ARLA/CLUSTER: Radioamadores amantes do Todo-o-Terreno numa "DXpedition" que é uma fusão única de rádio e caridade para com África

[João Costa > CT1FBF]

4-wheel-drive trip from one continent to the next

Not the ordinary DXpedition, but a unique merging of amateur radio and
charity. The following is an edited press release from Pedro, ON7WP/AA9HX:

Pedro ON7WP/AA9HX will be driving a Nissan Patrol Jeep, a donation to
serve as local utility vehicle in Buntung, from Belgium to The Gambia
with amateur radio on board.

He will leave Brussels on early morning December 12th, first crossing
France and Germany to take a ferry to Ceuta where he will sign as
EA9/ON7WP. He applied for licenses for all countries on his way to the
Gambia, starting from Morocco as CN9WP, later operating as S0WP from
Western Sahara and 5T0WP from Mauritania and maybe also from Senegal
if they read their mail...

Mobile equipment will be a Codan SRX2012 with Codan 9350 antenna and a
Kenwood TS480 for 6 meter operations. Evenings on campsites he will
deploy a Butternut Vertical. Frequencies will be centered around 7145,
14200, 18150, 21300, 24950, 28500 and 50150 non-split while mobile as
the Codan rig does not really allow smooth split operation.

Arriving finally end of December, Pedro, ON7WP, will be active from his
second home "Kerr Pedro" in Buntung, The Gambia, using his other
callsign C5WP. Kerr means "house of" in local Pular language. Pedro is
actively involved in a private charity organization
www.SmileGambia.org that supports a small Village called "Buntung"
inland central Gambia. It is a remote town with no water or
electricity. During the past years, Pedro and his family installed a
water well, solar power, grinders for the pearl millet crop, a fuel
powered kilowatt generator, a few laptops on solar power, a small
school and some guest houses to accept other philanthropists. Last
year he installed a Spiderbeam antenna that greatly improved his
signal. Due to an almost non-existent noise level he can hear all the
weak ones, and this year he is going to do some extra efforts for the
lower bands, not easy on the savanna grounds. Plenty of space to put
antennas but no towers apart from the palm trees, and serious
restrictions on any hardware that all has to be flown in by plane.

Since August, he has a vertically polarized delta loop for 40 meter
that gave outstanding world-wide coverage from just the barefoot solar
powered TS480 Kenwood rig.

Active from around Christmas onwards, he will focus on WARC band
operation but also try some 6 meter traffic. Plans exist to put up
apart from the delta loop for 40 meter a Butternut vertical for 40 and
80 meters. After a week of solar powered operations, he will move to
the coastal area where he will focus on low bands, having
possibilities for sea-side traveling wave antennas that proved to be
good last year. End of the operations will be January 9th.

Another period op operations is planned later this year when Pedro
will be driving a Nissan Patrol Jeep, to serve as local utility
vehicle in Buntu, from Belgium to The Gambia with amateur radio on
board.

There are currently only two permanent licenses issued in the Gambia,
being C5WP and C5YK. C5YK will depart for good beginning 2016 so Pedro
will be the only one left at the time being.

As charity work comes on the first place, Pedro’s operations will be
limited to his free time. QSL will be only direct to his home address in
Belgium, and the 3 Euro asked for will be awarded with a full color QSL
card showing the Buntu Village guest houses. Payment can be included
with the card, but alternatively also paid online using Paypal using
the "donate" button on the www.SmileGambia.org website. The small
profit goes entirely into the charity project.

Amateurs interested in operating from the Buntu village facilities are
invited to contact Pedro c5wp  smilegambia.org for details.

Last year they had a visit of MD Dirk, ON5OF, who did some outstanding
work dealing with the health of the population. Most people never went
to see a doctor in their whole life!

This road trip Pedro gets company from Kurt Adams, a solar power
specialist who will improve the little power plant in Buntung with
fresh panels. The trailer with help goods he helped build uses solar
panels as fences and roof.

If you dreamed of operating from a remote African location and you are
ready to bring some donations for the people or improve their life by your
expertise, whatever it may be, this might be an experience of a lifetime.

OPDX