I have a small collection of cards from East Timor.
I have a small collection of cards from East Timor.
4W6MM was featured in the June 2000 issue of CQ Ham Radio magazine and was also featured in advertisements by Yaesu.

After the evacuation of international personnell from East Timor on the 7th of September, 1999 – I was one of the first UN staff to return.
I did a aerial survey of the communications sites around the island. This took two entire days sitting on the floor of an Australian Army Huey helicopter which stayed out of small arms range during the survey.
Later I installed VHF repeaters all over the country by road. The photo of the returning refugees was taken near Los Palos in late September. It is probably one of the first photos to be taken in East Timor after the return of international forces.
Polri is the national police of Indonesia. The photo was taken in early September 1999 near Viqueque, East Timor.
A few days later on the 7th of September I had the pleasure of attending a shooting incident against the UN HQ building in Baucau. I was in the building when a Militia member entered the building and cocked his weapon right in front of me. Afterwards the building was surrounded by Timorese Militia (Aitarak or MILISI) and Indonesian Police (POLRI) who proceeded to shoot into the building at waist level through the windows. A rather uncomfortable hour or so was spent lying on the floor watching bullets make tiny holes in the walls around me. One estimate was that 4000 rounds were fired.
This was rather intimidating and I suffered a complete loss of high frequency hearing as a result of the barrage and I remember thinking what on earth I was doing there. Ten days later I was among the first to return to East Timor and I am still wondering what was I thinking in continuing this line of work…?
I have since learned that the shooting was done by BRIMOB rather than POLRI.
From ETAN.ORG :
- Brigade Mobil (in English, Mobile Brigade) is the ‘anti-riot’ branch of the Indonesian National Police which deals with special operations. A paramilitary organization, its training and equipment is almost identical to the Indonesian army’s (TNI), and it conventionally operates under joint military command in areas such as Papua and, until 2005, Aceh. Like Kopassus, Brimob personnel have been implicated in serious human rights abuses and continue to operate with near total impunity……
Brimob was deployed in substantial numbers in East Timor. According to police documents, 2,497, or almost half, of the Police deployed in East Timor by August 1999 were from Brimob. Its officers committed most of the police human rights violations in East Timor in 1999.
7 September 1999: Brimob fired directly into the UNAMET compound in Baucau for nearly an hour with apparent attempt to kill or injures. However, there were no injuries.
Among other things, I performed rigging duties during my service with the UN. These are photos taken in East Timor in 1999.
I attended the 11th IARU Region III Conference held in Darwin in August in my capacity of President of ETARA (East Timor Amateur Radio Association).
Start Slide Show with PicLens LiteThis photo was taken during rigging work in one of East Timor´s microwave towers left by the Indonesians.
This tower is located near Los Palos.

Start Slide Show with PicLens Lite


The beach in Baucau

Cemetary in East Timor
A typical cemetary in East Timor

Cockfight
A cockfight in Baucau

Cockfight in Baucau
A cockfight in Baucau

Collecting drinking water from the river bed in Manatuto
Drinking water in Manatuto is collected in holes dug into the river bed.

Raw sewage floats in the streets of Dili
Raw sewage on the street outside Dili’s finest restaurant The Delicious Blue.

Dili
The street near the Delicious Blue restaurant in Dili

Desabahu
Thor’s Tower in Baucau

Dili lighthouse
The Dili Lighthouse

the dishwasher
This dog cleaned the dishes in a restaurant in OeCussi

Electrician
An electrician at work in my house in Dili

Marconi
The living room of my house in Dili

village
A mountain village in East Timor

OeCussi house
A typical house in OeCussi

Koni
The Koni market in OeCussi

East Timorese
A native of OeCussi in traditional dress

Restaurant
The kitchen in an OeCussi restaurant

Papaya
Papaya grows all over East Timor

Dog Meat (RW)
4W6MM outside a restaurant in Viqueque which specializes in Dog Meat a delicacy popular in East Timor

Salt Mining
Salt mining near Dili

Timor bus
How many people can you squeeze into a car?

OeCussi girls
Girls in OeCussi

Chewing Betel
Chewing Betel Nut – a mild narcotic – makes the mouth red.

Near Manatuto
Near Manatuto

Los Palos
One of the few remaining traditional houses in East Timor. This one is in Los Palos

Dili Sunset
A tropical sunset in Dili
More photos from East Timor may be found in my galleries
The first QSOs from the new DXCC entity of East Timor, were made by Ross, 4W6UN and a few days later I got my licence as 4W6MM. I started calling CQ on the 10M band and it took a while until the first station was in the log.
JA7JVY was the first station in the log, followed by JG5IAA and N6DQ, who was the first U.S. station in the log.
I was using an Icom IC706MKIIG with a random wire at the time.
These contacts represent the first QSOs made from East Timor after decades of silence.
I made 42,419 QSOs as 4W6MM.
The first recording was made on the 16th of March, 2000.
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4W6MM, Dili, Baucau and Oe-cusse, East Timor. Audio from the CQ WorldWide Phone Contest 2002 from Dili, East Timor.
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Audio from the Oceania Phone Contest 2002 from Dili, East Timor.
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This file begins with my only SSB QSO with P5/4L4FN in North Korea.
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