9L8MD & 9L9L - Sierra Leone

Ham Radio World
Oct 8
2 min read

Updated: Oct 18

9L8MD & 9L9L Update (Oct 18)

MDXC is glad to announce that during 9L8MD, the incoming Dx’pedition in Sierra Leone (29 th October- 10th November), there will be an “embedded” IOTA operation from Banana isl., AF-037. The island was activated last time in 2019 by the F6KOP team (9LY1JM).

To avoid any confusion with the ongoing 9L8MD operations from the mainland, the IOTA activity will use the special call-sign 9L9L (nine lima nine lima): the call-sign has been granted by local Telecomunication Authority and already registered on LoTW.

Starting from Sunday 2nd November, several landing teams of two operators each will alternate from the island, staying for three days-two nights in a local resort. Due to the lack of anything on the island, especially electricity, our operators will bring all the necessary stuff by boat with them, including a generator and gasoline. At the end of the three-day shift, the new team will bring the refueling for the next three days.

Band of operations will be 40 through 6m, with verticals and 3 elemts yagi for 6m. The island haven’t activated on 6m before.

This will be a big occasion to test “on the field” the two FLEX-8600M recently supplied to MDXC by FLEX RADIO USA. An ICOM IC7000 will be dedicated to the 6 m band.

Since the shortage of electricity, radios will operate with just their barefoot power (100 W), so to be heard on-air will be particularly challenging

A online log will be available, but due to lack of internet connectivity, we can’t guarantee the real-time performance.

Further details about the 9L9L operations will be supplied step-by-step through our WhatsApp channel (https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb6VAGAId7nIXVb1w23t) and other DX information sites.