N2NL Amateur Radio and other stuff

The week before the ARRL DX CW contest, I figured it was time to walk the receive antennas again. It’s been a few months since I’ve done it last, and due to some windy conditions, I expected to find some issues.

Tree branch fallen against the Beverage wire - the vine behind the branch is a troublesome species since it grows so quickly.

As expected, I found a number of issues, mostly branches and vines that had fallen across the Beverage wires. Fortunately none were broken. I allow the wire to “float” through the insulators, so a branch will usually pull the wire to the ground but not break it.

The vine in the above photo is especially troublesome. They grow extremely fast and are very strong and difficult to cut with a machete. They often trip me up when walking in the jungle. Because of their strength, apparently they are used in the Philippines to tie up farm animals. In several places these vines quickly overwhelm the receive wire.

Signature of a hunter

The area where my antennas are located have been unoccupied since WW2. Unfortunately, however, poachers have started hunting on the land, which is Government of Guam property. They leave telltale signs - such as the water bottle above. It is really sad that they do not pack out their trash, however I see it everywhere on Guam even in the most remote areas. Water bottles, beer cans, and Mr. Brown’s iced coffee cans scattered where hunters sit and wait for their prey. Fortunately, none of my antennas have been disturbed, however metal theft is a huge problem on Guam so it may be a matter of time until my antennas start disappearing.

Coconut fronds are heavy and easily pull the wire to the ground.

This honey bee hive is located right next to my longer North American beverage. Fortunately they are not aggressive. Apparently these bees are somewhat rare on Guam.

A pig rubbed up against this tree, damaging the feed point connector. It still works however I'll have to replace it at some point this spring.

The red arrows point to tooth marks in my African Beverage termination where a pig grabbed the wire in its mouth. No real damage fortunately; usually they don't see the black wire. White wire gets torn to shreds quickly and I can't use it in the jungle.

This fully loaded M1 Carbine magazine sits where I found it last year, under my original North American receive antenna. It has sat here since 1944, where it was left at the edge of a Marine's foxhole probably on August 6th, 1944, when this was the front line during the Liberation of Guam. Pretty cool stuff - which fascinates me.

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I live under the approach course for aircraft flying into Andersen AFB. It never gets old watching the planes fly over on their way to land. The other day, a B-52 cut the approach short, flying directly over my house.

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Weather was beautiful this past weekend - sunny and low humidity. Perfect for doing some exploring.

I decided to revisit the Japanese positions I had discovered last weekend in the rain (my previous post). I brought my son and his best friend along also. It is nice to have some company because it can get spooky at times when alone. The kids wanted to bring my metal detector, so we brought that along too.

First order of business was to relocate the gun pits, and mark their position with GPS.

The five pits are all separated by approx 50 meters, and are located in an arc.

I’m still not sure what this position was supposed to defend, since the Japanese focused their defensive efforts on the beaches. I suspect this was to be an anti-aircraft position, due to the depth of the holes and the fact that they were round (allowing 360 degree arc toward the sky).

Decent sized monitor lizard sunning himself along the edge of pit number 2

Around the eastern most pit (number 1), which is closest to an abandoned WW2 dirt road, is evidence of American troops - notably several 75mm howitzer shell casings. The fact that there are no American bottles around tells me that this was a short-term American position, likely on the 6th or 7th of August 1944 as the American troops pushed the front lines northward.

The other gun pits are surrounded primarily with Japanese beer bottles (DaiNippon), with only a small scattering of American bottles.

The kids played around with the metal detector, and gave up after a little while. There are a number of shell craters around, from artillery hits. All the kids were finding were bits of shrapnel laying around. Later, while they took a break, I explored an old burn pit filled with broken bottles, and found some bits from a Japanese naval gas mask, but nothing exciting.

At first I thought this was a modern battery, perhaps from the 70's or 80's if the area was inhabited by ranchers post-war.

The manufacturer - Yuasa - makes batteries in the modern era. However - in this area I only found WW2 era Japanese bottles. I also found out that Yuasa made batteries before WW2. This quite possibly was left by the Japanese from the war. I'll have to go back and see if I can find any dates or other information the next time I visit this site.

This is a Japanese two-holer outhouse. These barrels are smaller than the American ones, which indicates they are Japanese. There are many like it about a mile south at a Japanese anti-aircraft position, where they have been filled with rocks for protection. This was the business end of the outhouse.

The kids take a break; wore out from a couple hours of exploring

After a couple hours of exploring, we headed home. Not much to see other than a few Japanese beer bottles and the positions themselves, but it is so heavily overgrown in this area, it is worth revisiting and exploring more closely in the future.

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I have been taking a break from radio - at least the antenna building aspect - and other than DXing on 160 and 80m I have been playing around with other hobbies. I absolutely love exploring the jungle and looking for WW2 remnants, and since it is now the dry season, the weather is ideal for it.

Of course today it was rainy but I still went out anyway. Bringing my Nexus tablet and its GPS functionality, I can record my tracks and hike to waypoints I have made with Google Earth. This allows me to explore areas deeper in the jungle than I’ve been to before.

Today’s trip was to an area I’ve visited many times before, but this time I went further back into an area that looked promising on Google Earth. First I wanted to locate a piece of UXO (unexploded ordnance) and mark it’s position so it can be properly disposed of by the Navy’s EOD.

This is an unexploded 75mm round, probably from a Marine pack howitzer. The screw device to the left is part of the fuse mechanism.

Once I had marked the position of the UXO, I headed deeper into the jungle, into new territory for me. It did not take long to start finding stuff.

Smashed American 75MM pack howitzer shell casing

More 75mm shell casings

Interestingly, I did not find any other American WW2 debris around - no American bottles or anything else for that matter. Likely this was an artillery position set up quickly during the liberation of Guam in early August as the front lines pushed northwards.

Further in, I started finding Japanese bottles.

Dai Nippon beer bottle

More Japanese Dai Nippon beer bottles

I also found a number of dug out areas in the ground. About 20ft in diameter and 4-5 feet deep, these looked to be Japanese defensive positions. They were too neat to be bomb craters, and were not dug by American bulldozers. This was probably to be a Japanese anti aircraft position.

One of several gun pits, now overgrown with brush

Another of the defensive positions. This one is filled with coconuts and coconut trees, making it hard to see in the image.

All around these positions are scattered Japanese beer bottles.

Bottles are scattered in ones and twos all around randomly

The 18 signifies year of manufacture on the Dai Nippon bottles (Year of the Showa). 18=1943

The fact that I found only Japanese and no American bottles tells me this was a Japanese position. It is quite likely that these defensive positions were dug for 25MM anti aircraft cannon, based on the size and depth of the pits. Whether or not cannon were ever empaced here, I don’t know. I looked in some of the pits but found nothing. Due to the heavy growth, it’s difficult to see more than 10 or 15ft in any direction. I’ll definitely have to come back out here and explore some more!

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I listened around and called stations during the Stew Perry 160m contest this weekend. I made two sweeps of the band, one at 10Z and the other at 11Z, recording what I heard.

1000z recording: JH2FXK, N9RV, K9YC, K8IA, W7EW, DU7TET, K7NJ, N0TT, W7RN, KG6H, KH7X

1000utc Recording

1100z recording: JA3YBK, AA5B, N5RZ, N6RO, N6KI, K9YC, ZL3IX, KH6LC, K8IA, JE1ZWT, W7EW, N9RV, K4PI, K1DQV, N8UM, WD5R, K3ZM, W5ZN, W2GD, NH7O.

1100utc Recording

If you hear signals changing abruptly in strength - it is because I am switching between Beverages. The band peaked into NA here at 11z - Eastern stations actually got weaker as SR approached. Also, there were times when signals were skewed south of direct path; the 045 degree Beverage was best when normally the 030 wire hears better.

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We have had some gusty winds this winter (perhaps up to 35MPH), and I noticed that my African Beverage had gone deaf. Since this is long path season into NA, and since this is also the heading for NA long path, I figured I needed to repair it.

It turns out that a large branch had fallen on the wire very close to the feed point, snapping the wire at the feedpoint insulator. I float the wire through insulators along the length, so a branch falling usually does not break the wire, but in this case since it fell close to one end, it broke. Anyway, it was an easy fix, and all six Beverages are once again operational.

It isn't pretty, but it works. I don't waterproof boxes because (1) it isn't necessary and (2) it is easier to trap water in such a "waterproof" box than keep it out. Better to let it breathe.

Typical terrain and growth in the jungle

Pretty much looks the same in late December as late July; the temperature remains the same year around. There usually is less humidity in the winter so it feels much cooler.

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Here is SU9VB on 160m, as copied here on Guam with a 900ft Beverage. Vlad started calling CQ at 2000Z and was very weak - 449 peaks every couple minutes, ESP copy the rest of the time.

At 2035Z he started to peak, and was so much louder than before that I was worried he was a pirate.

Unfortunately there was QRM from UY5AR and others in Europe. When I was sending my report, it was right at my sunrise (2041z).

su9vb-clip

Zone 34 is the last zone for 160m Worked all Zones from Guam.

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While running down my list of new places to explore, I was not having much success. Lots of sweat and mosquito bites for little reward. Then… bingo! I’ll let the pictures tell the story.

Hard to photograph, but this is a large, deep aerial bomb crater in a coconut grove. Several other bomb craters nearby tells me that this was clearly a WW2 site.

Japanese cookware mostly rotted away to nothing. The cooking pot to the right is the same type I've found elsewhere in another Japanese encampment site.

This is a Japanese Sake bottle, one of several laying around

Japanese DaiNippon beer bottle, one of dozens scatters about

American canteens - still capped (but empty). You can also see two American bug repellant bottles in this image.

These WW2 American GI bug repellant bottles are very common. This one is still capped (the first I've found with the cap intact). It was still half full!

Expended American 105MM howitzer shells

Imperial Japanese Navy bowls

I found a canteen with trench art engraved on it. It actually had the owner's name as well - when I looked him up, I discovered he was wounded in action on Guam in 1944. I donated this canteen to the Pacific War Museum and they will put it on display.

While exploring this area, I stumbled across two locals apparently camping in the jungle. Not sure if they were hunting, or collecting coconut crabs, but either way they startled me greatly. Since most of the birds are gone, the jungle is absolutely silent if there is no wind. All day I had heard sounds like breaking branches - like I was being watched. Very unnerving. I wrote it off as pigs. Then, while pushing through some dense overgrowth, pretty dark under the canopy, I see these two locals sitting on a log, watching me. Really startled me! They turned out to be friendly, but I left them alone and headed for home. I should have asked if they were staying in the area or if they were leaving shortly… but I didn’t want to pry (I imagine there are places in the jungle where people grow marijuana - I’ve never found any but it’s logical). Anyway, I still would love to explore this area further but the thought of being watched makes me uneasy.

I make lots of noise in the jungle on purpose, to let man and pig know I’m around as not to startle them. I wear bright clothing also, in case there are hunters around. I have run across hunters before and have found them very responsible and friendly… but every time I do it startles me because I’m usually way off the beaten path away from places where I expect to find people.

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During the rainy season, which runs roughly from May through September, jungle hiking is not a pleasant experience. Everything is soaking wet, and the humidity is oppressive. During this time of the year, I really only focused on maintenance of my Beverage receive antennas - a “necessary evil” so to speak.

Now that it’s December and we’re into the dry season, I’ve started poking around back in the jungle, working down the list of places I’ve scoped out on Google Maps as potential places where I might find stuff.

If you read back, I gave away my secret to find stuff in the jungle. Coconuts don’t roll uphill. On the northern plateau of Guam, coconut trees in the middle of the jungle, away from modern civilization, were planted there by humans at some point in the past. Find coconut trees in the middle of the jungle with Google Earth, and you’ve located a part of Guam where humans have once settled - either 50 years ago or longer.

Last week I explored one such site. My focus is on WW2 history, but in this case what I found was much earlier.

Lusong - ancient grinding stone

This is a Lusong, an ancient grinding stone. Rice would be placed into the round hold, and pounded (like a mortar and pestle) to mill and de-husk the rice kernels. This might be 200 years old, or 1000 years old. So, it is apparent that this site was one occupied long before the Second World War. Since it does not fit the genre of my interest - I cross this location off my list and move on.

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Now that the fall contest season is over, I can enjoy DXing on the low bands throuigh the holiday season. The low SFI number may worry some, but for me, it means great conditions on 80 and 160m. I recently have broken 2,000 unique calls worked on both 80 and 160m, and would love to push that number up quite a bit higher this winter season.

The past few days have been excellent into Europe on 160m and North America on 80m. For some reason, I am not seeing reciprocally good conditions into NA on Top Band. Not sure what aspect is keeping this from happening. I am imagining some high MUF bubble in the mid Pacific that is causing absorption, not unlike a Bermuda High Pressure system, but this is just a guess on my part. Either way, the good conditions I am getting on 160 into Europe are just not happening in the other direction.

Here is a 11mb MP3 I made on December 8th, while running Europe on 160m. Signals are excellent. On this day, propagation was best into Southeast Europe.

8dec160

This morning I worked about 40 more EU on 160, with conditions extending all the way into the UK, with GI3OQR the best DX worked (a new one for me!)

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