NEWS from I5JHW in 3V8DJ:

27-March: the team moved early morning from Sidi Bouzid to Djerba, in Quatre Season hotel. The permission is not yet ready and then the group is forced to not mount antennas on the roof; they set the 4 stations: IC756 with SGC500 + TH3MK4 (main site), JRC245 + R7 (cw site), IC706 + R7000 (digital), IC746 + R7000 (Tunisian operators). At 4pm everything is ready but they have to wait for Medenin Governor's permission. At 7pm they are still awaiting, so I5JHW decides to show his 3V licence to hotel's director, Mr.Lofti, saying "why do we have to wait, if I have a legal permission" and he finally gives them the start after a 10 minutes phone call. The team mounts the three verticals, to have dinner, and then to begin as 3V8DJ. At 21.53 Sarra, with his sweet voice, logs G4WSB thanking Tunisian Authorities for the new opportunity to activate Djerba after 1999 operations, due to co-operation between ARI's Section of Pistoia and Prato and Youth Ministry. Pile-up goes...

29-March: regular pile-up; QSO score is already better than previous activity from Djerba, two years ago. No pics today as it's windy and raining. Propagation went out and we thought of a 756 or 3el beam failure but the bands opened in the afternoon, 10 metres too. Tunisian operators worked on 15 metres for the whole day. We did some PSK31 QSO but we'll send the log later. See you tomorrow with news, pics and logs.

30-March: Here is 01:30 utc, propagation is open on 17 mtr only, Marcello IK5JAN is working at a 150 QSO per minute rate and Piero IK5CKL is collecting RTTY contacts on 20 mtrs. The others are sleeping and we overpassed the 8,500 QSOs. Rain stops and the night is clear. Tomorrow we expect another great day with the happyness of the Tunisian girls that give us a different taste to usual 59 operations. Any kind of trouble is always promptly solved by I5NSR. We are about to end, tomorrow evening they will leave, the beauty and kind Zaira, the tiny and cute Sarra, the shy and smiling Nadia, the ahppy and full of life Fatma. It will be difficult to forget them, expecially for me, that I know them since my first Tunisian visit and I'm always so sad when I leave. Well, it's time for me to go to bed, another couple of US station on 17 mtrs and I'll turn off the equipment.

1-April: So, this new experience ended in a wonderful way: this is my and the whole team thought. All was fine a part from normal troubles, the same I found in every past expedition, expecially in a particular country such as Tunisia, easy to reach but not so easy for permissions: we needed the Ministry of Telecomunications permission, the Ministry of Internal permission, the one from region Governor and from the Young and Culture Centre's Director, from which the public structures where equipment are installed depend; only the first is a written permission, the others are verbal but so important that without them it's impossible to mount antennas. Besides my thanks to Tunisian Authorities I want to thanks Lotfi, the 3V8BB responsible who took care of the logistic and burocratic organisation, patienting my numerous phone calls notwithstanding a difficult family situation that forced him to leave the group. Thanks also to all the operators who QSOed us making the expedition a real succesfull IOTA activity. Last but not least the strong friendship between us and the Tunisian guys: Saturday, leaving for Tunisi there was an unbelievable sadness and tears in everyone of us. Living with those guys for ten days left us a sign in our hearts surely undeletable. We will not forget Sarra, Zaida, Nadia, Fatma, Heikel. Thanks and goodbye from the entire Italian Team. Now the numbers:

73, see you next time, de I5JHW, Giovanni

Past activities from 3V land: