CON CO ISLAND — April 8 (overcast, drizzle, 25 deg C)—Just before 7 a.m. we left our hotel in Dong Ha and headed down a few side roads to get to the boat that was to take us to Con Co. The original boat we had chartered turned out to be too small, so we had to rent an additional boat for ourselves and our personal belongings.

This turned out to be a military river boat about 20m long and with a top speed of approximately 11 or 12 knots. For an hour we cruised down the Hue River until we reached the South China Sea. The remainder of the journey lasted roughly 3-1/2 hours. The seas were somewhat choppy with swells of roughly 3 feet, and whitecaps were starting to form. Even though the boat was motoring almost directly into the wind, the waves coming towards the port side resulted in some rolling. Thus, a few of the 3W6C crew members (and also one or two of the ship’s crew, who apparently are more accustomed to motoring on the river than the open sea) got a bit green around the gills, and a couple even more than green

At about 12.30 p.m. we arrived at the small harbor in Con Co – which is Vietnamese for “small grass island”. The island is making the transition from a military base to a tourist destination, so there is plenty of construction at this time.

After having lunch, we started moving our materials off the ships and to the three operating sites as well as moving the baggage to the Guest House where we are staying. With that done, we started by setting up our generators – there is public power only part of the day on Con Co – and then started organizing the rest for a big day of antenna assembly tomorrow. With our goal of going on the air tomorrow at 8 p.m. local time, we have much ahead of us!

Here’s an amusing aside: The Vietnamese people have a fascination with Buddha. When they see a statue of the “happy Buddha”, who is recognizable from his rather large belly, they rub his belly to bring them good luck. Just about all the Vietnamese we have seen are quite slender; being overweight is apparently not a problem here. Now consider that one of our team members, Matthias HB9JCI, has a few pounds on his bones, enough to bring stares and smiles to the faces of people who see him. In fact, he started noticing right away that strangers, especially children and women, would approach him timidly to rub his belly for good luck! Mathias is a very easygoing fellow and is more than happy to oblige, all the time with a big smile. So we now look upon him as the 3W6C Buddha who will bring us much luck in having a very successful DXpedition, and in allowing us to have a QSO with you, too.

Check out the pictures in our web album.

    
3W6C Island Communications Team: Paul Schreier, AA1MI/HB9DST, Christina Toporitschnig, HB9BQW, Thomas Parthier, HB9BSH