[CVCC] VP9/WA4PGM

[Kyle Chavis]

Hi Gang!
It was really good to work some of the local gang during my 10 day vacation
on VP9. My original plan was to operate the IARU and NAQP RTTY contest but
had to change due to problems.

Strike One, during IARU it seemed the propagation gods didn't want me to me
heard. It was very hard to work even the strong stations, for some reason I
wasn't being heard. I used Ed's (VP9GE) Yaesu FT-920 running 100 watts into
a G5RV and a tri-bander. Power Output was good, SWR almost nothing, checked
for bad connections - good, antennas are still in the air, what's wrong? Had
to be propagation, the first 3 hours only netted 40 painful contacts. I
stopped operation for a while to go site seeing in hopes of improvement
later. I managed another 31 contacts for a total of 71 and said that was
enough for me. More touring the island and start getting ready for NAQP RTTY
following weekend.

Strike Two, my rtty interfaces wouldn't work with the 920. Neither FSK or
AFSK would work, I tried everything plus had fantastic support from ops of
the RTTY Reflector. FSK would key the rig but no shift in the tones, AFSK
would key with a very LOUD hum and no power output. Boy what luck, strike 2
and its only the second day. Read the manual cover to cover, view several
web sites but unfortunately never did operate RTTY. Perhaps in all of my
efforts I screwed up too but felted I did all I could before giving up
again.  :(((

On Sunday I found a nice opening on 6 meters to W1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,0,
VE1,VE2,VE3. I managed to work almost 300 stations in 2.5 hours so my hopes
were running high again. 6 meters opened each day which some e-skip so my
efforts now went to the CQ VHF Contest next weekend. Having worked almost
700 contacts on 6 before the contest I viewed good things to happen. Guess
what? Yep!

Strike Three, Saturday morning yielded only few contacts on 6 before the
contest. Conditions didn't look good, at the start of the contest I made 5
contacts in the first minute and then on 7 more the next 3 hours! Sunday
wasn't much better with very few short openings with lots of QSB. Totals
were 29 Q's and 20 Grids.

Even with all of my problems I'll go back for another vacation/expedition.
Murphy and the Propagation Gods tried to hold me back but I still managed
just over 1100 Qsos. Total on 6 meters were about 850 with the rest on 20.
The people of Bermuda are wonderful, Ed (VP9GE) is one of a kind, he was
already there whenever I needed support. He's a very knowledgeable person
and has traveled the world, I'll never forget him and look forward to seeing
my new friend again soon. His apartments are for rent to hams and non-hams
alike, check out his website at: http://www.qsl.net/vp9ge/ and I'll be happy
to answer any questions.
73,
Kyle
VP9/WA4PGM

PS: Forgive any typos.