2nd visit
to Suwadi
Island - March
2003 
2nd visit
to Suwadi
Island - March
2003
5-3-2003 to 9-3-2003
As i promised last time to spend some more time on Suwadi Island because of many hams around the world were waiting to put this AS-112 on their logs, also because we gone suddenly QRT on last day without saying ( Gentlemen we are going QRT ) .. and that was because of many reasons first of all our boat was reached to cross us to the coast..
My schedule was to go to Mahoot Island AS-014 on 05 to 10 Mar,2003 but here we are at Suwadi island again with two friends, both newcomers to ham radio, one of them is Ahmed 28 yrs old a very close friend to me since 1997 and other is Badar 24 yrs very new friend i knew him on Jan this year during an scout jamboree as he is a member of Oman Rovers like me, also we worked together during scouts & rovers participation in organizing of Muscat annual festival..
on
this trip and because of our advanced preparation we reached the beach
before crossing to island early, at about 16:00 pm local, and many boats
were available, so we loaded all or gears aboard and our boat started moving to
the island, sea was quit, no winds or waves, on our way we found too many small
fishes jumping and playing safely, i don't know whose lunch would be tomorrow
..
We where just 3 persons planned for this island but when we booked boat some young villagers , friends of boater asked if they can join us on the island, we said its ok but we will be too busy and we have not planned for more than three persons, so food and water wouldn't be enough for 7 persons, they agreed and said ok we just take you to the island after then we return and prepare our self with food and water and be back at night, no problems at all.. when we reached island , directly we started taking materials up with help of new friends, and immediately installed all equipments and antennas..
At 19:00 utc
all equipments were connected and switched on, I checked ssb bands but all were
dead except digital mode PSK31 on 14.070 so at 19:22:25utc (5-3-2003) we
made our first qso with UA0LH
this mode signal was 599 both sides. we managed few more contacts here but because
of heavy QRM we moved to 40m band, also same QRM here, still we made one QSO
with 9K2HS
signal was strong but that was our last QSO tonight, as local time was 01:00
midnight and we been tired of preparations since early morning so we gone to
have some cool talks and slept after.. our new friends from suwadi village
did not come until now as they said..
Next morning (6-3-2003) we switched on everything's at 05:00 utc on digital modes and managed to make good contacts and moved to SSB after two hours , propagation was coming up on 15m, i started calling CQ CQ from AS-112 on 21.260 and got good pile-up, most stations were from Europe, some times i was getting difficulties with some stations as they were calling and calling but never listing for what i was saying, some other hams were helpful for me as they were asking stations which were not listing to listen & listen, again some hams were tuning there rigs on the same frequency, not even bothering about me or about working stations on the frequency.. also many hams around the world put my call and information's about this IOTA on many dx cluster's, as i remember once i asked one Italian friend to put my call on any cluster, he said my friend you are already on 10 Dx cluster ! so thanks to those hams who help us without waiting for any word of thanks . Evening was windy, and i got a problem with one power supply and with my IC 706, so i replaced them with other's i had and switched on my FT-747, I spent full day on radio and after each two or three hours was taking breaks.. during my breaks some hams were just talking on the frequency, some of them were asking about dx call or iota information's and qsl info, other's were guard of the frequency as they were answering any breaking stations if the frequency is in use or not, also telling hams to wait for me as i'm taking a break, so some times i was cutting my break and coming immediately to respond these kind people, but other times i was too tired so directly after announcing for my break was switching off the rig, because i was only one licensed ham in my group who can operate, my other friend only were helping by calling CQ CQ CQ when all station's disappearing or when switching on, some hams noted that and were saying thanks to you and your friend..
During my breaks some times i was eating food prepared by my other two
friends Ahmed and
Badar .. they
were busy also all the day, by checking our power generator and filling
fuel, fishing and cocking food or tea, collecting wood for night, talking to
visitor's, covering our portable shake from attack of strong winds..
Ahmed
was responsible for our foods, and was cocking delicious food all the time,
between our main meals he was preparing snacks and tea also, and sitting beside
me to listen and log some contacts as he is already submitted his application to
the Royal Omani
Amateur Society
and waiting for approval to start his preparation to get his ticket to ham radio
world and join me as operator on future dx-pidition .. Badar
was busy full day, i did not see him sitting free without doing anything, he was
looking for everything's, like generator, wood, antenna's, replacing of
electrical fuse's, also he was helping Ahmed
with foods, and Badar
is good guitarist
and singer,
during our breaks we were sitting and listing to his songs, and joining him with
some songs.. at late night he was going to top of the island and watching fishermen
fishing by nets.. some times both of Ahmed
and Badar
were shouting and fighting together, on various reasons, some times Badar
was asking Ahmed
to give him a chance to prepare food himself, but Ahmed
was not allowing him to do so, as he was saying he doesn't know to make food,
also Ahmed was requesting for some special songs but Badar
was refusing to sing for him, some times Ahmed was asking Badar
to go and check this and that but Badar
was saying it is your turn now to do so, but all of this was funny and every one
was enjoying the trip on his way. 
On evening of Friday (7-3-2003)
at about 23:00 pm local, young villagers who promised to join us here have came
in two boats, they were about 8 persons, came alongwith with foods and
water, also they brought pipe (Narjila) which they use for smoking..
they brought fresh fish and started with Ahmed frying them and making some other
food, our QTH became noisy but funny with shouts and songs, i put my headphones
and continued my job making more contacts 
as
the propagation was in good shape on 40m..after short break for joining
visitor's for hot and delicious fish meal, i joint European dx net on 40m for
long time and got many rare stations also put AS-112 on their logs.. but suddenly
our power Generator gone off, so we decided to sleep and check the problem at
morning... When we got up morning we found the plug of Generator was burned,
but we forgot to bring spare one, our new friends were here for help, two
of them lift to the village to bring new one, we spent our time on cleaning the
area, until we got the new plug and fixed it, once again jumped to pile up and
more contacts ..
The propagation was very strange on this trip also, as it was changing too fast, some times i was working list operation, only picking ten by ten calls on each list, but when starting with the list all stations were disappearing suddenly, it was strange but still we managed to work many stations despite of so many problems and QRM on all bands, bands were opening late at about 11:00 local or 11:30 local morning on some bands like 10m and disappearing at 17:00 pm local ( means 4 or 5 hours ), but no so much stations work there at this time, 15m band was opening afternoon at about 13:00 local and closing at about 18:00 local and some times 20:00 local, 20m opening same as 15m, 40m was good after 22:00 local but was too noisy, so time was too short to work on different bands..
finally
total contacts made were 1805 QSO's ..
At 4:37
utc Sunday morning we switched off and gone QRT, with the help of our friends we
opened and collected all equipments and loaded them to their boat, also we spent
some time to clean the area once
again.......
we thanks : all friends we met on air - hams
who helped us during our operation - villagers of Suwadi Island - my friends
Ahmed & Badar - Also the Beautiful Suwadi Island AS-112 .
...SALAM ALAIKUM FROM OMAN...
( DIRECT ) PO BOX 1470 P.C 111 OMAN
BUREAU IS OK ALSO .. BUT TAKES SOME TIME
YOUNIS MOHAMMAD AL-BULOUSHI
A41MA