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The YXØA - YXØLIX - Expedition
2006
My 4th trip to Aves... |
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At the radio-club:
Preparing the equipment for the transport to La Guaira.
(Photo
© AD6TF) |
| After weeks of preparation,
finally we started in the night from April 18 to 19 2006 from the
port La Gaira. The frigate "ALMIRANTE
BRION" (F-22) of the Venezuelan Navy brought us to our
destiny, the small island in the north eastern Caribbean
Sea.
The members of this year's expedition
were:
YV5EED, YV2IF, YV5AMH, YV5ANT, YV5HHV, YV5IVB,
YV5LIX, YV5MHX, YV5NCZ, YV5OHW, YV5SSB, YV5ZV, YY5SAK,
AD6TF, OHØXX and myself DL2GG/YV5 (now YV5EU).
During the trip we operated on CW and
SSB as YXØA/MM from the ship.
We arrived at the island as planned, just before
sunrise on April 20. |
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| We had tons of luggage to be
transported from the ship to the island.
In the early morning the temperature was
still quite comfortable. With the very appreciated help of
the navy-personnel we moved al stuff the the back of the
ship.
Part of the equipment and ourselves were transported by a
helicopter from the ship to the roof of the pile dwelling on
the island.
The heavy and large pieces were
transported by boats to the island. The boat and the
helicopter during several hours made DOZENS of trips between
the ship and the island. |
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The chopper is
landing on the heliport on top of the pile dwelling. |
| The first operator group which flew
to the island carried a radio-equipment to the island and
installed a station to "tell" the world, we arrived at Aves
Island. The rest of us, assisted
by muscular navy people, was involved loading the boat and
the chopper.
After a few hours all the goods were
was on the island, but during this hours the temperature
climbed to very high levels.
(about 40 º C) Everybody was quite
exhausted, but now the time had come to build the antennas.
The world was waiting for us :-)
We decided to operate on SSB from the
pile-dwelling and CW from a tent on the island. On all YVØ
operations I have participated we did it this way.
For me it was the first time to see
the COMPLETELY NEW pile dwelling. The previous unit was
removed and replaced, because it was hit during the years
several times by strong hurricanes and got quite injured.
The new one is much larger and much more comfortable for the
crew stationed on the island. |
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| Our first day on the island
ended tragically. Shortly before midnight, one of our
crew-members, our digital-mode-operator José (YV5LIX)
died suddenly because of a a severe heart attack.
The ship, already hours back on its
way to the continent, returned. We de-installed some of
our antennas, so that the helicopter could land safely
in the darkness. The body of José, accompanied by our
group's leader Ramón YV5EED was carried by the frigate
to La Guaira. |
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We stopped all our activities but
decided later to continue the operation, changing our
call-sign to YXØLIX in honor of José YV5LIX.
The call-sign-change was authorized
immediately by one of our colleagues, who is official of
the Venezuelan Telecommunication Authorities.
There were a lot of speculations
of our sudden disappearance and later the new call-sign.
But rapidly the sad news spread all over the world.
After 12 hours of silence we
re-activated our operations, now with the call YXØLIX ....
We received many condolences during the rest of our
activities.
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My last
photo of YV5LIX (l) with YV5ANT (r) |
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