The main objective of this operation regarding equipment was to keep size and weight to a minimum. This premise become very important, first of all to avoid extra charges from the airline when you have to carry on all this stuff to the other side of the world and the only help during the trip is YOURSELF.....

Antennas

During the planning stage of the operation, first thing I chose was the antenna system. In this case I was looking for a reliable yagi antenna low weight, small size, full coverage 14-28 Mhz and easy to assemble. I surfed the net looking for something to fill my needs and I found it! The answer was Force 12 - Classic C3S .Thanks to Tom N6BT you can find all such characteristics in a single antenna available in the market. I only remove , I should better say my father EA4CP did, some minor modifications on it to facilitate the transport in a small ski bag. My choice never could be better. The antenna did a terrific job during the whole operation. None single problem ever !!

I didn't pay too much attention to the low band (40-80) antennas and only prepared a simple dual band dipole, so the results on both bands you can see on the statistics simply nothing..... The combination of poor antenna with low power, was disappointing. Only 40 meters I had a very few runs of europeans and japanese, but was my fault and I learnt from my own mistakes !.

Linear amplifier

This time I decided no linear........next time will be different !!!!! I already have made some inquiries about some low weight linears and they can be fitted into my luggage without too much troubles

Radio

I had Kenwood TS-50 as spare radio at home . This piece of equipment had been operative in a very few ocasions due to the excelent result of my main equipment Kenwood TS-940S in operation since March 1989 without any single problem. That's not realy true.......Well.... the small fun in the back was changed last year, after 7 year of continuous operation and two hams (EA4CP & EA4DX) at the controls....., all countries worked (except P5 Demo Hi...) No bad... isn't it?. So why don't give a chance to the small one ?. It filled all the requirements I was looking for , so ...the radio was already decided. The result ....just perfect....even in the worst moments the signals were perfectly readable. The pileups could be handle quick and smooth as a silk.....

Power Supply

Which PS match perfectly with Kenwood TS-50 ? I didn't have too many problems to answer my question. I only had to search the Kenwood web page and Kenwood PS-40 was my instant choice. The PS worked for hours and hours whithout any problems. I only had to switch on and off ...that's all !

Headphones & Microphone

Main objective on Dxpeditions and contests usually is to work as many stations as you can. To acomplish this objective you have to wear a comfort headphones with good audio quality (receiving and transmiting). In this case I used my Heil Pro5 Headset, that I previously tested last year during the CQWWSSB 1996 as one of EA8ZS MS ( 3rd World) crew. This time I added to the headset the foot switch. I never worked with one before, and now I don't know how I could worked without it before !!! If you wanna run fast, you have to use it. Forget VOX operation, the accuracy of the foot switch is GREAT !

Antenna Tuner

I have never been a big supporter of antenna tunners, I always prefered tuned antennas than antenna tuners. But in this case due to the specifications of the Force 12 - Classic C3S if you want to use it in 12 and 17 meters you have to tune the antenna with a tuner. So I surfed the web searching for a small one. MFJ-945E was my choice. Tunning the antenna on 12 & 17 was so easy that when I had an SWR higher than 1:1.8 on any band I always tuned it.

Laptop

I had no choice on it. I worked a Dell Latitude Xpi Pentium 133 24 MBRAM and 1.3 GB HD. The one I use in my daily job. So the choice was did by my Company.....I never could find anything cheaper.......

We can call these the main stuff ...but...to achieve a good result in a operation like this, the list of minor items is really impressive. You can't imagine the things you have to take with you, till you start to think about it! !!!!

ea4dx@oocities.com