To The Mountains of the Moon
Part 04. Operating
Worldwide advertising was the reason that the two hams
could not complain about interest all over the globe. But
VQ5GHE was NOT the base camp, as their licence
indicated.
The license
To get permission to operate from an area which was under British administration, was not easy for
British subjects. And for Non British, it was (almost) impossible. No wonder that the license had to come
from a very high level of hierarchy. The Gatti Hallicrafters Expedition was one of the agenda-points of
the Conference of East African Governors. Gatti got his license, based on the same conditions as for
British subjects.
The license-keeper was allowed to use following calls:
•
VQ5GHE Base Camp
Uganda
•
VQ3HGE Mobile
Tanganyika
•
VQ4EHG Mobile
Kenya
•
VQ5HEG Mobile
Uganda
Also the frequencies and the allowed power were equal to other British stations in East Africa.
•
1.8 - 2.0 mc (power up to 10 watts)
•
7.0 - 7.3 mc (power up to 150 watts)
•
14.0 - 14.4 mc (power up to 150 watts)
•
28.0 - 30.0 mc (power up to 150 watts)
•
58.5 - 60.0 mc (power up to 25 watts)
Gatti had also asked for 80 and 15 meters, but this was denied, as the others VQ's didn't have this
permission either. Also it was NOT allowed to use extra frequencies for press-releases. These
messages had to be sent by the normal way through the 'Posts and telegraphs Department'.
From the start of the expedition, it was very clear that base camp of the Gatti Hallicrafters Expeditie was
not VQ5GHE. VQ3HGE (Tanganyika) was the first call activated, then came VQ4EHG (Kenya).
VQ5GHE (Uganda) and VQ5HEG (mobile contacts) could be worked months later.
Operating
On November 20, 1947, Bob had a conversation with Bill Halligan in Chicago. They arranged operating
times and frequencies. According to the contract, Gatti had with Hallicrafters, the expedition should be 6
hours a day on the air. Fortunately Bob and Bill were often more than 8 hours QRV, usely between
13.00-15.00 GMT and 16.00-21.00 GMT.
The proposed frequencies were 14,160 and 28,030 for CW, and 28,375 and
14,380 for AM. In 1947 SSB was not invented. Hallicrafters made a
pamphlet for the deserving after the expedition was on its way. The "Shack
on Wheels" was equipped with a real VFO, the Hallicrafters HT-18, Bob
cannot remember he used the VFO. Of course they had pile-ups all the
time. The calling sations could be found all over the band, as almost
everyone did use a x-tal controlled transmitter. The transmitter in the radio-
truck was a HT-4E, almost impossible to transport because of the heavy
weight. The Hallicrafters Models SX-42, SX-43 and S-38 receivers were
also built in.
The antenna was a 'pre-fabricatet' rhombic for 40-20-10 meter band. According to Hallicrafters
engeneers, the construction time of the rhombic was one (1) hour.
Hallicrafters engineers did make also propagation forecasts, calculated from the information from 'the
Bureau of Standards Data'. The home-stations could find out what the best operating time was to get in
the log of VQ5GHE. Also the beamheading from Chicago to the "The Mountains of the Moon", 2
degrees South and 30 degrees East (South West of Kigali Rwanda) was calculated. Many stations
attempting to QSO the expedition didn't comphrend or understand long path vs short path propagation,
and would have their antenna aimed the wrong way, resulting in weak or no signalsy.
Bill Snyder, W0LHS did make most phone QSOs, being on 10 meters, while Bob Leo (W6PBV) was the
CW artist using his mechanic instrument at high speed. They kept the log up to date by handwriting, the
typing machines in the shack were used to type letters and stories. They got mail from home, and during
the last month's of the expedition they got also lots of QSLs from HAMs and SWLs. Outgoing cards got
a one-cent stamp on it properly stamped by a GHE stamp, a kind of first day stamp issue, good for
stamp-collectors. The addrees of the worked ham had to be written on the
back of the QSL also, according to a Gatti-rule.
All log were sent to Hallicrafters QSL manager W9TDF. Tony G4UZN,
supplied this QSL, which has the Gatti Hallicrafters stamp on it. The
postmark was July 15, 1948, the station worked was G8QZ on april 4, 1948
in CW on 28,016 Mc.
Magic Zepp
Bob did build also a double extended Zepp antenna for Asia. The
amount of Asian QSOs improved when using this antenna. To tune the
Zepp, it was necessary to terminate the open wire line at the correct
distance, and also to tap onto that line at the correct spot. Bob used a
detector of a light bulb and some wire and clips to run along the line to
find a voltage peak (if I remember right) for the above adjustments.
The natives were fascinated by the magic of seeing the bulb light
up from no apparent source.
Propagation
There is no FCC in East Africa but in the spirit of amateur radio it did bother Bill and Bob that Gatti was
rather commercial. First of all, the two hams didn't expect that. They expected to operate from VQ3,4,5
for the benefit of hams all over the world. Next, when Gatti started doing business over the radio it was
hard at first to tell the Commander that this was not acceptable. There was an FCC in the USA but the
qsos apparently didn't bother the guys at the Chicago Hallicrafters station.
What were their options? They could have quit but they weren't quitters; they could tell Gatti that they
wouldn't operate that way - which is what they did, sending Gatti a nastygram which helped get Bill fired.
But if somehow propagation would fail, Gatti could not make business qsos with the Hallicrafters station.
Bob soon figured out a way to do this. In those days receivers had a bandset dial and a bandspread
dial. To make the bandspread dial indicate correct frequencies the bandset dial had to be set to a certain
spot. Bob reasoned that if somehow the bandset dial didn't do its job by being offset from the correct
spot, then when they looked for Chicago on the bandspread dial they might experience bad propagation
or not be heard. Bob would turn the bandspread dial to the correct Chicago frequency but they were not
heard. Gatti couldn't figure out how they could hear the world or all over the United States and not be
able to hear Hallicrafters in Chicago.
Just bad propagation Mr. Gatti.
©W7LR and PA0ABM