CHANDIPORE DXpedition ~ 1982

 For the six of us from Calcutta ( Tripti Ranjan Basu, Babul Gupta, Supratik Sanatani, Sudipto Ghosh,  Asish Kundu and Prodyut Banerjee ) the new year really started with a bang. A time most people (meaning non-DXers) are usually busy wishing each other or licking stamps to send out their greeting card, we were planning out the final

details of our coming DX Camp.The site we choose this time was CHANDIPUR, a newly developed beach resort in the State of Orissa. The zero hour drew in on the 6^th of January and we set out loaded with wires, receivers, tons of excitement and of course ouerselves.

LOCATION: Chandipur is about 20 km to the east of Balasore, the latter a small town in the North East corner of the State. Apart from Tourism, the town of Chandipur is also a port for inshore trawlers. Even as we approached Chandipur, the warm, sea-smelling air greeted us-a true feeling of being in the tropies. The beach is one of the best I have seen so far, a wide strech of sand gently sloping into the sea and lined with a belt of knee-deep water !!

We put up at the OTDC Hotel, whose manager Mr.B.G.Mohanty was very helpful in arranging our ideal QTH and understanding our funny requirements. Our room overlooked the Casaurina trees extending into the sea with excellent antenna space and natural support in the direction from North East thru South East.

ANTENNA: For the first day we used a length of 200 metres in the direction of Papua-New Guinea and a small length of 60 metres approx North-South. On the second day we rua out 400 metres length in the direction of Central Japan and for final night we ran out 600 metres (joining our earlier antennas) in the direction of North Philippines and Taiwan. The last antenna was grounded at the far end via a 500 carbon resistor.

Erection of these antennas was a real achievement for all of us and involved lots of acrobatics. I personally thank OM Babul Gupta for his ingenious “Rigging-made easy” ideas and active participation. For supports we used the Casurina trees providing excellent height and direction. We used G.I. wires to keep the wires pulled up and applied PVC piping insulation at contact points.

BUDGET: The whole camp of 6 days worked on a shoe-string budget and still had nothing lacking anywhere. In fact, for all of us it was a pleasant holiday as well. OM Alok Kundu was our financial manager and armed with a small calculator he would monitor each day’s expenses even in paises ! Thank “Big Man”. For each of us the whole 6 days cost only R. 300/- including transport, lodging, food, chicken roasts, fish delicacies, countless cups of tea…. for more details drop a line to OM Alok Kundu !! 

HARVEST:  Our DX catches were quite fantastic for us. Indeed, using not so sophisticated RXs we had achieved quite an amazing lot. This meet was also a great experience in the field of using longwires and their “air-an-shoot” principle.

ACKNOWLEDMENT: We are very greatful to the Orissa State Tourism and especially Mr. Mohanty for his generous help. We also thank the skipper of the Trawler “B.T.” for kindly allowing us to use his boat’s compass. Our thanks also  go out to the people of Chandipur for not being inquisitive of our activities and lastly to all the Tourism minded people for not choosing Chandipur as their abode during this week.

                                                                                             73s de 
                                                                                                    - PRODYUT BANERJEEE