I originally hosted this info as a web site, but in April 2007 moved across to WordPress to reduce maintenance and improve presentation.

Feel free to leave your comments. And good DX.

About S79MAD

In August 1995 I moved from the UK to the Indian Ocean island of Mahé, the main island of the Republic Of Seychelles. I was posted there for 2 years where I worked for the BBC managing the technical side of their Indian Ocean Relay Station (IORS).During working hours (and often at night when called out!) I was responsible for the operation and maintenance of a short wave radio station comprising

• two 250kW auto-tuning AM transmitters,
• six slewable HF curtain arrays hung between 300 foot towers. Between them covered they 6- 21 MHz with gains of up to 20dBi.
• A satellite earth station with an 11 meter dish, which provided programme feed from London
• A high-voltage power system operating at 33kV & 11kV 3 phase
• Assorted miscellany including 7 vehicles, a sewerage treatment plant, and a large site which had mangrove, bananas and coconuts.

So, after playing with shortwave all day, what did I do in my leisure time….

I got my amateur radio licence, and started creating pile-ups on the HF bands. Within days of arriving I was able to string up a 20m dipole between the trees surrounding my house. This was inadequate given the poor conditions – we were in a sunspot low.

With a little help from the small local ham community, I was able to add

• a 30 foot tower ( a section of latticed roofing suport),
• a home brew 2 ele yagi on 20m, later replaced with a 3 ele tri-bander
• an amp to increase power from 100W to up to 500W
• a delta loop on 30m
• a trapped dipole on 40/80m

In my two years on the air I completed over 7,000 QSO’s. This was not a dx’pedition. I was living and working in the country, and ham radio is my hobby. However, I did work some huge pile-ups, something I’d never really experienced. And my cw improved too.

I finished working in Seychelles in Aug 1997, at which time S79MAD went qrt.

I’ve been back a couple of times on holiday, but not to operate the radio.

I hope you find some of the information on these pages helpful.

If you’d like to operate as an S79 licences can be obtained from:-

Seychelles Licencing Authority,
PO Box 3,
Victoria,
Seychelles

Tel (+248) 224314

I don’t know the current fee, but it was around $90 per year PER RADIO in 1996.

Now some facts…..

About S79MAD…..

Op: Paddy O’Reilly
Operational Sept. 1995-Aug. 1997.

Location: Helvetia, La Misere. Mahe Island, Seychelles. 55 deg 28 min East. 4 deg 40 min South. Locator square JI 25 PO. IOTA AF024.	Station: Tx/Rx FT900. Amp FL2100Z. Power 400W PEP/CW. 200W RTTY.
Antennas: 10-15-20 TH3 yagi. 10-12-15-17-20 R5 vert. 30m hombrew delta-loop. 40m-80m Half-wave dipole.	Digimodes: RTTY & Pactor. Using KAM Plus. IBM 486/33 Computer. ‘Hostmaster’ Software.

QSL manager, GW4WVO.

NOTE

As of Dec 1st 1998, my QSL manager has now sent out ALL my QSL’s. All cards ‘unclaimed’ by this date were sent off to the buro.

And if you can help with QSL info that I’m missing please send via the comments.

For up to date info on dx-peditions see http://dx-hamspirit.com/