Spratly 1990
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The DXpedition That Almost Wasn't

by Romeo Stepanenko 3W3RR/UB5JRR and Ed Kritsky, NT2X, DX Coordinator for INDEXA, with the assistance of Richard Gelber, K2WR

Last year <i.e. 1989>, when my attempts to obtain a licence in North Korea failed, I started looking around for an opportunity to get another "good" country on the air. Through some friends of mine, I found a joint Soviet-Vietnamese company called "Kiulong" and met Yuri Brazhenko, its Commercial Director. Earlier that year I had graduated from Simferopol University, majoring in Maths and Computer Programming, put the diploma on the wall and for some time worked for the Mountain Rescue service (mountain climbing is my second hobby). But I wanted something more, so sometime later in 1989, with the help of Kiulong, I went to Vietnam where, as it turned out, they were already waiting for me.
The Minister of telecommunications of that country wanted to create an Amateur Radio Society; so, after a little thinking, I accepted a job to conduct courses for new hams, create a club station, produce rules and regulations for the Vietnamese - in other words, make hams out of the locals! The Kiulong company really wasn't getting anything monetarily, but they wanted to spread some goodwill. Since they had to pay my expenses - hotel, food and all - in hard currency, I very soon had to move out of the hotel and into my club station to save money. Hot and humid atmosphere, no air conditioner, water shortage, frequent elecricity shut-downs - these were my conditions in XV. I didn't mind, though. During the day I taught my hams-to-be; at night I got on the air and operated. For half a year I had not seen a Caucasian face and my students soon accepted me as one of them. This helped tremendously when the time came for the "Spratly Affair".
We had a Japanese group come down in December '89 - XV2A with JH3DPB and others - and got very friendly even though I don't speak much English (only French beside Russian). We had a great time operating XV2A and once they left I put in an effort to get their equipment for our club station. After that I used my own UW3DI transceiver and amplifier I had brought from Russia to make a show-case for my students, who were now learning how to build things. Vietnam isn't a rich country and no one can buy even the cheapest transceiver, so building is the only way to go. The departments of telecommunications of Vietnam, and especially of Saigon (Ho Chi Minh), were happy with my work and even paid me twice - $25 and $7 respectively. I sued the money to fix a motorcycle and get around. It wasn't the money that guided me, rather an opportunity to do something for Amateur Radio.
In January, 1990, we had another Japanese group, 3W5JA, visit and they also left some antennas. The club station was now fully set up and at the end of the month the exams were held for the first group of Vietnamese. Five people passed, were iussued with the calls XV2AA-AAD and AYL (first yl op), allowed to operate all bands except 20m, and could use our club station under my supervision. The youngest 38, the oldest 60, smart "kids", eagerly grasping new knowledge. Then there was a second group, then the third and then I had to put everything aside to get ready for Spratly. I really wanted them to have home-built equipment, but to do that I needed another year. Things were progressing faster than I expected though...

By February I had established some good connections with the local officials in Saigon and started gathering information about "the trip" and even asked "my boys" to look into the possibility of a Spratly operation. Alex, UL7PCZ, also gave me boost on the air. It took me about two months collect the necessary permissions - at times I was ready to lose all hope after talking to some "influential" people here. Finally it was becoming clear that this matter could be resolved only in Hanoi, at the highest level. On March 17th, XV2AA came to meet me at 2am with a telex - there had been a meeting - and the Ministers of Defence, Telecommunications, Internal, and Foreign Affairs had approved the idea in principle. This was unbelievable - in such a short period of time!
Soon after, logistic problems began to settle in - bombarding Hanoi with telexes, obtaining helicopters and boats for the trip - since nobody wanted to fly or sail there as it was too risky. JH3DPB and JE3MAS who had been invited could not come due to work obligations and RB5IJ, who was supposed to bring equipment, could not be found! Good thing INDEXA took on a major chunk of our load of problems! Alex and Yuri tried their best to help; Kiulong had its own worries. At one point we were ready to quit because all we got was $1000 from INDEXA, but not much more, only promissory notes. I'm glad Yuri Brazhenko vouched for the undertaking and they borrowed me money for the expedition.
Another meeting was held with the General Director of Kiulong and the Minister of Telecommunications; Yuri was there too. Because of this meeting, in a matter of days we had a ship and all permits. Food, generators, fuel and supplies were purchased in a terrible rush; we were trying to save money, too. A 3KW generator in Saigon cost $1200-1800. Much food was obtained on credit from a local food supplier. Two weeks before departure in the island, Alex UL7PCZ, arrived from Moscow with INDEXA's equipment; he also brought his home-made RTTY gear. Meanwhile, I obtained a XV0SU licence for ops to use prior to the expedition.
There wasn't a single foreigner on the Vietnamese part of the Spratly Archipelago before we went there. On the larger islands there are military bases where, from time to time, the Vietnamese have shootouts with the Chinese. Well, at least the place where we were going to was deserted! We departed from Cam Ranh Bay by transport vessel, well equipped for sailing in the dangerous waters. Our trip took two full days. The weather was great and the Vietnamese couldn't believe our luck. The landing was worse than the weather and everything had to be taken ashore by hand during low tide. The wind was blowing for the first few days, but after that the air didn't move a bit and all the operators, except me, got sunburned (I was already conditioned to the local climate).
So here we were, in the middle of nowhere: Romeo Stepanenko, 3W3RR, low/high bands, phone, CW; Yuri Loparev, RL8PY - low bands, WARC, phone, CW; Alex Lebedev, UL7PCZ - high bands, phone, RTTY; Anatoly Lazarev, RL8PZ - high/low bands, phone; Yuri Brazhenko, Kiulong Commercial Director - interpreter, video man; Yuri Meshalkin - interpreter, photographer; Victor Levashev - unbelievable handyman. We also had with us Trieu, XV2AB, and Hoa, XV2AAC, and our cook, Da, XV2AAD. These men did not operate but were of tremendous help.
We got truly lucky for the first few days with great conditions on HF - W1s, 2s, 3s were coming in loud and clear, and then, as if someone closed the curtain, no more East Coast but just occasional signals from that part of the world. That's why we operated on phone only in the first few days. I felt sure that the propagation was going to end and at that point we were looking for quantity of contacts. At the end we had 40% of all QSOs on CW anyway.
<..>
We were very happy with the Mosley antennas - one was up 4 metres, another even higher. They were easy to assemble and effective. Our 160/80/40m dipoles sat on top of bamboo sticks, as did the one for 10MHz. We made a Quad for 6m and used 3W5JA's Yagi for 18/24MHz. There were two operating positions with four radios in all. <...> Starting at 6am local time we would lose all propagation for 5-6 hours. Nothing was coming in, except VK/ZL on 28MHz. <...> Sometime on the fifth or sixth day of operation the generators overheated and we had to fix them in a hurry. They continued to misbehave throughout the operation forcing us off the air. At one point we were running out of fuel - not enough was bought because of shortage of money. Because of an oversight, the vessel that brought us left with a 60-gallon barrel of fuel! For the next eight days we were off the air, waiting for the ship to return. The ship finally arrived, bringing more fuel and a new generator. We were on the air again for a further six days. The equipment operated under the most demanding conditions and mishaps occured - inevitably, one of the radios blew its power transformer, the power supply for another failed, and RL8PZ's radio gave up three days before the expedition was over. Alex's RTTY unit had its own problems, but he managed over 400 QSOs. In good propagation we managed 4 QSOs/minute, on average, with a maximum speed of 6 QSOs/minute for an entire hour, but a maximum of 11 QSOs/minute was actually achieved!
When everything was loaded onto the ship, and only one operating position remained, I got on with my 1S1RR call and made 1027 contacts in six hours. By the time we were leaving - it was a long month indeed - we were exhausted, both physically and emotionally. It rained - the only rain we saw there! <...>
For the next two weeks we were stuck in Vietnam and could not buy a return ticket to Moscow. With no money left, five of us lived at the club station, 3W8AA, all the time, almost starving. <...> Thanks to the generosity of the PTT Director, who gave us some money, we got through.
My wife was waiting for me at home while I was away for many months. In order to talk to meshe even passed her exams and got the call UT5JDA! Recently graduated from college and raising our daughter, she is my "major asset" in life, and I feel sorry at times for being such a "hobo". <...>

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