Willis DXpedition September, 1997

Bill Snider, K6KM (and VK4AWS)

One of the many DXpeditions supported by the Northern California DX Foundation was the Willis operation by Bill Horner, VK4FW, and nine others from around the world. The primary objective of this operation was to make VK9W available to Europe and the Eastern U. S. That objective was achieved.

WHAT'S A WILLIS?

I'll bet that a lot of hams who worked us as VK9WM or VK9WY have no idea where we were other than "probably somewhere near Australia." Few have any idea of the size of "Willis Island," or what is to be found there. If you'd like to know, read on.

VK9W consists of three small islets in the Coral Sea, about 300 nautical miles east of Cairns, Queensland, Australia. The geographical coordinates are approximately 16 degrees south, 150 degrees east. All three islets are coral. They all have some vegetation and a lot of birds. South Willis actually has a few trees, while the vegetation on the other islets consists of salt-tolerant grass and very low brnsh.

South Willis is inhabited by four Australian meteorologists who have signed up for six month stays. They have all the comforts of home, including indoor plumbing, air conditioning and internet access. North Willis Islet, where we originally intended to operate, is about twenty miles north. Halfway in between is where we actually ended up, Mid Willis Islet.

THE GOOD SHIP FLOREAT

Bill Horner and Bob Dixon, VK4MR, had chartered the 63 foot vessel Floreat for our expedition. When we got our first glimpse of Floreat, the crew had already loaded drums of fuel and water on the deck. We added six generators, all of our antennas and masts, several tents and miscellaneous hardware to the deck cargo. Radio equipment and personal belongings were stashed below in the two cabins. Food plus miscellaneous supplies went into a very cramped and hot aft cargo compartment. The Floreat, its crew of three and ten ham operators ftom around the world set forth at 1700 hours local on 9 September for a 30 hour trip to North Willis Islet via Holmes Reef and South Willis islet.

THE JOURNEY

According to the Aussies, the normal state of the Coral Sea is pretty rough. We bobbed about for the first couple of hours; some of the operators started feeling queasy. Outside the Gt°eat Barrier Reef we entered unprotected waters and had waves up to a couple meters high; the crew didn't mind a bit, but we landlubbers were getting pretty uncomfortable. Our first night at sea was difficult; just getting in and out of our bunks was challenging. By morning, about half the operators were extremely quiet and a couple were very uncomfortable.

We arrived at Holmes Reef about mid morning. Our plan was to determine if we could safely put on a one day IOTA operation from Holmes on our return trip. The largest reef was maybe a meter high but very, well, reefy. No sand, nothing flat anywhere. Just coral. I wasn't feeling wonderful about the prospect of setting up a station or two on the reef; then I learned that the tide was at its low state. We waited a few hours and watched Holmes Reef disappear beneath the ocean. So much for Holmes, much to my relief.

As soon as Holmes Reef disappeared, we began the second half of our outbound trip, to stop first at South Willis and then proceed to North Willis. The waves became higher and higher, and they seemed to come from two directions at once. The captain said that they were about 60 feet apart... same as Floreat's length. We were having trouble just standing, even while hanging on. Most of the ops became thoroughly seasick. During that second night we were all thrown out of our bunks a few times. No one was hurt but we had plenty to talk about later. None of our equipment was damaged, which speaks well of the crew's ability to secure everything safely in place.

By the time we reached South Willis, only two of the hams were at all functional. Floreat's crew seemed to be handling the seas quite well, fortunately. In the sheltered lee of South Willis, seas were calm enough that everyone more or less came back to life. The captain had some supplies for the meteorologists, and we all were invited to tour the facilities on the island. All previous Willis Dxpeditions have operated from this island.

 

The meteorologists were extremely friendly and anxious that we not miss any detail of their island. They invited us to stay and operate from South Willis, but we had government permission only to operate from North Willis. Permission to operate from South Willis had been denied, reportedly because of some misdeeds by a previous ham visitor. Shame. After just a few days of the coral sand of Mid Willis, we longed for the luxuries of floors, roofs and sanitary facilities.

After a couple hours we headed north; it took another two hours to reach "our" islet, North Willis. The Floreat couldn't approach closer than about 1 km from the island, as the sea was shallow and filled with "bobbies." We Yanks call them coral heads; one encounter with a bobbie and the tinny would be shredded and our DXpedition would have ended before it started. The captain spent an hour in the tinny, looking for safe access to the island. He returned to proclaim that landing there would be quite risky, so we headed south to take a look at Mid Willis.

We were able to approach within 200 meters of Mid Willis. Seas were still rough, and tinny trips were possible only at high tide because of the bobbies. But, we had permission to operate from North Willis, not from Mid Willis. We balanced safety against the risk of not receiving after-the-fact permission and opted to become temporary residents of Mid Willis Islet. Landing all of the people and all of the equipment in that small outboard-powered aluminum boat was an example of absolutely superb seamanship and crew skill. We experienced no problems except for a handie talkie dropped into the sea. Sorry, Bob.

MID WILLIS ISLET

Mid Willis is about 600 meters in the north-south direction and 250 meters in the east-west direction. That's my guess, anyway. The islet is capped with a flat region covered with the low scrub brush and

grass that I mentioned earlier. If one were to find a "high point," it might be two meters above high tide, probably less. We set up our large housekeeping tent on the north tip where the coral beach was wide and sheltered from the prevailing sea; we would not have been able to land the tinny at any other part of the islet. Vegetation was sparse and birds had apparently found this spot unsuitable for nesting.

During our visit, birds were nesting almost everywhere. It seems that there were two kinds of boobies, black ones and white ones, and two kinds of terns also black ones and white ones.

We set up our rust operating tent about 150 meters down the east side of the islet just below the vegetation line in the coral sand. After starting as a 40 thru 10 meter tent, it became a dedicated twenty meter station. The next day a second operating tent was setup about 150 meters down the west side from the housekeeping tent. This second site was equipped with a tri-band Yagi, and it was used for 10 and 15 meters CW, SSB and RTTY, 20 meters RTTY and some 20 meters SSB. Later, another pair of tents was raised just below the housekeeping tent; one was for storage and a bit of sleeping and the other became the 80 meter, 160 meter and W ARC band site. This latter was equipped with a W ARC tri-band Yagi and assorted verticals.

The housekeeping tent and both operating tents had floors of coral sand. The sand created two problems; the stuff got everywhere, even inside sleeping bags. Worse, our operating positions used folding chairs and their legs sort of bored into the sand, always unevenly. At one time I finished a four hour stint with my chair at a very uncomfortable angle and with my keyboard and keyer paddle above eye level. It seems kind of funny here at home, but it was darned uncomfortable at the time. We used flat rocks, cardboard boxes, just about anything we could find to give us a stable platform but nothing worked.

On the second night of the VK9WM/WY operation, a significant storm hit. Not one of those cyclones that destroys islands, but still a full fledged storm with winds of about 60 knots and lots of rain. We had three tents set up at the time, and all three were torn to shreds. The operators on duty Wrapped their equipment as best they could and made for the housekeeping tent, only to find that it leaked so badly that about half of it was unusable. Fortunately the "ladies' corner" survived with little damage.

 

Repairs were made as best we could, and the storms returned the following night. Same drill, but accompanied by louder curses. More serious repairs the next day, lots of time repairing broken antennas and re-anchoring tents etc. That ended the seriously bad weather, fortunately.

THE STATIONS

We found early on that we could not operate more than one station in a small tent. We had two, sometimes three, stations in the multipurpose tent just below the housekeeping tent. We didn't have enough bandpass filters, thanks to shipping problems at the end of the UPS strike. That resulted in some interstation interference, but the few filters that we did have made a huge difference. I have to thank ICE of Indianapolis for building and shipping some multiband filters in record time; they arrived at my house right after I left for VK land. We'll plan further in advance next time.

All radios and amps were Yaesu. Oceania DX Group had bought four FT -lOOOMPs and four FL- 7000s at special expedition prices, and everyone of them worked flawlessly. There were very few "learning curve" difficulties. We also had two personally owned radios, an FT -920 and an FT -990. They worked great. I don't know what the output power rating is for the FL- 7000, but all four of them did exactly what was expected of them and delivered the maximum VK level of 400 watts with 100% reliability. Their automatic band change feature was appreciated by all.

OPERATORS AND SUPPORTERS

In addition to the Northern California DX Foundation, many individuals and organizations supported the Willis DXpedition with donations of money and equipment. Thanks from everyone of us to everyone of you. We hope that we met your expectations.

Ten hams from around the world participated in this DXpedition. The Aussies included Bill Horner VK4Fw, Bob Dixon VK4MR and Vlad Huzevka VK2AEA. Nearby New Caledonia was well represented by Eric Esposito, FK8GM. Noriko Tokura 7K3EOP carried the flag for Japan. From Italy came our RTTY operator Elvira Simoncini IV3FSG. Doug Renwick VE5RA represented Canada. The USA contingent consisted of Darryl Hazelgren AF70, Ann Santos WAlS and myself, K6KM.

THE RESULTS

Forty thousand QSOs. Just a little over. We took advantage of openings on any band to get as many QSOs as possible in Europe and the eastern part of the U. S. A. My last stint was on 40 CW, just a few hours before we pulled the plug, and there were still hundreds of EU stations calling when Bill, VK4Fw, took over from me. He worked many but certainly not all of them. Few hams still need VK9W for a new country, but the need will build as new hams get into DXing. I hope a lot do. Those who worked us need not worry about acceptance for DXCC as Bill Horner received the necessary documentation for our Mid Willis operation on 1 November. Meanwhile, let's take a good hard look at the "most needed" lists. Stay tuned, folks. I had a ball and learned a lot. See ya from somewhere else.. .hopefully.

73 de Bill, K6KM also VK4A WS