Seychelles … Part 1

In 1970, I left the United States for the Seychelles on a one-year contract at a U.S. Air Force Satellite Tracking Station. I flew from New York City to London, then to Cairo, Nairobi, and finally Mombasa, Kenya. In Mombasa, I was to spend a few days before catching a Pan American World Airways charter HU-16 seaplane to Mahe, the “big island” in the Seychelles Group. I actually ended up spending two weeks in Kenya due to aircraft problems. I did get to do a lot of touristy things … visiting villages, touring game parks, going on short safaris … all on an expense account!

Finally, we left Mombasa early on a Thursday morning and headed east, out over the Indian Ocean. Earplugs were handed out, because the HU-16 was not a quiet aircraft. Six hours later, we were circling Mahe island and descending for our landing. We spiraled downwards over Victoria, the capital city and one of the crew pointed the Tracking Station out to me, perched on top of a 3,000 foot mountain southwest of the town. The big white radome was easy to pick out.

Finally, with a thump and a great spray of water, we arrived, landing on the water (it was a seaplane, after all … and there was a reason for flying a seaplane … no airport!). We slowly taxied through the harbor to the “Long Pier”, and up the ramp, where we waited until the props stopped and customs and immigration officials boarded and welcomed us to the island. We deplaned and entered the hanger, where our passorts and luggage were checked, and then moved to vans for the trip to the Tracking Station, now 3,000 feet above us.

The trip up the mountain was quite a thrill. Narrow, two lane roads carved out of the side of the mountain, with precipitous drop-offs and no guard rails. After a very twisty trip, we arrived at the housing site for the Tracking Station, and were shown to the club and and introduced to everybody. The club was open-air, with a tin roof, and a spectacular view to the west. Except for a small island offshore from a beautiful beach, there was nothing but water until you reached Africa, a thousand miles away.

We all headed for dinner, collecting our food and then returning to the club verandah to eat and watch the beautiful sunset. After dinner, a movie screen was set up and as soon as it was dark enough, the nightly movie was shown. We watched the movie, drank a few more beers, and finally called it a night.

The accommodations were house trailers , with 4 people assigned to each trailer. Being the newest resident, I got the smallest room, but I didn’t care … I was worn out and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow. I woke the next morning to one of my neighbors knocking on my door, getting me up for breakfast and my first work day on the island.

Beginnings

Back in the dawn of time, I decided that I wanted to become a ham radio operator. I think I must have been around 16 or 17 (I’m nearly 65 as of this writing). I really don’t remember why I wanted to do so, but for some reason I did. I made a trip to Cain Electronics, the local electronics supplier, who had some ham equipment and books, and purchased the Novice study manual. I studied and studied and finally had the book learning down pat, but I was still sweating blood over the 5wpm code.

When I thought I had the code learned, I made a trip to the FCC office for the written and code tests. I aced the written test, but I guess a bad case of the nerves did me in on the code test. So, back to the code tapes. Not magnetic tapes back then … I had rented a code practice machine via mail order that used punched paper tape.

After another month, I was back at the FCC to try it again. Once again, I passed the written test (no certificates for passing previously in those days). I copied the code as best I could (still very nervous), and handed my paper to the examiner. I really didn’t feel good about my copy. Amazingly, I passed! I walked out and started my wait for the license in the mail from the FCC. Several weeks later, it arrived! I had my license!

I got on the air as soon as I could get the equipment together. I had ordered a Heathkit DX-100B CW/AM transmitter from AES in Milwaukee, and had a Lafayette receiver, and a dipole antenna. The DX-100B was a huge boat anchor, and used a crystal for frequency control. It would put out 100 watts. I only had two crystals for the Novice bands, so if QRM was bad, I didn’t have many places to run!

My first QSO was with another WN4 whose call is lost in the mists of time. Suffice it to say, I was a bit nervous. As it turned out, it was only his second QSO, and I still don’t know how we managed to send any readable code to each other!

I kept up with my hamming for a year, but eventually other things that matter more to a young man pushed it aside (girls, jobs, cars, school, work, etc.). I let my license lapse. Back in those days, the Novice licence was good for 1 year and was not renewable. You either upgraded or went QRT. I didn’t take up the hobby again until I had done a tour in the Navy and started working for a contractor in the Seychelles Islands (VQ9). More on that later!