Background:
While in the Swedish army I had started to plan a trip to Australia but due to my intrest in Ham Radio DX-ing the motives changed while the planning was on. I found out that it was possible to stop over in the pacific without any particular cost on the way to Australia. So this I was of course going to do. When I left on my trip I was 21 years old and had never traveled alone so it was a big adventure. I had been fortunate enough to have a good sponsor in Swedish Radio Supply who was willing to lend me a brand new IC-735 for the whole trip without knowing anything about me except that I was going to travel for 6 months in pacific.
I went on the trip and visited the places you can see pictures from on this page. The objectives was to have a whole lot of fun and to see the pacific islands and when I had time over operate radio. So this usually meant that during daytime I was sightseeing and during night I operated pileups. I had never had any pileup before I came to KH6 so it was a great learning-experience. From then on I was hooked on DX-peditioning. While on my way back home to Sweden I had already decided that I must go on another trip again and this as soon as possible. The result you can see on my Pacific tour 2.
W6/SM7PKK
My first stop was Los Angeles. I was going to stay with Don N6IC and his family. From his place I made some excursions around the town as well as meet some of the hams in LA. I had a lot of fun and only very limited time was spent on the Ham bands. It was though interesting to see that they announced UB5 and such on the DX-cluster as being rare Hi!
KH6/SM7PKK Oahu, Hawaii
This was my first real DX stop. I myself had never been able to contact KH6 so to me it was a very exotic place. I was mainly QRV for europe during the evening hours and went on traveling around the island during the daytime. After only one week I flew on to Fiji.
3D2KK Suva, Fiji.
Now my real backpacker tour was starting. The main objective was to have fun, to see new places and being totally free to do what I wanted when I wanted to do it. So radio was not high on the priority as I found the islands very interesting. Coming to a totally new place is always very interesting.
5W1HK Western Samoa.
From Fiji I bought a ticket that would take me to Samoa and Tonga and back again. I stayed about one month in Western Samoa before continuing on to Am. Samoa. Many people think it sounds too long but I was having fun and time was something I had lost track of all together. I traveled around quite a bit either by taking busses or simply hitch-hiking. Even made a short trip over to Savaii even though no radio was with me on that trip.
KH8/SM7PKK AM.Samoa.
What a call sign! Many people who worked me never figured it out. A Samoan in Sweden??? Well it seemed that not too many people had read the announcement in QST that people coming to US territories should sign the call sign like I did. I had arranged to stay 3 weeks with a family in Leone. I am an adventurer so I don´t mind trying a bit of everything. So these 3 weeks I stayed in a real Samoan FALE (house with no walls!) Me and my house-mate Moon became good friends. I had only one problem there though. The closeness to the small creek that was going by the house was Of course nice except for the fact that it was the breeding place for all the mosquitoes who seemed to prefer my blood before any one else s! I made about 4200 QSO´s and probably had the same amount of Mosquito-bites. It seemed that with every QSO made I had to slap myself somewhere to kill one of them buggers.
A35KK Tonga
I arrived on the main island called Tongatapu by plane and didn´t care too much about the place at first sight. So after a few days I decided to take the local ferryboat up to Vavaú instead. It was quite interesting to go by the local ferries as usually no tourists do and thus it´s a great way to meet people and see the place in a different way. It was a beautiful sight to sail in to Vavaú. All the small islands sticking out of the water. For about two weeks I operated thinking I was the only one QRV from the island. But the very last night I got called up by A35KB on 20M he was extremely strong. He told me he QTH was about 300 meters away from mine! He was a catholic priest and ham radio operator. We met up and had a nice chat before I flew out of there the next day.
VK2FVD Australia
I came back to Fiji and operated a bit before my departure to Australia. I was scheduled to travel around Australia for about 6 weeks. Since Australia is so big I concentrated on backpacking along the east coast from Sydney up to Cairns and back again. I left the radio in Sydney as I figured there are enough stations QRV so I was on a real backpacking tour. It was very interesting but somehow the place seemed a bit strange to me, wherever I went I found more Swedes than anything! I found out that the embassy had issued almost 80.000 visas to Swedes that year and I guess most of those where traveling the same route as me! Of course it is nice to meet up with people from your own country but this was getting obsurd? I hade a great time though and backpacking is a great way to see a place.
ZK1XI South Cook Islands.
After Australia I was going to fly back to Sweden via USA but before this I had one more stop to go to. It was Rarotonga where I was going to stay for two weeks. This being my last real stop. I was going to put myself on test. I had set a target to try to make 8000 QSO´s within this time. I had gotten the real pileup bug and was very determined on succeeding. I was able to use ZK1CG Victor´s station and worked radio from there during the afternoons and at the motel during the nights.The thing was that DL4FP Karl had arrived the same day as me and he wanted to make some QSO´s as well. He left after the first week and to my big surprise another Swede arrived with the next plane. It was Göran SM4DHF an avid DX-er who Of course was as crazy about radio as me. We had a lot of fun operating the radio as well as seeing the place. Well I managed to make my 8.000 QSO´s and thus had reached my target of totally 20.000 for the whole operation so I closed down my station and spend my remaining four days having a complete holiday.
Sponsors and supporters:I wish to acknowledge the contributions and assistance of those who helped ensure the success of this operation, including: Statistics and data about the operations:Equipment:IC-735, GPA-40. Dates:November – December , 1990 |
QSO-statistics:
| DXCC | KH6 | 5W1 | KH8 | A35 | 3D2 | ZK1 | VK2 | |
| Total | 1178 | 1833 | 4174 | 718 | 3321 | 8703 | 300 | 20227 |
Statistics between the continents:
| EU | NA | AS | SA | OC | AF |
| 20% | 42.8% | 30.5% | 2% | 4.5% | 0.2 |