October: ZA/AE5X update

I've been getting a few emails asking for more info on our upcoming trip to Albania.

Thanks to Col at DX World for the image and to Bernie at the Daily DX - and to both of them for publicizing this holiday style operation that will begin in October.

I'd like to emphasize that this is a vacation, not a DXpedition. All radio ops will be a bit on the spur-of-the-moment but I will be able to pre-announce them on my blog and the POTA website a couple hours beforehand.

Dates:

• 8-13 October in Theth National Park in northern Albania. I plan to *try* to activate it but will be surrounded by mountains. NVIS?
• 13-18 October we'll be in the Tirana area and I plan to be on the air from the old Radio Tirana site 40 minutes west of the city.
• 18-30 October - southern Albania, Gjirokaster and near beaches.

 

Rig:

 

Elecraft KX2 (10 watts), 1/4-wave vertical, 10-20m, CW.

No phone, no FT8.

 

This combination served me well in Iceland a couple years ago with fast set-ups and plentiful DX. 

 

The Plan:

 

To activate as many of the 8 parks that will be in our vicinity as possible and to operate from the grounds of the old Radio Tirana shortwave transmitter site.

 

I used to listen to Radio Tirana as a kid, back in the 1970's when Albania was closed to the rest of the world. The magic of radio was not lost on me, even at that young age - the magic of being able to hear news and music from a country that was shrouded in mystery.

 

Being able to operate from the antenna field from which those signals emanated would be, for lack of a better term, a Long Delayed Memory-Echo for me. 

 

And there are two radio-related sites I want to see and write about in Tirana. More about that later. 

 

Logs will be uploaded to POTA and LoTW. No paper QSL cards will be available. 

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