After completing our operation on December 6, 2008 we have made a quick survey of our results:

each of us have made 1000 QSOs. Unique correspondents: 900- 8Q7GC and 930 - 8Q7GU.

DXCC worked: 54 - 8Q7GC and 58 - 8Q7GU.

We hope that next time we can do much better. However, considering the vacation style of operation this result is not too bad.

After a 30 minute flight from Male with the Maldivian air commuter we have finally ditched on the water close to our destination - Sun Island. The total flight distance was just over 100 km. The flight was smooth and exciting. We managed to see much of the local scenery as we flew by numerous islands and reefs. It all looked stunning.

Now we will start deploying our Ham radio gear, errecting antennas and trying first QSOs.

After 4.5 hours flight from Almaty on a comfortable Boeing 767-300 we have landed in Dubai International airport. The flight was very nice. No bumps in the air. We actually expected some issues upon departure from Almaty due to 'imperfections' in current customs legslation since we were taking our Ham radio gear out of country but, thank God, everything went smoothly.

The next stop will be Colombo, Sri Lanka  and then - Male, the capital of Maldives.

On November 19, 2008 I received a phone call from Vladimir, UN9LW, who was surprised to find out from the website for Kazakh radio amateurs that we are going to Maldives. He told me that by chance they are also going to the same island about one week earlier to take part in the annual CQ WW contest which is due for November 29-30.