9M2/G4ZFE/P - AS-074 Pulau Ketam

Pulau Ketam, literally translated, means 'crab island'. It is a small island located off the coast of the western coast of Malaysia about 1 hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. The island derived it's name from the abundance of crabs that inhabit it's shores. The island is easily accessible from the Port Klang jetty by ferry taking about 30 minutes and costing 5.30 Ringitt (one British Pound).

The 'floating houses' that come to view approaching the island are on long wooden stilts and are suspended about one metre above the sea level. The population of the island is about 8,000 and most of the population are involved in the fishing industry. The island also seemed to also have a high number of karaoke bars!

Following in the footsteps of Keith, GM4YXI who has previously operated from Pulau Ketam I choose to stay in the same hotel - Hotel Sea Lion. The hotel is at the end of the island's landing pier and has two celluar radio antennas on the roof. There were no problems were antennas on the roof and the hotel was not busy even though it was a holiday weekend when I visited.

I used my Force-12 Sigma 5 vertical for the first time. It was placed on the roof supported by two plastic water tanks. The radio was an FT-100 (100 watts) and Writelog used for logging. Day 1 - 15/3/2002 - was disappointing with only 1 QSO caused by a radio blackout. Day 2 - 16/3/2002 was better with QSO rates of up to 60 to 80 QSOs/hour.