– March 30, 2024Posted in: Meet the Members

Spin your globe to the waters of the Indian Ocean now and the Dx Adventure Radio Club is excited to introduce to you outstanding operator 257DA101 Rocky from the diminutive autonomous island of Rodrigues.

Like most DA-RC members, Rocky (Seen pictured left) is a licensed amateur radio operator; one with a wealth of hobby knowledge and expertise to offer the wider international community.

Great news is that he’s also a guy fascinated by 11m DX; one who’s looking for new challenges in the hobby, a broader range of DXperiences and friends inside a professional radio organization like the DA-RC to support his work behind the microphone.

257DA101 Rocky connects with the DA-RC in early March 2024, eager to make an impression…

History reveals he’s been involved in radio comms for almost 50 years; living, breathing and loving DX work on several bands from his small island home.

In fact, 257DA101 Rocky is famous for his ham work in this intriguing part of the world and highly respected for his wonderful contributions to the realm of rare DX.

Cluster archives confirms that our new Mauritian guy is skilled at CW, proficient in digital operations and, of course, willing in telephony.

Great news for the international DX community is that Rocky looks forward to being QRV on the eleven meter band with his new Delta-Alfa callsign and making his island more accessible to the world’s population of serious Freeband IOTA Hunters!

According to the world atlas, Rodrigues Island—Rocky’s beautiful home QTH—is situated roughly 560 km east of the Republic of Mauritius (168 Division).

It’s part of the picturesque ‘Mascarene Islands’ group as stated by islands directories, a collection of paradisiacal isles which includes Mauritius and Réunion (173 Division) islands, and carries the special reference AF-017 in keeping with the World IOTA Program.

A spectacular 108 km2 autonomous outer island of Mauritius, Rodrigues is of volcanic origin, hilly in some places, with limestone caves and other natural wonders.

A large fringing reef surrounds the island forming a lagoon within which lie eighteen small islets, all of which belong to the AF-017 IOTA listing.

257DA101 Rocky resides in the township of Citronelle, an eye catching destination which is approximately 3.2 km away from Rodrigues’s capital Port Mathurin.

According to the World Atlas, Citronelle is situated nearby to the village Mont Lubin and the locality Chameaux.

The main sources of income and economic activity on Rocky’s island are said to be tourism, fishing, agriculture (especially of onions, garlic and chilli), and animal rearing.

Interestingly, an endemic bird species, the Rodrigues warbler (Acrocephalus rodericanus) is known to nest in the Grande Montagne area.

Seen pictured here with 43DA148 Peter from Australia who visited his home recently, 257DA101 Rocky is a retired guy who enjoys quiet times with family and friends.

When he’s not being hammered by pileups of IOTA crazed DX Men, Rocky enjoys chilling out to traditional music known as Sega Tambour.

This unique style has an accentuated beat, and is usually accompanied by an accordion, clapping and the use of improvised percussion instruments made from materials such as bamboo.

On top of a love of the arts—music and dance—Rocky is a lover of fine cuisine, enjoying meals with family and friends when time permits.

National dishes here in Rodrigues include sausages with kreolinės, rougaille sauce, octopus with curry, kono-kono (a shellfish) salad and Rodrigues cake.

257DA101 Rocky has established a high quality station for work on the world’s best HF DX band—11m—and other bands.

His choice of transceiver is an Icom IC-7300 which—as well as delivering 100 watts TX power—offers a large colour TFT LCD and can be used as a touch screen.

This modern day rig also has an internal antenna tuner and a seriously good filter system to purify signals from man-made and electrical noise.

257DA101 Rocky’s choice of antenna is a 3 element high performance yagi by Smar Tech Innovations, gifted to him by his fellow Delta-Alfa members out of respect for his commitment to the club.

An ideal construction in a tough coastal environment such as this one, this horizontally polarized antenna has a massive gain of 13.30 dBi, a F/B gain of 31.93 dBi @11m and is rated at 5kW.