Story 75TSW/AZ001 Welcome to the story of 75TSW/AZ001 Santa Maria Isl. held in July 2003. 75TSW/AZ001 story by 75TSW134 Mr Rick.. 11 07 2003 Departure from São Miguel Island at exacly 19:00 UTC, estimated time of trip was 3 hours, the sea was calm, unfortunatly there was some kind of extra humidity that created a dense fog wich was imposible to get good pictures, not more than half hour of trip and no longer we could see the island of são miguel! The trip was incridible calm, it is possible to see on the pictures the sunset and the calm see ahead of us! A lot of people took the chance to come also to spend a weekend at Santa Maria, usualy by this time is possible to cacth several traditional religious festivities, called Imperios, its a kind of promisse someone makes to the holy spirit when somethig bad happens to their family members, so when the time comes, this family organises usualy on a weekend a give away for free food, its the meal is very siple, bread soup with cow meat, all cooked in huge traditional iron pots, all cooked in fire wood! Then people come from everywhere in the island to eat thhis meal wich is very know all over the portuguses Azorean comunities, even abroad! So, after we arrived friday nigth around 22:30, we went straigth to my family QTH! 12 07 2003 Around 05:00 I went boat fishing, you can see the fog of humiditie still on top of the island, in one to the pictures token from part of the south coast of sant maria, with the sun rising! Fishing was ok! The pictures dindt came out as I wished,after fishing I slepd all day, in the afternoon we started visiting family and friends all over the island, aslo the barbques started lol! 13 07 2003 Finaly I mounted the K-40 on the car and we went with the president licoln to have a ride around the island, I stoped in several places around the island but he propagation was a disaster, even so I managed to make 10 contacts in the log, but unfortunatly with some dificultie to read signals!Some how I can read a lot of south america but some how they dont pay much atention to my calls! 14 07 2003 I isntalled the fixed station on a semi abandonade garage the my parents dont use much, I got electricity on it and unfortunatly only a wire dipole a few meters above the ground, even if i wanted to build something better here, it is very dificult to get material for it in this island. There is NO propagation. :-(( During mornning there is nothing, during midday we here a few but very week signals, I have been hearing a little of South America and nothing else, also exporadicly we hear 34 Division, and nothing else... 15 07 2003 Only a few contacts, no propagation AT ALL, most of the time is ZZZZzzzzzz. 16 07 2003 Another day with nothing , incredible low propagation, I am wondiring if there is something related to the Island itself?!?!This evenning another big family reunion with barbeque and all, I am praying everyday for some good oppenings...I made 3 contacts this day... 20 07 2003 Small opening to NA where couple of contacts where made by the beginning of the evenning...still a bad propagation. 21 07 2003 Another small opening during the afternoon, a very few more contacts made, and big ZZZzzzzzzz again.. 22 07 2003 After long time experiencing such bad propagation, Mr. Sam, good friend of mine, 75DT010, offered me his QTH to try a new location, and for that I managed to find a few pieces of aluminium tube and build a Horisontal Dipole, with a piece of wood for holding the elements and elevated the antenna on a piece off Pine wood, the results where nice, I had great SWR, and everything once again was working perfectly, strangely the propagation, had a GREAT openning around 10:00 UTC in the mornning and went all the way until middle of the afternoon, this day I was able to make around 60 Log entries, wich cheered me up a little more... 23 07 2003 Another much better propagation day, around 12:00 UTC I started calling and a few more contacts where made, but by the end of the day I started noticing that this little propagation exporadic miracle was preparing it self to disapear AGAIN :-(( During the rest of the week I made everyday a few esporadic contacts, here and there, it was definatly a bad month of propagation for this activity, on the last day there was a few more contacts made from my car, already ready to board the ferry to leave the Island... In the name of my self, and all the involved organisations in this small event, my big thanks to all who managed to log in, and my big sorry to all who could not hear me, the working conditions where not the best, but the propagation did not help much... Untill next time on the Air... 73 de Rick 75TSW134 EX: 75TSW/AZ001 Back.