Homecall: DL4EA
also EA4KT

Dear friends,

This year's visit to Zimbabwe is now over, and I am leaving this beautiful country with a few more QSOs in my log. You can see the results further down this page, in the online utility which will provide you with many interesting statistics too.

I was plagued this time with many technical issues. I hadn't noticed when I boarded the plane in Germany, but Murphy was on that flight too and came with me, unnoticed and uninvited.

In fact I had to finish my operation in Zimbabwe much earlier than expected as the station died completely, transceiver and amplifier and all, probably because of a spark during a storm. I had already assumed the operation was over, and that was it: that's life, and sometimes it is better and some others not so good. And it was clear to me I was stuck then in the latter bit, and I had pretty much accepted the fact already. I was just packing the damaged gear (which I have taken home with me for repair) and that was meant to be the last moment I was close to a radio in Zimbabwe this time around.

But then something not short of a miracle happened.

The miracle is called Z21LV, and his name is Athol Masdoll, of Harare, Zimbabwe.

My host in Zimbabwe, Fernando (Z21BB), got a call from Athol one evening, and soon they were talking about radios, and propagation and certainly about me and the sad situation at the shack.

When Athol heard about our problems he said we could have his rig. And we could go get it right then, and set it here at Z21BB and get back on the air.

You will probably realize the enormity of this. I am in a country that, unfortunately, has but a handful of radio amateurs. There are no radio shops in Zimbabwe, and little or no expertise to be found to fix complicated radio equipment. Even a small problem can become a big one if something goes wrong at your radio station in such a place. You certainly need to be as self sufficient as you can under these circumstances, but you will be eventually stuck if something you can't fix happens to your gear. Closest help and solutions in case of trouble will always be far away, and they can be very expensive too.

And yet a fellow ham in Zimbabwe was offering his radio equipment for me to use it!

For all what I said above I really hesitated a lot, and thought it over and over. Big responsibility, as you can imagine. But in the end I accepted Athol's amazing generosity, and thanks to him I went back on the air and added a few more thousands of QSOs to my log.

Thus I was active till the moment I left, and I managed to keep Murphy pretty much out of the shack till the end.

Many thanks everyone for your calls. I had a great time and it was really exciting to be at the hot end of the pile up, as always. Above all, many thanks Athol for a generosity that, very sincerely, has me still quite speechless.

I will be back again to Zim with new ideas and projects, perhaps EME next time.

In the mean time, 73, and greetings to everyone from DL land

Antonio

Z24EA (DL4EA, EA4KT)

Some pictures of the shack, antenna and of Yours Truly

And here are some pics of Z24EA and the operating position during CQWW CW last year.

You can check here to make sure you are in my log: