Unfortunately it looks like 160m will not be active during my stay in Vanuatu. I spent many hours last night trying to trace this noise source. We turned everything off that we could find and still no improvement. I tried constructing and erecting a delta receive loop antenna in the dark last night all to no avail. I will keep hunting for the noise source to see if it can be salvaged but I am not hopeful.

I am hugely disappointed by this outcome. Especially as the back channel reports I was receiving indicated I was 599 on CW in Australia and FT8 had me reported all around the Pacific and even in the Falklands. Transmit worked a treat – receive is a complete failure.

I am sorry to all the DX Chasers too who had hoped to put YJ in the books on 160m. I brought everything I could fit within my weight limits to try and have alternatives for receive but in this case nothing in my arsenal has worked, and I dont have room to try any sort of meaningful beverage (30m wont cut it). It does inspire me to come out here again in the future with the specific intention of running a low band operation. Perhaps next time with more amateur help as well rather than just as a one man holiday show.