For successful overseas radio operating, planning is the key to everything.

Normally I look for 2m and 70c repeaters, but this is the first time I have operated portable HF overseas. The main reason has been is that the HF equipment has been too bulky, and the power requirements too onerous.
This time, I took my Yaesu FT-817 this is the ultimate travel radio! It is feasible to operate from it's
eight internal AA NIMH 1.6ah rechargeables, at 5 watts SSB output.

For the antenna I made myself a 20m single band dipole, out of 20 metres of slotted TV ribbon, with a homemade 4:1 balun.
Together with a portable 12 foot telescopic fibreglass mast, Switched mode 13.8v supply (2 amps), some nylon fishing line, sinkers, thick rubber band for slinging sinkers over trees, 144/440/50 mhz rubber ducky, ATX vertical (for other bands..). The total weight of this is about 3kg. A complete HF/and uhf/vhf/6m station! I was thinking about taking a small 5watt solar panel… but not this time. 240v is available everywhere.

First challenge was to get a local licence. The Ministry of Information and Communications phone number in FIJI is +679 3384766 fax is +679 3386310, and the person I spoke to was Vilikesa. I needed to fax a copy of my Australian Licence, plus a form , a passport sized photo, and $FJ 13.75. ( I actually just sent $A20, on the theory that it would be worth someone's while to change it to Fiji dollars because I couldn’t find any in Sydney!)

The actual address I was given had changed to:
PO Box 2264 Ministry of Information and Communication
Government Buildings, Suva, Fiji

Now I didn’t leave them too much time (About 10 days!) so I first rang and discussed it with Mr Vilikesa (first name/surname??) and he asked me to fax my licence, equipment details and where I would be operating from, and upon payment, promised to fax the licence to the Resort I was going to stay at.

I did all that (faxed & used international air express for the hardcopy and $$), and upon checkin at the resort, I had my 3D2RS licence.!

Not only that, a day later he called us at the resort to check that I got it! Very efficient and caring! I was extremely impressed.

Step one complete!

OPERATING:

So I went for a walk around the resort. I did try to operate with the ATX vertical ( a mini outbacker style antenna) but no joy!

I ended up operating from the golf course to the UPPER left of the above beach picture. It had a fence with 2 metre high posts next to the beach and some non-coconut trees with branches.

So I lashed my 12 foot portable telescopic fibreglass mast to a fence post (secured with cable ties to the wiremesh fence) and tied the two ends of the dipole to the trees. I made sure I was aiming broadside to Australia. It didn’t look too much out of place, and I suspect nobody noticed it until it was pointed out to them because the trees hid it. I left it there for the four days of operation left.

I had planned the time and frequency of operation by referring to the IPS propagation website http://www.ips.gov.au/asfc/current/predsvs.html

This suggested that at 0600 UTC (4 pm in Sydney, 6pm in Fiji) the 20 metre band was good for Sydney-Fiji point to point. This was good from the resort timetable and a reasonable pacific area time .

I really had good results,-all on SSB phone. I used partly 5 watts and 2.5 watts. With  KB4NGH in Miami on 2 OCT I used 1(one) watt and was heard 53!!! Also, Eric VK2KUR and Demetre SV1UY heard but could not copy me.
 

Date	Time-UTC	Callsign	Name	Location	Rx	Tx	FREQ
29-SEP	0600-0725	VK2LV	COLIN	SYDNEY	59	53	14280
2001		ZL1BK/PM	MAX	AUCKLAND	59	53
		VK2JRE	MARK	SYDNEY	58	51
30SEP	0500-0600	ZLIBK/PM	MAX	AUCKLAND	59	58	14338
		N0KZ/PM	Brian	Colarado Springs	55	53
		VE7FM	Mohan	Vancouver Island.	53	51
		K7JMH	Mal	Nth Oregan	51	58
		KR6BB	George	San Francisco	55	?
30SEP	0600-0700	VK2SOB	Bob	Sydney	55	51	14282
		VK2LV	COLIN	SYDNEY	59	54
		KB4NGH	LOUIS	MIAMI	59	55
		ZLIBK/PM	MAX	AUCKLAND	58	58
1OCT	0600-0700	VK2SOB	BOB	SYDNEY	59	55	14285
		VK4KUS	STEVE	HARVEY BAY	56	51
		VK2LV	COLIN	SYDNEY	59	52
		ZL1BK/PM	MAX	AUCKLAND	58	58
2OCT	0550-0700	KB4NGH	LOUIS	MIAMI	59	53	14280
		VK2SOB	BOB	SYDNEY	59	50
		ZLIBK/PM	MAX	AUCKLAND	58	52

73 de Raffy 3D2RS
(home call VK2RF)