Welcome to the HZ1AB photo gallery.

The HZ1AB QSL Cards as used in the 1980's

I was an operator of HZ1AB from 1980 to 1987.

These are just a few of the shack photos dating back to that period.

I

The main operating console with Bob Walsh, WA8MOA, in the chair.

Bob was instrumental in the development of an antenna highly favoured by DXpeditions for their 160, 80 and 40 metre operations. Bob asked W9UCW, the designer of the Minooka Special, to design a easily erectable vertical antenna for him to take on the VK9ZR Mellish Reef DXpedition in 1978. The design was again used by Bob with great success during the VK0JS Heard Island DXpedition in 1983.

Subsequently this antenna became known as the "Battle Creek Special", named after Bob's home QTH in Battle Creek, Michigan.

 

A Close up

 

A picture of the Harris RF103 linear amplifer and of the antenna jack panel. The RF103s were fantastic amplifiers, extremely well built with a single 3-1000Z tube giving an RF output of about 1.5kW.

 

Another picture of the shack but now showing the second RF103. HZ1AB didn't do things by halves!

To the left of this photo, was another HF station using a Kenwood rig, a Robot RTTY terminal, and also the OSCAR set up. I found that RTTY was an excellent mode for OSCAR. In addition to that, there was a third operating position with an old Collins KWM2 which was used during CQWW contests - in which HZ1AB frequently excelled.

More recent pictures which I've seen of the station shows the blue RF103 still in use, as is the main operating table.

I'm sorry but I don't have any photos of the antenna systems. Photography in Saudi Arabia needed to be done with discretion, and as the station at this time was actually located in the car park of the Dhahran International Airport, I thought it would be prudent to forego taking a few snap shots for the album.

However the antenna systems were impressive were the main contributors to the success of the station:

If you had been a visitor to the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia arriving by air at Dhahran Airport anytime up until about 1986 when the station was relocated, as you came out of the International Terminal and walked across the car park, you will almost certainly have walked under the Rhombic.

The station was actually mid-way between the International and Domestic Terminals and must have been seen by hundreds of amateurs in transit, probably thinking it was something to do with the airport communications sytems, as they walked the very short distance between the two terminals.

The Station went through a number of periods of very active support and also times of little activity thoughout it's history, the early to mid 1980s was probably one of it's most active and best supported times.

It was the impossibility of obtaining a personal ham license in Saudi that contributed to the success of HZ1AB, for rather than individual amateurs creating their own stations at their homes, all that effort was pooled into creating what was to become a Super-Station that would be the envy of virtually every ham throughout the world, and for a number of years HZ1AB was invariably the top Asian station in the CQWW contests. For most club members, the 15 minute drive from home was not any inconvenience.

Although I do have a station set up here in the UK, since leaving Saudi, my operating activities are practically zero. After becoming accustomed to operating a station like HZ1AB for a number of years, it is very difficult to emulate that thrill from a typical UK station with the limitations of the modern suburban garden.

 The only time I ever go on the air is to have a few QSOs to test a newly constructed bit of kit.

 

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Last update 22/5/2001