Targets
1. To activate semi rare entities in the Caribbean West Indies area.
2. To offer new ones in digital modes(RTTY/PSK) to as many stations as possible.
3. To challenge the solar cycle bottom condition and check the propagation to JA.
Planning
To get above targets, I checked rental shacks in the Carbbean West Indies in
http://www.dxholiday.com/
Then found FM5BH and FG5BG shack with super antenna systems and decided
to ask them for the rent.
Laurent(FM5BH) and Georges(FG5BG) kindly accepted my visit and made this
pedition go. Please see below for the details on these rental shacks.
http://www.fm5bh.com
http://www.qth.com/dxshack/FG/FGtop.htm
Travel
The airports to arrive in FM & FG are Fort de France(FDF), Martinique
and Point-a-Pitre(PTP), Guadeloupe.
I took following flights for this trip,
Aug 12
AA699 0715JFK-1108SJU(San Juan, KP4)
AA5096 1200SJU-1340PTP
TX413 1515PTP-1600FDF(TX: Air Caraibes)
Aug 18
TX306 1530FDF-1615PTP
Aug 21
AA5097 1410PTP-1553SJU
AA2314 1750SJU-2142JFK
There are also Air France and other flights between FDF(FM) and PTP(FG).
Access & Arrival
FM: The FM5BH Laurent's location is almost hill top of Ducos about 10 min drive
from FDF airport. The shack is in the basement (1st floor) of his house.
FG: The FG5BG Geoges's rental shack is in the southeast beachside of Basse Terre
about 1hr drive from PTP airport. The shack is in the ex-fruits farm of Georges.
FM/JJ2RCJ Martinique 12-18 August, 2005
Operation
I concentrated in digital modes and low bands. Due to high level tropical noise and
low condition in summer time, 80m QSOs were limited to 94 while 10m had good short
openning to Eu which enabled 45 QSOs.
Antennas
The 40m 2ele(402CD) on the top worked really nice for JAs and RTTY.
C31XR(20/15/10m) stacked with 402CD(40m 2ele) for 40m on 72 ft tower
A4S on a second small tower at 45 ft.
Inv V at 70 feet for 80m Inv L for 160m.
Results
Total 3,082 QSOs including 821 digital modes.
Eu: Very stable opening on 20, 40m for long time.
JA: Good opening on 40m (08-10Z) & 20m (10-13Z) allowed 771 QSOs
including 288 CW QSOs on 40m and 141 RTTY QSOs on 20m.
FM/JJ2RCJ All QSOs Total: 3,082
FM/JJ2RCJ JA QSOs Total: 771
QSO % by continent (AS: Rest of Asia)
FG/JJ2RCJ Guadeloupe 18-21 August, 2005
Operation
I concentrated in digital modes and JA QSO due to short stay.
Sorry but no 6m operation as there was no 6m antenna there. Hi
Antennas
The A4S on the 100ft tower is so nice to work JAs and RTTY on 20m.
Cushcrft : A4S (20/15/10m 3el) on Rhon 100ft tower
Force 12 : C4XL (40/20/17/15/12/10m beam) on 60ft Alma Crank up
Dipole(inv V): 160m, 80/75m, 30m
Results
Total 1,096 QSOs including 496 digital modes.
JA: Good opening on 20m(10-13Z) allowed 393 QSOs (127 RTTY).
FG/JJ2RCJ All QSOs Total: 1,096
FG/JJ2RCJ JA QSOs Total: 393
QSO % by continent (AS: Rest of Asia)
Summary
Thank you all for calling and working me.
Special thanks to Laurent(FM5BH) and Georges(FG5BG) for renting their super shacks.
I could not forget their hospitality and kindness to make this pedition possible.
Last but not least, thanks also to Hiro, JA2EZD who helped to establish FG5BG shack.
I would like to activate next targets in the Caribbean West Indies in some future and
please look for me again next time.