Geplaatst op http://www.qsl.net/oh2br/ bewerkt door PA0ABM Previous operations We, Hiro JA1SLS and I JF2MBF had a great trip and radio operation on Pitcairn in 1993. We want to thank Mr & Mrs Harraway, British Consulate General in Auckland, our many radio friends, Tom and Betty Christian and Pitcairn islanders for making our journey possible. After 3 weeks of waiting in Auckland, New Zealand, we finally could secure boarding tickets for Pitcairn Island. We left Auckland on Jan 3th 93 and it took us a week to reach Pitcairn Island. On the way we could see only ocean except Rapa Island in French Polynesia. We did not feel like unpacking our equipment and trying to get on the air as /MM. Instead, we enjoyed nice food, washing clothes, watching ocean from the bridge etc. We arrived in close proximity of Pitcairn early in the morning of Jan 11th 93. The island was covered with clouds and looked very mysterious. Our host family was Tom VR6TC and Betty VR6YL who are well-known hams. As we had planned we could activate 160m, 6m, CW and RTTY during our stay. Pileups on CW were remarkable. Hiro JA1SLS left in early March after his great CW operation. Apart from hamming he was very popular among islanders as a repairman. I decided to stay on the island a month more but not a single ship stopped by during April. I took things quite easy, though, because I felt so comfortable to stay thanks to Tom, Betty and all the other islanders. Some people who asked me How much longer will you stay? can now understand why I always answered Until the next ship comes. We had power for 6 hours in a day and run with batteries rest of the time. However, we made a total of 35,000 QSOs (70% on CW). May 13th 93 was the day we finally left Pitcairn and sailed back to Auckland to start another string of operations on ZK1/S, ZK1/N, T2, T30, A35, C21 and 3D2. Our equipment in Pitcairn included two TS-690s, a FT-690 (6m backup rig), amplifiers FL-2100Z and HL-166V for 6m (200W). Antennas used were 160m Inverted L, HF-2V vertical for 80-30m, 1/4 wave sloper for 80m, R5 for 20-10m, and 4 elements Yagi for 6m. Operating site was in the corner of Tom's and Betty's house in the first floor. Besides DXing, we enjoyed the local food, especially fish food, and desserts. The Pitcairners love to have a party with tables full of delicious dishes. I still dream of Betty's fish meatballs and I gained 10 kg weight during my stay. Going fishing with Tom and the other islanders is something worth recommending. Thanks to our QSL manager JF2KOZ all QSLing has been already completed. He answered all direct QSLs, all bureau QSLs and sent QSLs via bureau for those who did not QSL to him at all. We will close both VR6BB and VR6JJ logs soon but if someone still needs a QSL please feel free to contact me at vr6jj@dxers.net as we still have a bunch of QSLs left. We hope that Jukka OH2BR will have a great DXpedition as VP6BR and be stuck on the island for a long time to make more hams happier than he ever expects. 73 de Hiro JA1SLS ex-VR6BB and Nob JF2MBF ex-VR6JJ