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
