CW in Guinea - Roger Western, G3SXW
No, not Papua New Guinea (P29), nor Equatorial Guinea (3C) but Republic of Guinea (3X) on the West African coast. This is the target for the VooDoo Contest Group in this year's CQWW CW contest. Operators will be Ned AA7A, Roger G3SXW, Fred G4BWP, John G4IRN, Rob GM3YTS, Bob K4UEE, Vince K5VT, Mike KC7V.
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Our one tonne of equipment is stored in Mali (TZ5A last year) so we will move it by road to Conakry, a long two days driving across pot-holed roads. We do this by hiring a bus and driver + co-driver in Bamako. We have to pay for four days so it can get back again (empty). So, most of us will arrive in Bamako on the Thursday before, November 15th, and make the journey November 17/18th.
Last November G3SXW, G4BWP and K5VT made a recce trip, so we know what to expect from the journey. It will not be comfortable, on the road each morning at 5am. We also made local contacts and picked the best hotel QTH. This is literally beside salt-water, the sea laps at the hotel walls at high tide. The gardens are not really large enough for our LF antennas but we will manage. The roof is long but narrow and has no restraining wall. We move country every other year: we are gluttons for punishment, facing new challenges all the time!
We have a transmitting-licence already, but it is one of those silly 3XY call-signs, so we are still negotiating to get a shorter one. We have asked for 3X5A but it has not yet been issued. We also do not know whether we will be able to get personal call-signs. We hope so. Watch this space.
Finally, potentially a new challenge for us is political instability. Guinea is ruled by one of the last few African dictators and his people are dreadfully poor, notwithstanding their huge mineral resources. There were riots earlier this year and the unions forced a change of government. It remains to be seen whether things remain calm but so far it is looking good. Our fall-back plan might be to stay in TZ5A for the third year, but we wouldn't miss this contest for anything, so we will be QRV for sure from somewhere.
We hope to work as many WVARG members as possible in the contest. We need the points so please call us on many bands. Our seven 1KW stations will be networked so you can always ask for the QRV frequency on other bands. C U in the contest, old man!
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