VE7CT VU7RG Lakshadweep -- January 2007

Another perfect Agatti sunset.

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I was privileged to be invited to join an International team of operators in January 2007 to go to India and to the Lakshadweep Islands. At the time, it was the number two most wanted entity by the worldwide DX community. This was an expedition that was sponsored by the National Institute of Amateur Radio centered in Hyderabad, India.

Finalization of our individual documentation to participate in the VU7RG operation was a very complex process. It required sign-off by no less than 11 different departments of the Indian Government from radio licensing to tourism.

While complicated, we were eventually able to satisfy all their requirements. If there was a hitch along the way -- which occurred on more than one occasion, we had to resubmit all documents which meant starting the process from scratch. Finally -- with all documents in order we were good to go!

We mustered in Cochin, India, which is located on the southwest coast and is a port city from which we would depart for the Lakshadweep Islands. There we met several of the other hams that would be going and operate from other Islands.

When we think of heavy traffic, we think of rush hour any large city. This pales in comparison with the bumper to bumper traffic in Cochin that travels at a much higher rate of speed but with few accidents. That is an experience in itself to travel in it with the motorcycle three-wheel cabs. These people know how to drive!

The operation consisted of some 26 foreign nationals plus approximately 10 Indian nationals divided amongst four separate Islands all using the same callsign, VU7RG in honor of Rajiv Gandhi (VU2RG) the assassinated Prime Minister of India.

There was enough separation in the frequency blocks set assigned for each team on each band for us all to be able to operate without interfering with one another. It was a bit confusing to some of the DX audience who were unaware of this arrangement to work us on one mode on a band, only to tune up or down to hear the same call operating with a different pileup on the same mode.

All in all, the operation was a real success under very poor band conditions. In total the four teams amassed 110,000 Q’s during the 10 days we were allowed to operate.

It was unfortunate to some degree that a small all Indian team had been allowed to go to Lakshadweep for almost a month just prior to our expedition and made some 50,000 Qs, but it did not seem to dampen the DX community's enthusiasm to work us as we had wall-to-wall pileups during our entire 10-day stay.

One bonus for the VU7RG operation was the granting of special permission to operate 30 meters which the previous team (VU7LD) on Kavaratti Island did not enjoy. In their region, there was a concern for potential interference to commercial radio operations on Island.

The Agatti Island Team: Back row L to R: OE9AMJ, DK5WL, DL9GFB, W8AEF, W5MJ, K4UEE, A61M. Front row L to R: VE7CT, JH4RHF, W0GJ, VA7DX

Agatti Island is only about seven miles long and not very wide, but has a population of nearly 7,000 -- of which 99 percent are Muslim. We found the people of Agatti to be wonderful, warm and friendly and the resort staff would bend over backward to accommodate our requests. We had no idea what to expect due to the difficulties in all the arrangements it took to get there but were pleasantly surprised at our superb accommodations.

The main sponsor for our group was Icom, Acom and SteppIR. The SVDA antennas were the Force 12 SVDAs one of our group had purchased from a previous DXpedition. Someone asked me if I would go back again... my reply was "in a heartbeat."