[TransAtlantic] de PJ4

[N7BHC]

Joe,

It is indeed good to see interest growing here in the USA on trans-Atlantic VHF tropo. I agree that the biggest impediment is the lack of operation. The optimum path appears to be Caribbean to West Africa, The path drops off the further north one goes in Europe, but much less so for stations located in the Caribbean than on the US east coast. We wish there were some strongly active VHF DXers along the west African coast and mid-ocean islands that were looking west.

I am still working towards moving to PJ4 in 2010. I hope we'll be there in time to catch the 2010 tropo season. Admittedly it is a bit far west but will still be a very interesting QTH for VHF propagation. I'm planning on operating several 2m and 70cm beacons, and will be able to get to them within minutes. Its a very small island! The Europe beacon will be running 150 watts into a vertical stack of 8 five-element yagis. With ground gain, the expected ERP is 30kW in beacon mode. If the band opens or looks likely to open, the big amp will boost that to 300kW with that array. Switching to the narrow beamwidth yagi should yield 600kW but that beam will have to be repositioned for each specific path. The other challenge is that NBonaire is very low so the antennas will be with 75m of sea level.

I'll be sure to keep everyone posted of the move when it happens. My new job there will be as the engineer at the 100kW TWR radio station. 160m would be fun, but I don't think I'll do to well with a high power MW station just a  few km away.

73, Dave - N7BHC
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Email:  n7bhc at drasticom.net
 
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FM15PA
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