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One day Henry, KE1AC, invited me to France to work some hot DX. I soon found out that this part of France was located in North America ! The place is called St.Pierre & Miquelon,- a group of islands just off the eastern coast of Canada. In fact,- Henry not only invited me, he paid for the whole trip, air- travel from Europe and back and all meals included !!..(one day its my turn,-Henry...)..The operation took place October 1999.

St.Pierre & Miquelon consists of a total of 7 islands. These are: Miquelon (110Km2), Langlade (91Km2), Saint Pierre (25Km2), Ile aux Marins (0,5 Km2), Grand Colombier (0.5 Km2), Ile aux Vainqueurs (0,1Km2) and Ile aux Pigeons (0,0 4Km2). Total population is abt. 6400 (1990),-most of them on St.Pierre. We decided that Ile aux Marins (Sailors Island) was the best choice for a DX-operation.

This island is located just off the coast of St.Pierre. As the rest of the area, the climate here is cool and foggy most of the year,- and as we soon were to dis- cover ; windy,-very windy ! Apart from an old fisher- man and a couple of carpenters working to restore old buildings,-we seemed to be alone on the island. Ideal for a major radio-operation! Our accommodation was an old building near the beach , used as a cafeteria in the summertime..

Local "crew" helps putting up the Force-12/C3S outside the cafeteria.(right) Warm clothes are necessary in the somewhat unfriendly climate... The "tower" was not the tallest I have seen,-but it sure worked ! We got lots of reports on VY strong signals. The 160M vertical - here inspected by LA9VDA (below), was never used. A strong gale forced us to take it down (along with several other antennas)before we could use it.

Inside the shack (below) Henry is fighting the pile-up. The equipment used were two Cachina 505's generously lent us by the manufaturer, Acom 2000A power amplifier, verticals for 160-80-40m plus a C3S from Force-12, a vertical from Butternut, and a simple dipole for 40 that gave us a great takeoff from its position just a few meters over ground, but directly at the beach. In addition, Henry brought a "truckload" of necessary equipment.

Hear TO0DX through the european pile-up,-as recorded by LC3NAT in Norway.   RealAudio             Windows Media If you don't have any players installed,- you can download here : Realplayer      Mediaplayer

St.Pierre & Miquelon -links :

The CIA world fact-book provides good information on St.Pierre & Miquelon ! Please email me if you have any questions or comments!

The official St.Pierre & Miquelon Website !