After finishing a Chemical Engineering course in 1965, I had time to build crystal sets, TRF receivers and then found I could not make a superhet work! So off I went to do an Electronic Technicians course and met up with Barry VK5ZAU who fascinated me with 6m mobile qso's to JA! From there, I was hooked on 6m.

My calls were VK5ZEI then VK5IR.

From 1971-1973, I was working in Barbados and had 6m equipment - a 4 element quad and a Yaesu FT200 (Tempo One) with a transverter running a 5894 (QQE06/40).

We had great summer sporadic E to the US with large pileups!!

My first visit was late 1996 but did not get a ham license until early 1998 when I became resident here with my wife.

3C is NOT a magic spot for 6m dx but is very rare. As with the rest of the West coast of Africa, there are many more openings than we realise - it is just that there is so very little activity around here, so contacts are hard to make.

Updated: Jan 20, 2001