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Botswana 2002 |
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 National flag of Botswana |
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 Map of Botswana (Source: World Fact Book) |
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| Geographical position |
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| Botswana is located in the southern part of Africa. It is surrounded by South Africa in the south, Namibia in the west, Angola and Zambia in the north, and Zimbabwe in the east. The area is about 600.000 square km. Population about 1,8 Million people, most of them farmers. The country has diamond mines, which is responsible for a relatively stabile economical and political system. Gabarone is the capital. | |
| Our trip |
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The flight was awkward enough. April 15th in 2002 Baldur, DJ6SI, and Hans, DL1YFF (that's me), started from Düsseldorf Airport our small Dxpedition to Botswana in the southern part of Africa. Checkin and controls had been relatively simple with or baggage and small equipment. We had the FT-890 transceiver (each of us), wire antennas (FD-4, G5RV) and a Butternut HV9 with us. |  That was all. Check in in Düsseldorf |
| Our flight went via Dubai to Johannesburg in South Africa, from where we had to change into a smaller plane to Gabarone, the Capital, where we meet some members of the Botswana Radio Club. Then we entered the plane to Maun up north in the country. Those long flights are boring, but the worst thing was the long stopover in Dubay, where we had to wait for hours and hours. Well, in the meantime there was time to make a short sightseeing through the airport of Dubay with all its luxery goods, and gold and golden jewellery in the airport shops. What a world in the middle of the desert. |
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 The entrance to Crocodile Farm with a stage |
Anyway, after 24 hours of travelling we safely arrived in Maun, where Horst, A22HH, picked us up and took us to the Crocodile Farm north-east of the town. Horst worked for DED, the German Development Service. Maun is the center of the north, from where most safari tours start to the famous Okawanga Basin, and even flights to the famous Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Due to the late arrival when dusk was falling, we made ourselves at home in the nice small bungalows, but for mounting the antennas it was too dark. So we had our evening dinner and a comfortable time at the bar. |
| The next day Baldur installed his FD-4 and the G5RV. I had to mount my HF9. Fortunately it was not the first time, so I was quite familiar with it, and we could start. My first QSO was RW4WZ in RTTY, somebody must have spot us on the packet clauster, and then pileup. Conditions were not bad (still about maximum), so that 100 Watts output seemed to be enough. Well, we did not have more. No PA’s with us. Here are some photographs from the work and the compound. | |
 DL1YFF and a helping hand |
 DJ6SI fixing his long wire |
 Baldur's G5RV with open wire feeder |
 DL1YFF's Butternut HF9 |
 View from the bar over the river. During rain season the water is much higher |
 And there will be crocodiles and hippos in it. What about swimming? |
 Here we had breakfast every morning |
 And this was the place for dinner in the evening |
 The pool, the bar (very nice) |
 Have a break, have an old brown sherry! |
| I do not want to bother you with all that. Much more interesting are the geographical and cultural background and other aspects of the country. Botswana was formerly known as Bechuanaland, when it was British protectorate. It is a parliamatary republic, independent since 1966, elections every five years. Land area is about 600.000 sq km, population about 1,8 million. It has semiarid climate with warm winters and hot summers.
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| People: about 1.8 million, most of them living in towns.
Population growth rate is about 1,5% Age structure (see diagramm) |
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(source: World Fact book)
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| We also did a sightseeing tour Moremi Park in the Okawango Delta. We spent one day in there and we could see elephants, zebras, antilopes, giraffes etc. Well, there is not much to talk about, so you better have a look at the photographs. | |
 The road to Namibia |
 Typical small farm |
 Two beauties from the village in their traditional dress |
 At the gate to Moremi Park |
 A short break on a parking area |
 A wooden bridge we had to cross |
 Caution! Wild animals |
 He had the best overview |
 In the bush - zebras |
 ... and antilopes |
 It's not a tent, it's a trap for tse-tse-flies |
 gnues everywhere |
 And giraffes here... |
 ...and there |
 Road signs. 3rd bridge straight ahead |
 Another road sign and wooden bridge, we just passed |
 One better stays away from him! |
 Antilopes |
 They can be very fast |
 No danger here |
 Zebras around a termitarium |
We spent the rest of the days operating. It was not to much we did, for we were there not to break any world records. We visited Maun, Horst’s familiy, we saw the bar in the camp, and we had a lot of fun. Frankly spoken (or written): we did not have stress. And we enjoyed our stay. |
| But even the nicest days eventually come to an end. We closed down on Sunday morning, dismantled the stations, packed our stuff together, and at 15:00 the plane took off for Johannisburg. From there it took another 18 hours to arrive at Düsseldorf. Of course, it was raining there. We had better stayed in Maun. |
 DL1YFF at work |
| At the end of our DXpedtion we had about 10.000 QSO's in the log. Baldur, DJ6SI, worked about 7.000 stations. I did about 2.000. That was not too much, but I did plenty of RTTY QSO's, and this mode is not as fast as CW or SSB. Anyway, the whole DXpedtion was nice, and we had fun. And many thanks to Horst, A22HH, who helped us with ascommodation and who made the trip to Moremi Park possible. |
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