Jongensgat DXpedition Report
March 20-23, 2006

By John Plimmer

DX chalet

Vince Stevens and his wife Sonja arrived at 1.00 pm after having a late brunch in Stilbaai and the heavy work of setting up and stringing out the antenna's commenced. I had intended to put out a 300 meter beverage, but seeing the hostile terrain I gave up and decided to rely on my Kiwa MW loop. Vince meanwhile got cracking and started his major effort of stringing three beverage antenna's through the thick coastal scrub. I have to give Vince an award for this: "Champion Beverage Antenna Stringer of the Year", as the terrain is so hostile with the thick coastal fynbos scrub up to 6/8 foot high, that it is a superhuman effort that Vince seems to excel in. His antenna's are always dead straight and supported six foot off the deck by bamboo rods he brings bundles of.

1630, just before sunset, we fire it all up and things are immediately disappointing. Huge noise from the inland thunderstorms and a lot of manmade electrical noise as well. Propagation seems poor as well and we do not get early pre sunset signals from the Australia/Far East as is usually heard. So all in all it's not a very successful evening and we retire at ten, hoping for a better tomorrow.

John ponders the dead rasta sheep phenomenon

The morning session on Tuesday 21st is also disappointing as the hoped for N. American stations do not arrive. Instead lots of Brazilian stations that we do not want, but in between that I find a Santiago Chile and a Bolivian station. A first for me as I have never previously heard anything from across the Andes on the Pacific East Coast.

We savour the new day in the lovely surroundings - the isolated cottage on the Indian Ocean beachfront with it's magnificent vistas of rocky coastline without sight of any other habitation or human presence. Some Cape Francolins and dassies gambol around to increase our pleasure. Lunchtime Vince fires up a braai (barbecue) and we have a convivial time.

Vince and I seriously have a go at trying to find the source of the man made electrical radio noise and after much troubleshooting Vince has a brainwave and detects that it is being created by our own badly laid out power extension cords. Whew! that sorts out that problem and at least now we will have a better radio evening with no electrical noise to speak of. I also do more experiments on my IBM laptop that has been successful at home, but here, with the sensitive antenna's, it creates a hellava radio racket and interference, so I pack it away in disgust. Pity, as I am always awed at how our American friends use a mountain of laptops and other electrical gear at Grayland with success.

John doing Edward Scissorhand impersonations

Tuesday 21st, our second evening, things are very much better. The Australian stations already start streaming in well before sunset and a fruitful evening session begins. Perth and Geraldton are early arrivals. Propagation seems better and the summer thunderstorms inland are a bit quieter, so we have a good evening of catches. The morning session on Wednesday 22nd is also better and North America also makes an appearance with nice catches from New York, Nashville Tennessee, Charlotte North Carolina and Jacksonville Florida. However, both Vince and I overslept and did not get going until 5.30 a.m. Wednesday morning, which was a pity, as the N. American stations were coming in well. Vince didn't hear his fancy wristwatch alarm and I, usually up at 4.00 am latest, simply overslept. Damnation, probably lost a few good American catches.

Vince and mini-whip and start of beverages

Ever energetic Vince gets more wire out on the antenna's and extends them considerably and adds a new one to the East. This is fruitful, as the 400 meter one I use on Tuesday night performs very well and Vince's new East antenna gives him a catch from the island of Guam in the Pacific, 13,900 kilometers / 8,600 miles away, an awesome catch on the AM mediumwave band. (Sadly for Vince, hoping for a South African first, his compatriot Gary Deacon has already snagged it the night before in Fishoek, and has already confirmed it by e-mail by the time we get back). Fortunately Vince also manages to get an email QSL from the kind lady at the station.

Wednesday 22nd we enjoy a quiet day, as the antenna's are all perfected so we take the women shopping in Stilbaai such as it is. For lunch Dawn and I have the lovely fresh fish takeaway they do in Stilbaai and go back to Jongensgat and enjoy it at our leisure with some fine Robertson wine.

Fanie, our host pitches up to see why the water pump has stopped working. I realise that Vince switched out an unknown circuit in our noise abatement exercise, it was unmarked and we did not know we had inadvertently switched of the main water pump to the complex! Fortunately Fanie took it in good faith and was mollified by our explanation, all was now well.

Vince barbecueing

The evening session starts well with a good showing from Australia and the Far East coming in well before sunset, and as we guys DX Sonja braai's a spatchcok chicken that Dawn has bought earlier. It is peri-peri and later we all thoroughly enjoy it with a little local wine.

6.20 p.m. my Icom radio goes dead - boomf = disaster!!!. Keep a clear head Plimmer, this is really bad news. The thought of missing the last nights promising DX session overwhelms me. I fiddle with all the buttons and check things but nara, not a peep out of it. Vince suggests rebooting it and so I switch off all the power and wait five minutes and then switch on again. Thankfully it starts up properly and works perfectly again, the mystery malaise gone. Wow! relief!

Barbecue area

Wednesday evening yields more good Australian catches and Vince's highlight of Guam. Thursday morning we are both up early but conditions are not spectacular, though I do get a low powered 1 kilowatts station from Augusta Georgia. At sunrise on the last day there are still some decent signals from the U.S. but I can't get a clear identification = frustration.

Thursday morning it's all over, not a bad DXpedition, some good catches, pleasant company and a fabulous setting on the seafront. Time to pack up - Vince heads out into a clear windless sunny morning and gets stuck into the considerable task of taking down his beverage wires. Dawn and I pack up all the gear and lug it down the steep incline - were really getting too old for this and find it heavy going. then a slow three hour trip home in light traffic and find all well with granny Bina and the pets at home in Montagu.

A local flower

JP=John Plimmer
VS=Vince Stevens
Rxers: Icom 756 PRO III, Drake R8A
Antennas:
400m Beverage beamed magnetic North (336 deg - Canada & NZ over the shoulder), 200m Beverage at 306 deg (NY City & Perth over the shoulder), 300m Beverage at 276 deg (Cent. America & Indonesia over the shoulder), Kiwa MW Loop.

DXpedition Logs

Nearly tame Dassie

(published on April 17, 2006)