A5ØBOC: Thunder Dragon DX on the Low Bands
Hello fellow DXers!
As I occasionally do, this month I am turning over the keyboard to a guest writer. Adrian Ciuperca, KO8SCA will tell us all about the recent A5ØBOC DXpedition to Bhutan. Adrian, along with fellow teammates Champ Muangamphun, E21EIC; Franz Langner, DJ9ZB; and Max Van Rymenant, ON5UR were led by Zorro Miyazawa, JH1AJT, on this Bhutan adventure. Their priorities were to add some antennas at the Royal Thimphu College radio club station, and mount an operation as A5ØBOC. Their story follows. Enjoy!
–N2OO
“The arrow of the accomplished master will not be seen when it is released, only when it hits the target.”
–Bhutanese Proverb
Anyone who has flown into Bhutan’s Paro International Airport (Photo A), situated at an altitude of roughly 7,300 feet, is familiar with the rollercoaster landing there and we were preparing for it.1 Some passengers were tightly holding their cameras, while others were tightly holding onto their seats. The short landing strip, surrounded by very high mountains (rising to more than 26,000 feet), and the unexpected gusts of wind, make the airport approach extremely difficult. Drukair, the Royal Bhutan Airlines, says that only a handful of pilots are certified to fly the Airbus A319 plane into Paro.
We were not in Bhutan to tackle the difficult and world-famous 25-day Snowman Trek,2 but we were there to undertake a similarly difficult task: To put Bhutan on the air on the ham radio low bands, 160, 80, and 60 meters. Judging by the amount of equipment that we loaded into the
