From the Other Side of the World
By Harry Bryant, AA2WN

On a recent business trip to Shanghai, China I had the immense pleasure of meeting with local ham BA4DW David Zhou. Prior to my visit, David had graciously offered to meet with me and invited me to operate from his home station.

 

Recent changes to Chinese rules allow foreign nationals to operate from within most areas of China. The application process is quite simple and inexpensive. All that is required is to provide a copy of your US license, two passport size photos and $5.00. Details on how to obtain an "Amateur Radio Operator's Certificate for Visitors", which is good for one year, can be found on the ARRL's web page at www.arrl.org. In addition to issuing the permit, CRSA (Chinese Radio Sport Association) can also provide detailed information about club and private stations in the areas you plan to visit. Since it is not yet possible to bring transmitting equipment into the country - leave your own gear at home, befriend a local ham - and avoid the hassles of lugging high priced electronics through the airports of the world. My experience is that most club and local hams have excellent and modern stations from which to operate.

Back to my trip - I arrived in the Pu Dong section of Shanghai about 1600 local time on the return leg of my trip from Sichuan province. After checking into my hotel for the night, I contacted David at his office, which is also in Pu Dong. David offered to meet me at my hotel and escort me to dinner and to his home. David arrived right on schedule and after a short subway and taxi ride, we arrived at his apartment building in the Pu XI section of town. Following a feast of typical Chinese cuisine we rode the elevator to David's apartment which he shares with his wife Susan and their newborn son.

BA4DW's station consists of a Kenwood TS-50 (100watt) rig, a linear amplifier and great antennas. I didn't even turn the amplifier on during my operating time - when you sign on from BA - 100 watts is enough to invite a nice pile-up. David's antenna farm is located on the roof of the building some 80 meters up (that's about 265 feet for us non-metric types!). He has multi element, mono band Yagi antennas on the HF bands 40 through 10 meters and uses a vertical for 75/80 meter operation.

At 1148Z on November 20, 2001 I began calling CQ on 21.295Mhz signing AA2WN/BA4DW - quite a mouthful on SSB and a fist full on CW. My call was answered immediately by Tony BV7ID/8 and we chatted for about 5 minutes about my visit to China and exchanged the normal pleasantries and technical details about our stations. By the end of our QSO, I had been spotted on the cluster in Europe and the fun started. Band conditions were not very good but I was receiving many 59plus reports - a tribute to David's great station. He has accumulated many Dx and contesting awards in his short 10 years on the air. Including many firsts from China, including the first 5BWAZ and several contest first place finishes. After running all of the Europeans I could hear on SSB, I shifted to 15 CW and from there to 20SSB. Unfortunately there where no US openings during my short operation.

	During my mini-Dxpedition I made a total of 63 contacts, working 22 different DXCC entities and 7 CQ zones on 4 different continents. This experience leads me to believe you can easily work DXCC in a day from such a location with a good station. Being Dx certainly is a blast!
Many thanks to CRSA and a very special thanks to David and his lovely wife for opening their home to me.