[OKDXA] PJ7/K5WE Update

[Jeff Martin]

PJ7/K5WE - Sint Maarten - 25Oct14 to 2Nov14

 

  I'm not sure if you folks are interested in an update on my trip to Sint
Maarten, but it doesn't cost much so here goes...

  We left Tulsa early Friday 24Oct14, flew all day, finally arriving at our
destination on Sint Maarten about 9PM local time. I unpacked some of the
gear, but decided to wait until the next day to work on antennas. The next
morning I scouted out a location for the hexbeam and decided upon a spot
above the carport. I got the hexbeam (2 elements 20-6 meters) and a 40 meter
inverted V installed on Saturday. It took longer than anticipated. It's hard
work for an old man in 88 degrees under the Caribbean sun... hi... 

  I fired up and began working the pileups. I normally operate almost
entirely CW, with a little RTTY thrown in... but decided this time since I
was arriving during CQWWSSB contest weekend that I would try some SSB. I
tried, worked a few hours on 15 meters, then it dried up. I went to CW and
began working the pileups. On Sunday I called CQ Contest on several bands
with very little luck. Hardly no one called. I guess no one could hear me
with all the big guns blasting away. So, I finally just gave up on the SSB
contest and went to working the CW pileups... 

  On Sunday I assembled and put up my 2 element Vertical Dipole Array for 30
meters. I had mixed results with it. I had hoped it would perform better. I
had it aimed at JA/Stateside, but I had a mountain in that direction
blocking the path. I think it would work better on a north facing beach.

  We stayed at a villa on a hillside overlooking Oyster Pond on the Eastern
coast of the island. The location had spectacular views and was very pretty,
but turned out to be not so ideal from a radio perspective. The villa faced
SE with a mountain directly behind us in the direction of the US and JA. The
path to Europe was clear, straight out over the water. My percentage of
QSO's from the Caribbean is always highest to Europe, but this time it was
the highest yet, at nearly 72%. Again regarding the location, the house was
perched on the side of a mountain, with hardly any yard and very little
space for antennas. I had to put the 30 meter verticals within a few feet of
the house and there was no room for the 80 meter antenna, so it did not go
up at all. We had no internet access the entire time we were there, so no
email and no log uploads. They got the TV working after 5 days. They blamed
the outages on a hurricane that hit the island a couple weeks before our
arrival. 

 

Here are some stats:

Band     QSO's

40       554

30       430

20       2076

17       1742

15       1149

12       1458

10       1341

Total    9253

 

  I had 190 QSO's on SSB, 313 on RTTY, all the rest on CW.

  I operated for 9 days. A significant part of the first 2 days were spent
putting up antennas, and half the last day was spent tearing down.  Also, my
wife went with me on this trip so we spent 2-3 hours each day doing tourist
stuff and took off one whole day to take the ferry over to the island of
Saint Barthelemy for sight-seeing and shopping. So, all-in-all, I am happy
with 9,253 QSO's. The operation ended at 1600Z on 2Nov14. We flew back to
Oklahoma the next day. 

  Thanks to AF5CC, W5LE, K3LR, W5NUT, K5PX, AF5Q, WQ5R, K5UV for working me
as PJ7/K5WE. Also thanks to my wife Becky for putting up with me and my
crazy hobby for all these years. 

  Hope to CU AGN from the next one...

 

73,

 

Jeff - K5WE