For a short stay and casual HAM Radio operation in Viet-Nam, the best way is to rent a shack and use the station’s callsign.
An agreement from both the VARC and the shack owner is necessary of course, but this reduce the delay needed to obtain the authorization to operate.
From now, 5 shacks are available : 2 in Hồ Chí Minh City and 1 near Củ Chi, 1 in Vũng Tàu (on the sea front) and 1 in Cần Thơ.
Malcolm VK6LC will be XV2LC and XV4LC from 12/08/2010 to 9/09/2010. He will operate from various places : Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Ho Coc, Cu Chi (to be confirmed) and Can Tho. He will use a FT-857D transceiver with a 1kW linear for CW, Phone and digimode activities. Antennas will depend on the place he is operating from from wired antennas for low bands (including a 160m V-Beam), to Ground Plane and small beams at XV2A or XV4TUJ shack.
Malcolm has a long and rich relationship with Viet-Nam having operated from here many times from 1996 to 2007. He has been involved in may actions helping the development of radioamateurisme in modern Viet-Nam. He will arrive here more like a friend rather than a dxpeditioner.
XV9AA told us a little bit more about his activities with Earth-Moon-Earth transmissions. Vu Trong Thu :
“EME communication had always been in my dreams since I learned about it and after our unsuccessful attempts last year.
It is difficult, but there are things that you can do to improve your chance of success and especially thanks to a new software called WSJT developed by Joe Taylor K1JT which
allows the computer to decode very faint signal down to -28 and even -30dB! These together with the fact that I arranged a sked (schedule) with “big gun” stations resulted in successful EME QSOs.Here’s my conditions: Home station (XV9AA): Moon near perigee (closest to the Earth), about 10 degree above horizon (to maximize ground gain), digital mode JT65B/WSJT, USB mode, 100W output, 144Mhz band, mast-mounted preamp, antenna is 2MCP22 circularized polarization (used for satellite communication) but I disconnected the vertical part and only use the horizontal one (11 elements) for EME.
DX station (KB8RQ): array of 8×4=24 long Yagi antennas, 1.5kW output.For your information, last week I had another successful EME QSO with RA6AX who probably has the largest VHF amateur radio antenna array of 64 Yagis and 1.5kW output.
His signal peaked at -16dB while mine peaked at -26dB which is well within the capability of WSJT to decode. So I think I can do EME with 50W or even less :)”
Thu, XV9AA, has unveiled vietnamese enthusiasts plan to launch the first vietnamese radioamateur satellite. the F-1 Cubesat satellite should be finished in 2011 and ready for launch once financing and launch vehicle finding are completed. The spacecraft will have a V/U mode for AFSK data, 1200bps and CW AFSK beacon, and experimental link with COTS transceiver.
More details about the project can be found on the project website.