The Voice of the Vatican
Copyright ©1997 Jon Adams

A different version was published in QST Magazine, December 1995

There I was -- looking straight down the barrel of a DX pileup. Germans, Spaniards, Africans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Russians, Slavs, Czechs, French, Irish, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, Swiss -- and all of them after me!

It was a warm, clear Sunday morning in Rome; the humidity had not yet come up and the sun was only an hour or so over the horizon. But like the previous few days, by midday the air temperature would be 90°F and the humidity would be the same. Just before 8am, Pino I0DUD stops by my hotel to shuttle me across town to 5 Borgo Santo Spirito, home of the Society of Jesus' amateur radio station, HV3SJ.

Sunday is the group's "work" day, and today is no exception: the satellite station antenna system was only partially completed and today they would finish the installation. After a quick drive across town through deserted streets and across the serene and majestic Tevere, we arrived in the Rome neighborhood immediately east of Piazza Santo Pietro, home to the Vatican. Up the elevator to the rooftop and the radio shack. There I met Tony I0JX, Gabriel IK0HIT, and an American non-ham named Ron who lived and worked in the building.

Pino proposed that I should enjoy using the radio station while they worked on the antenna setup. I first received a quick demonstration of how to operate the beautiful Yaesu FT-1000 HF rig, the antenna rotor and the foot-operated PTT switch. Then I sat down to what I mistakenly thought would be a leisurely operating session.

A couple of things, first. The station is all Yaesu hardware, generously donated by Yaesu as a result of the efforts of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Amateur Radio Club member Eric Archer, WB6GYD. And what a station it is! Besides the FT-1000, there is the FT-736 for satellite use, an FT-650 for 6-meters, and a whole pile of accessories to complete the station. (I suspect that Yaesu was hoping for an ad with the Pope at the microphone, calling CQ DX, but I guess that never came to pass.) The other thing is that I do not consider myself a contest operator, have never been much of a DX'er, and I am also pretty chatty when on the radio. I was about to enter a world about which I knew little!

I started on 14224kHz with a simple CQ. I really was trying to become comfortable with the Hotel Victor Three Sierra Juliet call. I grabbed the "HV3SJ" engraved sign and set it in front of my nose. By the time I finished my CQ, a DK came back immediately. I chatted with him for a while, talking about the weather, my home QTH, etc. I kinda got the feeling he was amazed that I was spending the time with him. All the while the lights were slowly coming on inside my brain: I would hear an occasional callsign, an air of urgency, thrown in around the edges of our conversation. There sure seemed to be a lot of people out there! He finally suggested that I should work the growing crowd. We signed; then the wave hit.

Imagine standing on the pitcher's mound at Dodger Stadium, with 50,000 people in the stands, all calling out their names at once, each demanding to say hello and a brief report about their families, and requiring that the conversation be acknowledged by me. It was overwhelming, to say the least. After fifteen minutes had passed, my brain was exhausted, besieged by seemingly every ham in Europe. I was still not proficient at the HV3SJ call, dropping into the NW6H call more than once, not yet adjusted to the staccato style necessary to service the pileup, and forgetting which language was native. So, I went outside to help in the antenna repair and installation.

Outside, the sun was hot, the correct tools non-existent and my three Italian friends were all arguing in Italian over the best way to do the work. Sighing, I returned to the radio. By the time mid-afternoon had come, and many subsequent breaks to go out to "work" on the antennas, I had worked between 300 and 400 stations on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. By far, 10 and 12 meters were the most interesting, given the sporadic-E propagation characteristics. First I would hear a pileup of Brits, quickly working a few with rapidly fading signals until the band sounded absolutely dead. Then, pounding the airwaves with CQ and QR-Zeds until suddenly a couple of CTs from Portugal were there. Then almost immediately, the band would croak or transition to a couple of ONs or SVs or Russians. Within a half-hour I could easily log 30-50 contacts.

During breaks I would walk out on the broad roof terrace, or wander up on to other terraces on adjacent rooftops. A beautiful garden and several caves, complete with doors, were immediately south of the building. At noon, the Pope himself came out to speak to the assembled throng in the adjacent Piazza Santo Pietro, and while I couldn't find a roof top position from which to see him, I could hear him easily.

Back at the radio, each time I announced the Sierra Juliet callsign, the resulting cacophony was amazing. As explanation, I'd heard from a few contacts that DX packet clusters all over Europe were distributing my location as soon as I'd show up somewhere. If I heard a station sign "mobile", I'd give it preference. I ended up working more than a half-dozen mobile stations, all in Europe, all between 20 and 100 watts.

Something important was missing: Americans. W, K, N and A calls. Later on in the afternoon I was told by an Irish ham that there were hordes of Americans calling me but none was apparently able to get through the European crowd. Finally, around 4pm local, I heard an AA9 call in the din. Dave, in Wisconsin. Wow. An American. With an American accent (well, Wisconsin). I told him that I'd been listening for that side of the pond all day and he was the first. We spent a few minutes talking and I was hoping that I'd hear a few more, but as soon as we signed, the barrier closed and more Europeans showed up. The only other exotics were one Kenyan, a few South Africans, some very Eastern Europeans and a pretty rare DXCC country itself, Hotel Victor Four November Alpha Charlie. Of course, HV4NAC is the second of the three Vatican City calls, but I imagine that his curiosity was piqued by hearing an American voice running Sierra Juliet, so he came on to say hi. At 60 over 9.

All the time, Tony I0JX, would come in occasionally from the antenna-building chores and work sporadic-E on the 6-meter station. Mainly Italians and Spaniards, but there were some Africans and eastern Mediterraneans in there too. He's worked into Texas before via a double hop on 6, but he wasn't getting that kind of range today. I was really starting to get into this; being on the receiving end of a DXpedition is a heady, powerful experience. I could ignore someone if they displeased me. More than a few D-landers displeased me. The ones who would literally yell into the microphone, mic gain at 10, processor full-on, and way off-frequency, to boot. The weaker stations I'd give support to. What fun...

Then, suddenly, Pino ran into the room and motioned for me to get off the microphone. I looked up and saw the back of a black-frocked monsignor at the door to the shack, and all three of the Italians were listening to him with the greatest deference. Apparently he had grown tired of my interfering with his broadcast radio reception. It could have been worse: it could have been the Swiss Guards, or it could have been a bolt of lightning!

The antenna work was done: the satellite station was ready for working the birds. My voice was worn out; it was time to take a walk over to the Piazza, see the Vatican, then walk back across town to my hotel and stop along the way for a pizza, a cold beer and a plate or two of pasta. As I told my new-found friends, any time they need an operator, I'd gladly return to be the Voice of the Vatican.


Back to Exploring!

 

The Voice of the Vatican
Copyright ©1997 Jon Adams

A different version was published in QST Magazine, December 1995

There I was -- looking straight down the barrel of a DX pileup. Germans, Spaniards, Africans, Dutch, Danes, Swedes, Russians, Slavs, Czechs, French, Irish, Portuguese, Italians, Greeks, Swiss -- and all of them after me!

It was a warm, clear Sunday morning in Rome; the humidity had not yet come up and the sun was only an hour or so over the horizon. But like the previous few days, by midday the air temperature would be 90°F and the humidity would be the same. Just before 8am, Pino I0DUD stops by my hotel to shuttle me across town to 5 Borgo Santo Spirito, home of the Society of Jesus' amateur radio station, HV3SJ.

Sunday is the group's "work" day, and today is no exception: the satellite station antenna system was only partially completed and today they would finish the installation. After a quick drive across town through deserted streets and across the serene and majestic Tevere, we arrived in the Rome neighborhood immediately east of Piazza Santo Pietro, home to the Vatican. Up the elevator to the rooftop and the radio shack. There I met Tony I0JX, Gabriel IK0HIT, and an American non-ham named Ron who lived and worked in the building.

Pino proposed that I should enjoy using the radio station while they worked on the antenna setup. I first received a quick demonstration of how to operate the beautiful Yaesu FT-1000 HF rig, the antenna rotor and the foot-operated PTT switch. Then I sat down to what I mistakenly thought would be a leisurely operating session.

A couple of things, first. The station is all Yaesu hardware, generously donated by Yaesu as a result of the efforts of Jet Propulsion Laboratory Amateur Radio Club member Eric Archer, WB6GYD. And what a station it is! Besides the FT-1000, there is the FT-736 for satellite use, an FT-650 for 6-meters, and a whole pile of accessories to complete the station. (I suspect that Yaesu was hoping for an ad with the Pope at the microphone, calling CQ DX, but I guess that never came to pass.) The other thing is that I do not consider myself a contest operator, have never been much of a DX'er, and I am also pretty chatty when on the radio. I was about to enter a world about which I knew little!

I started on 14224kHz with a simple CQ. I really was trying to become comfortable with the Hotel Victor Three Sierra Juliet call. I grabbed the "HV3SJ" engraved sign and set it in front of my nose. By the time I finished my CQ, a DK came back immediately. I chatted with him for a while, talking about the weather, my home QTH, etc. I kinda got the feeling he was amazed that I was spending the time with him. All the while the lights were slowly coming on inside my brain: I would hear an occasional callsign, an air of urgency, thrown in around the edges of our conversation. There sure seemed to be a lot of people out there! He finally suggested that I should work the growing crowd. We signed; then the wave hit.

Imagine standing on the pitcher's mound at Dodger Stadium, with 50,000 people in the stands, all calling out their names at once, each demanding to say hello and a brief report about their families, and requiring that the conversation be acknowledged by me. It was overwhelming, to say the least. After fifteen minutes had passed, my brain was exhausted, besieged by seemingly every ham in Europe. I was still not proficient at the HV3SJ call, dropping into the NW6H call more than once, not yet adjusted to the staccato style necessary to service the pileup, and forgetting which language was native. So, I went outside to help in the antenna repair and installation.

Outside, the sun was hot, the correct tools non-existent and my three Italian friends were all arguing in Italian over the best way to do the work. Sighing, I returned to the radio. By the time mid-afternoon had come, and many subsequent breaks to go out to "work" on the antennas, I had worked between 300 and 400 stations on 20, 17, 15, 12 and 10 meters. By far, 10 and 12 meters were the most interesting, given the sporadic-E propagation characteristics. First I would hear a pileup of Brits, quickly working a few with rapidly fading signals until the band sounded absolutely dead. Then, pounding the airwaves with CQ and QR-Zeds until suddenly a couple of CTs from Portugal were there. Then almost immediately, the band would croak or transition to a couple of ONs or SVs or Russians. Within a half-hour I could easily log 30-50 contacts.

During breaks I would walk out on the broad roof terrace, or wander up on to other terraces on adjacent rooftops. A beautiful garden and several caves, complete with doors, were immediately south of the building. At noon, the Pope himself came out to speak to the assembled throng in the adjacent Piazza Santo Pietro, and while I couldn't find a roof top position from which to see him, I could hear him easily.

Back at the radio, each time I announced the Sierra Juliet callsign, the resulting cacophony was amazing. As explanation, I'd heard from a few contacts that DX packet clusters all over Europe were distributing my location as soon as I'd show up somewhere. If I heard a station sign "mobile", I'd give it preference. I ended up working more than a half-dozen mobile stations, all in Europe, all between 20 and 100 watts.

Something important was missing: Americans. W, K, N and A calls. Later on in the afternoon I was told by an Irish ham that there were hordes of Americans calling me but none was apparently able to get through the European crowd. Finally, around 4pm local, I heard an AA9 call in the din. Dave, in Wisconsin. Wow. An American. With an American accent (well, Wisconsin). I told him that I'd been listening for that side of the pond all day and he was the first. We spent a few minutes talking and I was hoping that I'd hear a few more, but as soon as we signed, the barrier closed and more Europeans showed up. The only other exotics were one Kenyan, a few South Africans, some very Eastern Europeans and a pretty rare DXCC country itself, Hotel Victor Four November Alpha Charlie. Of course, HV4NAC is the second of the three Vatican City calls, but I imagine that his curiosity was piqued by hearing an American voice running Sierra Juliet, so he came on to say hi. At 60 over 9.

All the time, Tony I0JX, would come in occasionally from the antenna-building chores and work sporadic-E on the 6-meter station. Mainly Italians and Spaniards, but there were some Africans and eastern Mediterraneans in there too. He's worked into Texas before via a double hop on 6, but he wasn't getting that kind of range today. I was really starting to get into this; being on the receiving end of a DXpedition is a heady, powerful experience. I could ignore someone if they displeased me. More than a few D-landers displeased me. The ones who would literally yell into the microphone, mic gain at 10, processor full-on, and way off-frequency, to boot. The weaker stations I'd give support to. What fun...

Then, suddenly, Pino ran into the room and motioned for me to get off the microphone. I looked up and saw the back of a black-frocked monsignor at the door to the shack, and all three of the Italians were listening to him with the greatest deference. Apparently he had grown tired of my interfering with his broadcast radio reception. It could have been worse: it could have been the Swiss Guards, or it could have been a bolt of lightning!

The antenna work was done: the satellite station was ready for working the birds. My voice was worn out; it was time to take a walk over to the Piazza, see the Vatican, then walk back across town to my hotel and stop along the way for a pizza, a cold beer and a plate or two of pasta. As I told my new-found friends, any time they need an operator, I'd gladly return to be the Voice of the Vatican.


Back to Exploring!