Turning sailing and repair into actual QSOs – the Blue Pacific
After 36 days and some 2500 QSOs in the Marquesas this was indeed a turning point to Yasme’s hugely expected grand tour of the Pacific. On the way from Nuku Hiva, Marquesas Islands to Pape-ete, French Polynesia, there was still one more of the endless stream of technical problems to report in Danny’s own words: “…and so went the engine again. It sounded like a bag of bolts being rattled. Oil pressure dropped to zero and on every fourth stroke it gave a wheeze like a cranky old DXer. I shut it down!”
He checked the oil filter and it was chock solid with about everything under the sun. At 6PM all was complete and she actually started up with “nary a burp!” The technical reports (problems) were so many that they would make a book by themselves. All the while there were absolutely no remarks on how were the pileups, nor the radio conditions at any of the spots.
After a major mix-up of needed parts that were supposed to be shipped from Houston to Papeete, which extended their stay to several months, in September 1962 they finally headed to Rarotonga, South Cooks, ZK1BY. Then on October 8, 1962, they sailed onwards to Suwarrow Islands, 600 miles away from the South Cooks and qualifying for the Manihiki Group, part of North Cook Islands. Danny and Naomi received an enthusiastic welcome from the island’s lonely inhabitants. hey used same the ZK1BY callsign to make about 2800 QSOs after which the transformer in the HT-33 amplifier went up in smoke!
SSB was just breaking into the ham radio scene and Danny released a new operating procedure for SSB stations: listen between 14.200 kHz to 14.215 kHz. This was in principle only as the listening spread was firmly established already. Danny was ahead of his time!
Next on to Pago Pago, American Samoa where Hallicrafters had already shipped two HT-41 power amplifiers. Yasme Director Hal Sears, K5JLQ also visited Danny in Pago Pago in an attempt to improve Danny’s state of mind.
Naomi was unable to carry on further owing to her health. She did a wonderful job under the rough conditions and it had to end somewhere along the line. Yet there were still some more destinations to cover and Danny pressed on! Additionally Gus, W4BPD, would soon have covered the entire Indian Ocean about the time Danny’s Pacific adventures would be ended.
But here we go! The Republic of Western Samoa and ZM6AW started the operations with a relatively short distance to travel and 2450 DXers were happy! This was to be the farewell expedition of a married and loving couple: Naomi and Danny. The ultimate question is now placed in front of you:
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