Caribbean DXpedition November 2024

In November 2024 I will be activating some Caribbean Islands e.g. VP2M, V47, ZF2 and PJ4. My trip will be a mixture of DXpedition, antenna experimenting and visiting some of the local radio amateurs. The chance to find an affordable HF location in the Caribbean is very limited, therefore I will also be operating portable or even out of the car. It will be an old school DXpedition without luxury and no sundowner at the pool bar. When on the air, I will be on CW with my 100W ICOM IC 7000 plus ETM9C keyer and of course my wires. Where possible I will use some of my directional wire beams for the higher bands, for example the three element Backpack Delta Loop (see picture on the left) which I built for several bands between 20 and 10m, or the two or three element Vertical J-pole Beam.

Wherever possible, I will try the low bands and of course 60m. I'm looking forward to hearing you on the bands!

Portable Three  Element Delta Loop Antenna

My Three Element Backpack Delta Loop consists out of a 12m (or 10m) fibre pole in connection with two horizontal light weight rods forming the boom. The whole antenna fits in my backpack. Compared to a vertical dipole it produces a big advantage of at least one to two S-Units on DX contacts. I will also prepare this antenna for 12/15/17 and 20m. This system is absolutely light weight. The heaviest part is the fibre pole...

Radiosonde flight August 5th 2024

Weather conditions today were just perfect to start another amateur radiosonde experiment. This time, Wolfgang (DF7PN), equipped the balloon with a 10 milliwatt transmitter and a 20m full size vertical Dipole. Everything is absolutely light weight with a total  of less than 50 grams! Power is provided by a little solar panel, therefore the transmitter will "sleep" during night and comes alive after sunset. 

The transmitter is operating on 14,097.2 MHz in WSPR digital mode. The predicted route leads to Italy and maybe even further to North Africa, depending on the winds. Theoretically it is even possible to circle the whole globe, but let's wait and see...

Immediately after the start around 07:00 UTC, the signal was heard in Tasmania/Australia (VK7) via long path over South America. That means the little 10 mW signal was heard over a distance of 25.000 km - not bad for the beginning!

Radiosondes - another exciting part in our great hobby! 

Feb. 28th 2024: Meeting Janusz on his wire antenna farm on Sint Eustatius Island. After several trips to PJ5 he knows the best place to operate from. He choose a very remote location on the east coast, only 200m from the sea - no neighbours, lots of space for all kind of antennas and pure HF, without man made noise! Janusz is on DXpeditions since fourty years now and he knows how to built antennas. What he is using here is the result of many years experimenting.

The house has two spacy appartments and Janusz had no objections that I use the second one. I will do CW, while Janusz works on SSB and FT8. By the way, I just finished a pileup on 60m with very good signals from EU. At the moment (01:00 UT) the band is quiet, so I wait for the  sunrise in EU...

Of course we compared the vertical half wave antenna with the single quad element. Yes, the test conditions were not quite equal, because a quad has a full wavelength and a natural gain of approximately 2 dB compared to a half wave antenna... The test confirmed that, and the quad element was louder in Europe by around one S-unit! On a DXpedition the most effective and easiest to built antenna is a vertical. It needs no tie wires and has almost no mechanical challenges. But our test convinced me that I will try a quad element next time, where possible.

Janusz (PJ5/SP9FIH) preparing the 80m Antenna for the upcomming ARRL SSB contest.

Feb. 27th 2024: Boat trip from Anguilla to Sint Maarten, followed by a Twin Otter flight to Sint Eustatius (PJ5). I arrived in the evening and was lucky to get a small Hyunday i10. That was the only car available. I looked for a place right on the east coast and started to operate (see picture). As I was absolutely overtired, it happened that I fell asleep during a QSO - sorry about that! The picture with the vulcano was taken during the night. Tomorrow I will meet Janusz PJ5/SP9FIH.

Typical ways of transportation between the Caribbean Islands. The planes mainly used are "Twin Otters". 

Feb.: 26th.: I was wondering about several huge antenna towers far away on top of a hill at the north side of Anguilla. They didn't look commercial, rather like the remainders of a real big amateur radio station... I gave it a try and went there over a bulky road, never thinking to meet anybody. No bell, just the plate saying "SAWTELLE VP2E". This call was familiar to me and I have worked this station many times during the big contests twenty years ago. A friendly man was waving at the balkony, saying "hello, I'm coming down". I felt like he had already expected me. It was Gordin N5AU, one of the contest crew. Gordon is a very friendly man who showed me around the antenna farm or better what is left of it and told me about the activities back than. Several huricanes includig IRMA hit the antennas, but the big 55G towers all survived and still stand there. The FT 1000 radios are still there, but due to the climate and the salty air, they wouldn't work anymore. The last valid VP2E logged is dated March 8th 2011 and it doesn't look that this great station will ever come back on the air...

Feb. 25th 2024: Last Friday I arrived on Anguilla Island by ferry from St Barth via Sint Maarten. After one week operating out of my "SUZUKI Hotel" in St Bath, I now enjoy a real room! First I had to take a few hours of sleep. Did you ever experience a microsleep while running a pileup? That's weird and happened to me during several DXpeditions in the past, so in St Barth. It's a clear sign of your body saying that you better take a nap...

As my antennas were pretty spoiled, now I had the space to repair them - if I only had a soldering iron... My friend Jan DJ8NK who operated from VP2E several years ago, knows most of the local HAMs and is a very close friend to Keith VP2EKG, since many years. I don't know what Jan told him, but within a few hours, Keith, the president of AARS (Anguilla Amateur Radio Society) himself drove by and  and brought me the needed tool - whow, that is what Amateur Radio is all about! He is a professional journalist and broadcaster here in The Valley, who originally lived on Montserrat. His call sign there was VP2MEG. He was reporting for Radio Antilles (Montserrat) right on scene during the disasterous vulcanic eruption that destroyed half of the Island, back in 1997. After that catastrophy, half of the population moved away from the Island and Keith and his family came to Anguilla, where he met Teddy Edwards, who later became a radio amateur too. Teddy got he call VP2ETE and is the beacon from Anguilla in SSB and FT8. Everybody seems to know him and when I talked to friends in Germany, they replied: "Oh, please pass my best regards to Teddy, we have worked him on this and that band and mode...". During our talks, we came to the conclusion, that amateur radio to all three of us is our life and the entrance to the whole world. It's such a great experience to meet these guys here on the Island!

Foto, left to right: Teddy VP2ETE, Keith VP2EKG and Rudi VP2ERK

A typical Sunday afternoon on the Island of Anguilla. It was near the place I operated from and they had great food on the barbeque. You can't belive how relaxed those people are. No computer, no TV - and they seem to be happy by simply playing dominoe and singing gospel...

Feb. 22nd 2024: I just received my Anguilla amateur radio license with the call VP2ERK. Tomorrow I take the ferry to Marigot (Saint Martin) and from there I have to take the boat to Anguilla. I might have to stay one night in FS, depending on the arriving time there. Tonight is my last activity from St. Barth and I will stay away from the classic bands. They are activated in major contests anyway. So I will show up on 30 and 60m. I have the feeling, there is an extremely high 60m demand from Europe... 

Feb. 20th 2024: I arrived on St Barth after after a short Twin Otter flight from Sint Maarten, while Petra was on her way from Miami to Frankfurt. Due to the high season, the situation at the airports in Miami (Immigration and security) and especially at the whole Pleasance Airport TCI was as chaotic I have never ever seen before. Hours of delay, endless lines, thousands of people... It resulted in missing flight connections and  overbooked hotels. We felt like in the movie "Going home for Christmas", not quite the way we had planned... Toothaches on top made Petra to go back to Germany instead of continuing our Island hopping with all it's uncertainties. Too bad, because the real nice places in my opinion were still to come... St Barth is beautifull, but prices for an accomodation start not less than 400 USD per night. This was out of reach for me, so I rented a car, looked for the best HF location and operated from there. For a radio amateur the ideal combination, especially when operating during the night... very clean sanitary facilities at yacht harbour - just perfect!

But when I tried to get on the air, nothing worked. No reception, no output power, just nothing. I tested different Coax cables, different antennas, from which I knew they worked on VP5, but nothing worked. It was pitch dark and that didn't make it easier finding out what's wrong. I was convinced that the radio was broken. To me it was impossible to imagine that anything else could be the reason. I lost a whole day and night finding a way to get the radio running again, but no way. At the end I checked each section of my trusted Jumper Dipole by holding one end to plus (+) and the other end to minus (-) at the car's battery, step by step, each band, one after the other. Little sparks mean wire is ok! What else can you do if you are travelling light weighted... I finally found the problem, at least I thought. It was a broken piece of wire between the 10 andb 12m section - not a connection, no it seemed to be inside the wire... How could this be possible, as the antena was built just two weeks ago? The problem with my other antenna, the J-pole, wasn't less tricky. The connection between Coax and symmetrical matching line, right on the 50 Ohm point was broken. Two broken antennas at the same time... lesson learned: I will rebuild them all and a little multimeter will come along next time! Now as I found the problems, I was happy that the IC7000 was ok. Now I can enjoy quiet bands with no man made noise - except from my own car - away from houses and power lines...  

A fisherman on Turks & Caicos showing his catch of the day. The huge snail is a delicacy for him and many others. It is seen as a kind of seafood and prepared in many different ways.

"In North America, a conch is often identified as a queen conch, indigenous to the waters of the Gulf of Mexico and Caribbean. Queen conches are valued for seafood and are also used as fish bait. In the United States, a rule has been proposed to list the queen conch's conservation status as threatened." (Quote Wikipedia)

Feb. 16th 2024: We are on Turks & Caicos. Making an Airbnb booking turned out to be a complete mess. The room was confirmed, but the owner of the accomodation didn't know anything about it. That's bad news on a place like TCI, where room rates are exorbitant... The owner felt sorry for us and called several locations he knew, but all of them were completely full. He even drove us around and we wondered why everybody greeted him with:  "Good day, Bishop". It turned out that he indeed was the previous Arch Bishop of Providenciales. Maybe this helped and at the end we found a nice little hotel for a "bargain" of only 250 USD a night... Though it was directly beside on the runway of  Providenciales Airport, it was better than nothing! When we were having breakfast at the terrasse we felt a little like real ATC Air Traffic Contollers, so close to the moving planes.

It was before the ARRL CW contest and VP5K was preparing for this event. We visited the location where Bill AC0W and Pat K0PC stayed together with their xyl's -  the Harbour Rock Villa. In view of the upcoming contest we kept our visit very short, took a picture and wished them good luck.

By the way the contest location "Harbour Rock" belongs to Jim K4QPL. If you contact him well in advance, you might be able to rent the shack. He can be found in the Internet, but keep in mind, the ARRL CW contest is already blocked for the next year(s). By the way, Jim helped me getting my VP5 license in time - thank you Jim! 

Feb. 15th 2024: Meeting Vernon, C6AVD, the president of the C6A Amateur Radio Club. There are some active resident HAMs on The Bahamas, but the main activity comes from contest operations by visitors from abroad. Vernon is called the king of SSB and he loves to experiment with new antenna systems, preferably out of wire - so we had a lot to talk about... Meanwhile Vernon tried to build his own vertical wire beam and what he wrote me was very promissing. The king of FT8 on this Island is Kinson C6AKD whom I was in contact with well in advance.  Kinson helped us a lot finding the right location for us. We were so happy to stay at Carmellas place!

Feb. 14th 2024: The 10m telescopic fiberglass pole broke today when I tried to errect a Dipole. That's sad, because it is the support for the vertical wire beams as well. Unfortunately this happened before in VP9 the same way. I have to look for solution when on the other  Islands...

In St. Eustatios the Element #11 broke too. This happenes, when we tested a vertical antenna hanging down from a cliff. The wire got stuck somewhere on a stone and I tried to pull it free. I never do that again...

The pole is great, but you should never try to pull a twisted wire out of a bush or somehere. Meanwhile I talked to the company and they will send me a replacement of the two elements to my German address.

A backpack, a suitcase and telescopic mast is all I need for a 100W DXpedition. Including clothes it has a total weight of approximately 20 kilos.

Feb. 11th2024: Petra and me arrived in Nassau, New Providence Island/Bahamas. We had booked a little Airbnb in advance, but there was no chance for any kind of antennas. With the help of Kinson C6AKD we found the ideal place to stay and operate from, at least occasionally... No powerlines or other disturbing obstacles above ground, just perfect. The location is about five miles west of Nassau and about 400m from the north shore of the Island. An ideal place even for bigger DXpeditions with up to four members. On Feb. 15th. we will continue to Turks & Caicos (VP5).

VP9/DK7PE focused on the low bands and on CW. Getting the license in Bermuda was no problem, thanks to the Regulatory Authority of Bermuda. Once again I was using my old ICOM IC 7000 which worked great and I start to love this little radio... it's size and power is hard to beat and it perfectly fits in my backpack. One hundred watts is the maximum legal power in Bermuda, no amplifiers allowed! This might be one reason why VP9 is still rather rare on the low bands, especially in Asia and Oceania. However, it was possible to work Australia even on 80m. Several times I was asked about 60m, but this band needs a special permission which is not so easy to get, referring to the local HAMs. Ed, VP9GE is one of the lucky ones having authorization for 5 MHz. Antennas: 160/80 and on 40m a Dipole, WARC bands Dipoles as well, two full size 3 Element wire beams, one for 15 and one for 10m. Together with my Spiderbeam pole (this time I broke the top section of it...) I was able to errect a 3 EL. Beam  within 15 minutes, one at a time. The principle of this antenna is a J-Pole with additional Director and Reflector. I will describe it in a litte youtube video soon. As a morse key I used my good old ETM9C Keyer with a Schurr paddle inside. For me, it's like I am driving an Oldtimer car with a switch gear - it's real fun and sure you will hear that. I never use a computer keyboard for CW.  Referring to the QSLing I stick on classic paper QSLs the old way (please have a look on my QSLs I used so far).

By the way, a little story that happened to me. On my way to VP9 I arrived in New York JFK and tried to send a Christmas Card to our grandsons. I was told there was no post office in JFK anymore. No place to get any stamps, no place to send a parcel or even a postcard in the whole JFK! And at least an ordinary mailbox? No, not even one of the blue US mail boxes to drop a postcard... The reason for that was, that nowadays everybody uses email, WhatsApp or whatever, instead of cards and letters. To me this experience was one more reason to keep on QSLing the old way, just like I still write Christmas Cards... QSL Requests will be answered via bureau or direct and of course also SWL reports are welcome.

Ed Kelly, VP9GE, a famous radio amateur from Bermuda who gave many of us a new one. He is 92 and I never met such an agil person in that age. He repairs his antennas, he drives his car and WhatsApp is a part of his daily life.  Looking at Ed is an example on how it can be fun getting in his age. A natural force (Qte Steve KL7SB), a real oldtimer and DXer since 1968. Take care Ed!

Tucker's Town Bay Bermuda is where the rich - the very rich people live...

A Vertical Two Element Wire Beam

This time I've tried a new portable beam antenna based on a 15m J-Pole in connection with an additional director. To my knowledge tis combination was never used before. The whole antenna costs around 5USD and weights only 300 Gramms. It took us ony 15 mins to get it working. One great advantage is that you dont need to bring the feedline up to the middle of the vertical dipole as in a VDA system, what makes it much easier to built. Furthermore you dont need to worry about the impdance of 50 Ohms or less. The antenna is fed on the bottom, with a high impedance transformed over a symmetrical 450 Ohms quarter wave matching. This two element vertical beam proved to be very efficient referring to the very good reports I received. It has a gain of approximately 4dB and certainly the salty water brought another few dB's on top...

KL7/AH0G Aug. 26th to Sep. 3rd 2023.

Thanks to Kent, KL5T, I had a chance to visit  the very impressive KL7AA clubstation in Anchorage. The KL7AA Team is very strong in emergency communication and also in the training of new radio amateurs, up to taking the VEC examinations. On Tuesday, Aug. 30th., I met Joe (WL7E), who kindly gave me a lift from Anchorage to the famous KL7RA Contest Station at the Kenai Peninsula. By the way, I know Joe since over fourty years now. He is a great CW operator and in the 1980's he gave me the very rare zone #1 for my 5BWAZ on 40m.

Thanks to Steve KL7SB, I was allowed to use this great Multi-OP station - in my opinion one of the best equipped stations I have ever operated from. While conditions were very good, I was able to work several EU QRPP stations, some of them with only one Watt power!

Greenland - OX/DK7PE/p

Strong solar storms sometimes made it difficult to work any DX. During that storms, there was nothing to hear but a big noise from the northern lights dancing above the southern part of Greenland - due to this  PCA (Polar Cap Absorption) I was isolated on the shortwave bands... During that time I went out and took some picures of the incredible Aurora Borealis. As soon the storm was over, the bands were in good condition again. I remember very good openings into Japan, right over the North Pole. On my way home from Greenland to Iceland unfortunately I catched Covid 19. It kept me busy for two weeks, but now everything looks normal again. Many thanks to Peter, OX3XR, and the whole group in Nuuk for letting me use the OX3NUK shack and the antennas.

73s Rudi DK7PE

OY/DK7PE/p 5 Watt QRP Operation

Working on DXFC score brought me up to the Faroer Islands. It was 11°C, windy, rainy and sometimes foggy. Ideal weather conditions for an amateur radio operation. Meeting Caen, OY1CT, was a highlight on my trip to Torshavn. I was running 5W QRP and my vertical Jumper Dipol, switchable from band to band. I was able to fix the antenna in 15m hight, what explains the good signal reports I received even in Japan and South America. The final result was 900 QSOs in four days and a new activated DXCC Entity #161.

Amateur Radio and being a Shortwave Listener (SWL)

Exactly 50 years ago, Dec. 4th 1973, I passed my amateur radio examination when I was sixteen years old.

Until this day I was a very active Shortwave listener (SWL) and I was always happy getting an swl report confirmed. Being a Shortwave listener was a very imortant step for me.

The picture on my QSL was taken back in 1972 showing my shack. I had a DRAKE 2-B, an old surplus receiver for 10m and an Lorenz LO15 RTTY typewriter.