[SFDXA] NP2N, Mountain Breeze and St. Croix update

[Pete Rimmel N8PR]

From: George Oster 
Subject: NP2N, Mountain Breeze and St. Croix update

To all ham visitors to Mountain Breeze:

We just returned from hurricane cleanup at Mountain Breeze and operating in the CQ WW SSB contest. Providing invaluable expertise, help and sweat in this effort were Chuck WA0ROI and Ed K1ZE. 


They may wish to add something to this report but the thoughts here mostly reflect our collective thoughts. 


First, all of you who have been on St. Croix will know the folks on the island are survivors and innovators - they are coping amazing well with the situation. As tiny example, many of you will remember the "5 corners" intersection and the crazy intersection at Golden Rock (the Pueblo grocery store corner) -- with no stop lights (not just no electricity - the stop lights were literally gone) traffic moved flawlessly, with little horn toots and flash of headlights!  A very small example of resilience and adaptation.


Before detailing Mountain Breeze conditions, the island as a whole:

For those of you who know Chris and Christie Powers - they are really stressed! The refer to "hurricane brain". We helped them get their gen set going and did a little cleaning at their house and enjoyed their company when we could. They are doing a huge job keeping up on all their clients property! What a job!


There is plenty of food on the island -- although one can't be sure of the exact items available at any one time. One day, there were no Coke products on the shelves - the explanation given -- "well, the Coke barge arrived at dock but there was no place to off load so it went back". We did  eat 2 MRE's with our friends Chris and Christie, by solar light one eve. Lord, we can surely do better by our troops!!! Did you know the desert in an MRE is a melted after dinner mint and Skittles???

And we had plenty of good, fresh water at the usual place - the Foodtown just down the road. Plus the cisterns at Mountain Breeze are sure full of water!


As of Nov. 1, the only WAPA electricity is in downtown Christiansted. All else is generators. The beautiful new solar farm at Government House is a mass of aluminum and silicon -- a major setback (although the equally big solar farm for Captain Morgan Distillery received no damage -- go figure). Perhaps 30 or 40 % of the  (overloaded)  power poles are down. We saw major efforts to clear the right-of-ways of vegetation, clear down wires and set new poles, particularly on the west end and Fredericksted (very badly damaged). A huge Carnival Cruise ship was berthed at F'sted dock - home to the hundreds of relief workers. Didn't see any new lines going up as yet. Ed, Chuck and I made a collective, somewhat educated guess -- electricity for the whole Island in April or May. 


There are no phones or internet except at specific locations. Spotty in downtown C'sted. Pretty good but slow at Viya Office (formerly Choice Cell) near the hospital, some on the bypass overlook and best at the airport. We saw lots of Viya activity (more later on that specific to Mountain Breeze) - they are really working to get cell service back up. We assume same for AT&T and other carriers but Viya most visible.  


The other hams on the island were really hit hard. Fred hosted an evening for us at his East End home - some home damage but his antennas were trashed. And one of his towers bent. Brad was there too and reported his antennas equally damaged. You have seen the photos of Radio Reef. 


The vegetation took a beating but just 3 weeks after the storms, the trees exhibit green sprouts all over their branches and trunks. The Island is greening back very well and probably by Christmas, there will only be the big trees down left as evidence. 


Home Depot and almost all the stores are open. Some shortages of specific things related to storm - had trouble finding 30 Wt. oil for generator (but found it) and wiring for the temporary generator (more on that later) but with innovation and patience, things are getting repaired.

Most restaurants are open except on north shore (although Rowdy Joes was) and except in F'sted. Although since many are running on gen sets, one needs to be there by 5 or 6 at latest - they are buying only enough food for the day and so run out of things early. Plus there was still a curfew (although we chuckled -- it was extended to 11 PM for the World Series).

That's an overview of the Island, now to Mountain Breeze and the NP2N station:

The house, apartment, cottage, the radio room received NO damage -- not even water blown through the storm shutters anywhere - really a pleasant surprise.  


There were 2 panels of the blue railing and a downspout blown off but all easily replaced. The pool was filled with debris but we got the debris out and now waiting for the pool company to clean and refill. The vegetation was pretty mess up - Two big palm trees down above cottage, big tree limbs off, lots of debris, driveway and entrance lost lots of the palms and other plants. But it is coming back nicely. In the attached photos you will see some of the vegetation damage and the grass is really tall. We have yet to get a landscaper up to take care of it -- they are overwhelmed. It will be cleaned and mowed by December.

Regarding radio equipment - no damage of course to radio room. And we brought down a 500 watt amp and ps to add to the menagerie. The DX engineering 30/40 meter vertical was tilted over and concrete blocks placed on it (crude but effective - no damage). The A-3 and Spider Beam were both stored inside so they were dry. We left the Tennadyne T-6 on the tower with the tower nested at 11 feet. Amazingly, only 3 elements were bent on one side (probably by flying debris). In fact, Chuck tested it on arrival and found only slightly elevated SWR perhaps due to the bending. We tilted the tower over (also replacing all cabling - planned maintenance) and Chuck carefully straightened the elements. We raised the tower and all is operational. We suspect partially luck but you gotta say those Tennadynes are well built! Ed also repaired (planned repair) the Spider Beam from previous unrelated damage and we used it for the mult station in the contest. 


We were working with our new DeWalt (Gentec) 8.5 KW gen set, using it maybe 10 hours or so a day. Of the 3 cell carries the 3 of had, no cell service and no DISH TV either (both antennas on gallery roof were damaged).   


And, then, here is the most amazing story: most of you know we negotiated with Choice Cellular (now called Viya in the Virgin Islands) to place on the property a cell site and 2 masts with antennas (on the north side of the house). This work was complete but the cell wasn't quite operational when the storms hit During out stay numerous engineers, techs and climbers were up working on it. On Wednesday before the contest, a 22 KW gen set with 300 gal. diesel tank showed up in the back yard near the cell. In our contract, Viya agreed we could hook to any generator they had on site but we never dreamed one would show up so quickly! They said they would be up next day to hook it up and if we got wire and equipment, we could hook in. We spent literally a whole day finding and scrounging wire, pieces and parts and laying it out from the gen shed to the Viya gen. On Friday, they made the connection to their cell, tested it, shut down the generator and said to us "go ahead, hook up". Chuck and Ed made the connections, started the generator and now, presumably until WAPA power is restored, we have 24/7 power from Viya's generator!


We ran high power in the contest.

And, speaking of the contest. The pileups were more tremendous than usual. The EU's are always unruly. But this year, we observed the NA stations almost as unruly. We suspect we were the only KP2 station on the air and this caused the pileups and the behaviors observed. But we sure had fun! 


So, bottom line: the house will be ready for visitors. The power is very assured (we still have our 8.5KW gen set on standby), the pool will be cleaned and filled and the vegetation should be cleaned up and under control by Jan. 1. The beaches are still the same, plenty of restaurants open, food and water abundant, internet and phones are coming back and, the weather is, as almost always, beautiful -- and, as this is written, it is 33 degrees and snow is predicted in Iowa - what the heck are we thinking??

Thanks to all of you for your interest and concern in Mountain Breeze, the NP2N station and all in St. Croix. We are surely blessed and lucky too (and maybe there was just a touch of good planning in there). If you want more information, drop me a line. Keep in touch and hope you are all well too!

73, George NP2N















George Oster
Fire Protection and Emergency Services Consulting
George Oster and Associates, L. L. C.
Phone 515-450-1986

Radio Call Sign: NP2N
Email: NP2N at arrl.net