the rarest piece of dx land mass on earth
the story of bs7hwritten by martti laine, oh2bh
wednesday, 01 august 2007
when scarborough reef entered the dxcc list in 1995, little did we know that one day it would be the most sought after country and would present he ultimate challenge for mounting another dxpedition to serve those in need. making it count for dxcc was a struggle that ba1ham and oh2bh togetherwith the late w6cf took upon their shoulders -- and they succeeded. scarborough reef entered the dxcc scene with a great deal of geographical, logistical and political hype, which even today drives dxers and dxpeditioners alike to create horror stories never heard before.
the initial effort was refused by the arrl dxcc desk on the grounds that scaffolding was needed for safety of the first dxpedition - it was not land based. on the following dx advisory committee voting the rocks were measured too small but as the matter was ultimately referred to the arrlboard of directors, scarborough reef was clearly found to meet the existing valid dxcc criteria.
scarborough was to become a true representative of an ultimate challenge for any dxpedition which assumes dedication and a variety of skills by thosewishing to activate bs7h.
scarborough (huang yan dao) was the people’s republic of china’s first entry to the dxcc program, worth noticing during the early years of low dx activity along the great wall. both the 1994 and 1995 bs7h operations were of short duration, coinciding with the typhoon season and showing that land-based operations were possible, while the 1997 operation was shortened as a result of political sensitivities between china and the philippines, two countries contesting the south china sea for the sake of variety of geopolitical interests.
true dx adventure with full credentialsactivating bs7h poses some interesting challenges. ultimate challenges i would call them. the actual reef or whatever little of it that lies above the surface is possessed by china. hence a radio license needs to originate from beijing. no station licenses for foreigners are available in china today. the philippines claim their economic rights over the waters surrounding scarborough under the terms of the u.n. law of sea, zooming in on valuable natural resources, such as oil reserves and fish stocks. the two countries need to take a positive stand on any party going there, and if not, a dxpedition may end up in trouble.
there are a number of reasons why activating scarborough reef for any extensive period of time is a rare and difficult opportunity. it appears that the only alternative for mounting an operation from scarborough is from the rocks that protrude from the water of the reef. since the location is surrounded by open sea, any sizeable wave can wash out the operating site together with the operators. understanding and coping with all the political challenges, great caution and smart weather planning are the elements that need to be considered upfront. adding to this is the overall cost of having an oceangoing vessel and its crew in the vicinity for the duration of the dxpedition. this presence is necessary in order to provide safety and rescue base in case of any emergency. finally, the growing problem of pirates in the south china sea sums up the reasons why activating scarborough reef for any extensive period of time is a rare opportunity. sailing for 60 hours to scarborough reef from hong kong across rough seas with a small 23 meter fishing vessel was almost too much as of a challenge itself. upon our arrival realizing the emptiness of the sea with no land in sight made the group speechless. a psychological never-seen-before kind of landscape based adventure was to begin.
what is scarborough reef?scarborough is an underwater circular reef or shoal if you will, of some 10 km in diameter with an opening at one point of the reef belt. it is possible for a small boat to enter for safe anchorage. water inside the reef is not plentiful. maneuvering among the coral mass can make it difficult to find suitable anchorage. in our case, we were able to find our way as close as some 600 meters from the rocks above water that we wished to use. thesewere the best rocks with the greatest possibility of staying dry. finding an opening in the reef was a challenge in itself, with no landmarks and everything under water. in two main areas of the reef belt, numerous small rocks were located. some of these rocks were at the very edge of the reef belt, and consequently they were exposed to any rough sea and likely to be washed over. the rocks at the inner part of the reef could also be washed over when the sea was rough, so nothing was safe. in addition, the fact that at low tide there was no access to the rocks required that the operator on the rock stay there overnight with no rescue potential. in case of any smashing wave, the order was to jump into the sea and let your life-jacket light guide the rescue group to pull you out of the sea. continuous 2m contact to the vessel and life-jackets was the only security measure available from each of the four employed rocks. waters around scarborough reef are populated by filipino fishermen who may approach you friendly or not. they often trade fish for gasoline and in case you do not need fish they still need your gasoline – enough said on risks on that front. gladly para, the philippines amateur radio society, had organized safety measures courtesy of their navy, overseeing our operation from a distance while a rescue helicopter was on stand-by only 30 minutes away in case of any emergency. it was amateur radio at its best with safety precautions of a kind that no other bs7h operation had ever experienced. thanks to the guys in manila for making our ride as comfortable as it could be. we love you all!
the teamthe organizing team was different from the radio team for the most part. it was quite a challenge to deal with different cultural standpoints and political considerations since most of the organizers were not to see each other face-to-face at any time. room for misunderstanding was enormous, and with the language barriers, communications constituted a complex hurdle.
the ground team of chen, ba1ham, paul, bv4fh, san, k5yy, don, n1dg, tom, n4xp and paul, k4uj did superb legwork in planning, equipment and funding while only paul, k4uj and chen, ba1ham were to participate in the actual outing. chen was working hard for several years to obtain all needed permits from his government. bob, w6rgg, james, 9v1yc and martti, oh2bh were invited at different times to add to the radio team their respective non-radio expertise.
acting full time in fitting the boat and testing the equipment at our port of departure was our hong kong team headed by brett, vr2bg with david, vr2ydc and wong, vr2kw plus our man in shum wan, paul clarke who found our vessel m/s deep blue with our great captain desmond woo. having chinese (mainland, taiwan and hong kong), american, german, finnish and italian participants on the actual radio team presented almost no challenge as such. coming "home" to the mother ship with a full bag of valuable qsos made everyone part of a success story and contributed to team dynamics in true ham spirit. each hand and mind was needed physically and mentally to secure the success of each and every day and night. patrick of our ship´s crew and ko, bv6hj were unanimously named as the true heroes of our adventure; patrick oversaw each operating shift change, many times in the water, while bv6hj was in charge of building and maintaining our famous platform, as well as everything beyond the extraordinary.
scheduling radio operations and brining in a regional knowledge was done smoothly by james, 9v1yc, balancing between first-timers and those with seasoned experience to everyone’s satisfaction. while it was our intent to target the most suitable operating resources for each critical opening, sometimes we failed. these openings were sporadic, to say at least. each day was different from the previous one, and no swapping of operators was possible from sunset to sunrise due to low tide, often making one operating stint run as long as 15 hours. yes, sometimes we compromised in the name of safety and endurance; not everyone was capable of jumping to the platform in choppy seas or willing to spend his night alone on the platform with scary and unpredictable seas.
strategy issues:no doubt the key guiding strategy was to give each and every ham the world over at least one qso – often their only one to complete their dxcc hunt. twenty-meters was to be active 24 hours a day for the duration of the entire operation, both on ssb and cw. japanese and european qsos were expected to come in at a variety of times while the u.s. east coast and midwest were to be specifically targeted at any cost. in europe, the most western end, united kingdom, was expected to be worthy of special emphases. so we did, and the 45.820 qsos were split well between the three most populated areas; japan 21.112, europe 16.329, usa 6.918, for a total of 17.884 happy individual dxers. other bands were to provide another window of opportunity for those in the hunt, while rtty and the low bands were left to the next dxpedition. we made some rtty and 80/160m qsos but these were just show cases on the last day with limited antennas and operating power. we are proud to present our overall statistics at
http://www.bs7h.com .
oh2bh going overboard - dx-wise!i had personally targeted to run two consecutive nights toward the end, 15 hours each, with almost no sleep to boot. that´s nothing more than a good contest run. but the days at sea and the previous week were to take their toll. i was hanging on the platform with no functionality in my brains. i wanted to sleep but there was no space atop the sharp rock without falling into the sea. i wanted to carry on with a never-ending pileup but i kept forgetting the partner i was in qso with and the overall operating turned into a zoo. i forgot who i was and why i was sent to this landscape. i was, for the first time, in a state of nirvana, in a place full of angry people and thousands of radio signals, amid a strange, scary mess of timber, running a gas smelling generator next to me in total darkness with no sign of friendly people, but angry bunch on radio.
it was no fun night at all but it soon turned into a fresh morning with many reborn, friendly people on the radio who had another chance and newly built confidence for a better day and who had lived through a memorable night – dx night it was.
thank you guys for hanging in there – you never lost your hope for a qso. the performance was a comedy, and gladly it did not turn into a drama. several of our operators have their stories to be shared – look for our guys at dx conventions – those brave guys behind your last dxcc counter!
happy endour captain desmond and team doctor mike, k9aj decided that not all our team members were seaworthy after such an undertaking. so they decided to sail to the nearest harbor and provide solid ground for us landlubbers - and this was done. but there the group split for the first time. the chinese were not able to depart the ship due to a variety of immigration problems. it was only the westerners that were able to join the camaraderie and hospitality of ham radio in the philippines. so soon the ship was back at open sea, making her way to hong kong, bringing the chinese back home with many fond memories to be shared with their folks. those were the weeks to be remembered; the hardship and the excitement, a true sense of adventure hat only this wonderful passion of ours could offer us and our international audience.
we thank you all for sharing these two weeks with us over radio waves out at the endless south china sea – and those barren rocks – at a dxcc counter called scarborough reef – the rarest one of them all!
cast of characters:ba1ham, chen ping
ba1aax, wang donping
ba1rb, fan bin
ba4rc, chen fang
ba4rf, david chen
bv6hj, ko chih-ta
w6rgg, bob vallio
nd2t, tom berson
aa4nn, joe blackwell
k4uj, paul pescitelli
n6mz, mike mraz
k9aj, mike mcgirr
9v1yc, james brooks
oh2bh, martti laine
i8nhj, max mucci
dl3mbg, christian entsfellner
oh2bh thoughts at bs7h1. extreme cultural diversity - all parties were right by their original design but at the same time as far as east from west!
2. treshold by stress - normally calm people do strange things when approaching the stress-land nirvana!
3. brave men can be in tears when approaching the edge of a danger zone - it can also be edge of the reef belt!
4. making qsos is not important when everything else is down the tubes! good qsos can only be linked to good times!
5. sitting in the dark with mighty power of mother nature makes those ignals from home create a love story at first sight.
6. different leadership styles prevail - dictatorship vs. companionship are two extremes - gladly we had the one who cared!
7. there is a limit of steam rice one can eat - after two weeks i saw some one eat his rubber boot!
8. best way to get liked is to get the job done with no bs. the ultimate one - bv6hj - can top everyone in mankind at any time. never tired smiling iron man!
9. spending weeks at seven seas make unusual things look beautiful - even a two legged ladder looks attractive after a while. i do not envy the seamen.
10. dark night at endless sea makes you realize how much you love those dear ones back home - thank you leena for these 35 years of dxpeditioning where you'd stay home with prayers and hope for my safe return. i love you madly!
last updated ( saturday, 17 november 2007 )
