "Vee" shape, no more
than 6 (six) feet off the ground in places as the ground sloped upwards from my
room window !! Trees were the main anchor points, as you can see from the
picture below, but I have to admit that I did get some startlingly good results
with the doublet in this configuration including the USA and Japan. Signals were
not as good as with the Optibeam of course, but at least I was on the air.
The other antenna that was used for just a couple of days on all trips
was a spiracone (see picture below). This was more a professional grade antenna
I managed to borrow with two feeds - one high angle, the other low angle - and
as the team were unsure which feed was which, I conducted a few experiments by
switching between the two feeds whilst holding QSO's with various stations
around the world. We soon learned what we need to know about the Spiracone ! I
wonder if the XYL would let me put one up in the back garden ??? She'd probably
use it was a washing line !
As with all good things, it's all ended far too soon,
and ZD8AD has had to become QRT until next time. . . . . . . . . . .
It
has been a real pleasure working you all. There were some really big pileups
most evenings but I do hope I managed to work as many of you as reasonably
possible. I learned a lot of useful things about being on the other end of a
pileup, and shall put these tips to good use next time I head out to some exotic
location with my trusty rig.
QSL's : Please do QSL with ZD8AD via GØJLX
(my home call) as QSL manager, either via the bureau or direct. There will be a
100% QSL for all QSO's made during all the trips.
I have now cleared
the backlog of direct 2005 QSL's and am starting to send out the bureau cards
en-masse. If you have worked ZD8AD between late Feb 2005 and mid
February 2007, your card will be coming to you very soon. I regret the delays
that some of you have had to endure, but hope you like the card when it arrives.
The reasons for the delays are quite simple : I have changed job
twice since getting back to UK from ASI, and I've moved house twice as well. I
still have about a container-full of stuff to unload and I just KNOW there are
thousands of QSL cards in amongst that lot awaiting action. Add to that my QSL
card printer becoming deceased, and you will begin to appreciate the size of
this mountain !!
At the moment (17th September 2007), I have 5 QSL's
that are not in my log, so you are being held until all others have been
exhausted then I'll check again (for the 4th time).
Affected
stations to date are : JE3HWO, N6UOZ, KE5BWG, KE4YHY, KG6POG.
Email contact with the station is possible under my
original home call. I know I am running so far behind with the QSL's and I can
only apologise. I still have to work. I really should have employed a QSL
manager, but I didn't. 20-20 hindsight again. Please use G0JLX at mail dot com
and be patient. There WILL be a 100% QSL for all contacts that are in the log.
73 and good dx - de Andy, GØJLX / ZD8AD !
Site last updated 7th January 2018