Ham Radio for Papua New Guinea

Many of you know, I do a lot of travelling throughout the Pacific Islands fixing/maintaining FM Broadcast Stations, a lot of them are Mission type stations but there are a fair number of Commercial stations in the mix as well.

 While i am at an Island location I also operate a “one man DXpedition” in my spare time, of which there is an abundance !! To date i have activated 28 different countries over 35 DXpeditions.

So, to the project. It has long been my ambition to train up one or two Indigenous people in the countries I visit and try to get them through a Ham Radio licence. In many of these locations they would be the first and only Indigenous person to hold a Ham Radio licence.

To this end I have a guy in Papua New Guinea (Isaac) almost to the stage of being able to get a licence.

 Let me tell you about Isaac because he is typical of the challenges involved in this project.
 Issac heard on the local Mission Radio that help was needed at the Station. So Isaac walked from his very remote village (about 25 miles away) to the station dressed in his best loin cloth and carrying his sharpest machete ready to help out.

Well Isaac was not really what the station was looking for in an Announcer but they said he could stay on the compound and look after the property.
 So he cut the grass with his machete and kept the grounds looking beautiful.
 As time went on the receptionist decide she would simply not turn up for work one day and “go bush”. So when the phones started to ring Isaac answered it and simply mimicked what he had heard Sarah saying…….

More time goes by and the main Announcer also decided to “go bush” so Isaac sat down in front of the mic and started speaking as he had observed over several months.
He did this from 6:00am to midnight for about 3 months until i turned up and found out that the Transmitter had not been turned on all that time !!. So he had been speaking to himself through the desk into his headphones, three months of learning is what i put it down to.

 Isaac has only a very rudimentary primary school education but he is a real good learner and very capable. He has been invaluable in keeping two 1Kwatt FM Stations on the air, he on one end and I on the other end of video links sorting things out. 

Issac is one of the guys I am training up for a Ham Radio licence and he is just about there.


So, how can you guys help? I am currently fund raising to get Isaac a IC-7300. I have already installed antennas for him. (DX Commander Classic and a selection of dipoles slung into the coconut trees. He has a small Sony receiver and listens into the Ham bands getting used to the procedures and jargon etc.

This project is the first “rinse and repeat” for projects in other places around the Pacific (Solomon Islands is next of the rank…


None of these guys would ever in a million years be able to afford the likes of an IC-7300 when they are subsistence living and earn only cents in the hour !!

So, I am seeking to raise at least $5,000 to get this first project under way. I need to supply a small solar system capable of running the Ham Radio station, and then there is the freight to deal with !!!

So how about it? Can you help get some of the Indigenous people on the Air with Ham Radio?
Cheers

Roly - ZL1BQD