Every November, I participate in a ham radio 'contest' where I try to contact as many other hams as possible, and in as many places as possible, in 24 hours on the air. In the 1999 contest, I contacted someone in every state, but it was hard to find anyone in the U.S. Virgin Islands. After the contest, someone commented on the internet that it was strange that no one went there to set up a station. I thought to myself, why didn't I go there?
I searched the internet for advertisements for rental places in the Virgin Islands and found an ideal spot - on a hill overlooking the ocean with antennas already in place. So I suggested to my wife, Karen, that maybe it would be fun to go there for a week, and I could play radio while she enjoyed the tropics. I thought that would be a tough sell, but after looking at the pictures and reading about the place (including comments from other wifes who had been there), she was as excited about the idea as I was. So I called the owner, and learned that the house was available for the weekend I wanted, November 1 to November 9, 2000. (Right during the end of hurricane season!)
After we sent in our deposit we started looking for cheap flights. At first, we didn't have much luck. It looked like it would be cheaper to fly to Europe! But eventually, we locked in a reasonable fare.
I spent most of the late summer and fall planning for the trip. I would have to take a radio, a computer to keep records and help in the contest, and everything else necessary to put the radio on the air. There was a backup radio at the house, but no one knew if it worked. I planned to have at least one working radio, and to use both radios if the backup worked. As it turned out, I didn't need everything that I took, but I was prepared for the worst.
I didn't have a laptop computer, so I had to shop for one. I finally found a suitable remanufactured one on the internet at a reasonable price. I checked out some software options and chose a program which would allow me to log contacts, send preprogrammed morse code messages, and check for duplicate contacts in the log. It also would record the sound from both radios and store it on the hard disk while simultaneously trying to decode the morse code I was listening to. To make all of this work, I had to build a special morse code keyer and headphone switch (so I could switch between two radios) that plugs into the serial port on the computer. And like most things I build, it took a while to find and fix all the bad solder joints I made, but eventually I got it to work. I did this in September so I had plenty of time to test it out and learn the software.
We left for St. Croix early on November 1 from Des Moines just as the sun was rising. We flew through Dallas to San Juan and boarded a small plane to make the last leg of the trip to St. Croix. As we started down the runway for a few seconds, the pilot slowed down and pulled off the runway, saying that the plane wasn't working right. So, we had to get on another plane and try it again. We finally arrived in St. Croix about 9:00 that evening.
We were met at the airport by Dawn, who fills in for the owner when he's not on the island. Dawn asked if I was a 'hammie', as it seems that's usually the case. She also said we had a lot less luggage than most hams. 'You should have seen the guys last week.' Nevertheless, the big suitcase I had weighed 68 pounds, just short of the limit.
We picked up the rental car and followed Dawn to the grocery store, trying to get used to driving on the left side of the road in the dark. As we proceeded uphill to the house, the road kept getting worse and worse. Dawn said we should follow her exactly so we didn't bottom out in any of the potholes, even if she drove on the wrong side of the road. Finally, we made a sharp turn and went up a very steep driveway. The headlights were pointing into the air, and I knew we were there when I could see several nice beam antennas just ahead.
At the top of the hill, we parked the car and got a short tour of the house along with a few instructions. Close the sliding glass doors when you're not home to keep the rain from coming in. Otherwise, mud gets on the walls! If you see a centipede, kill it. They hurt when they bite, and they are venomous. Close the screens after dark to keep the knats out. The place was pretty warm, being closed up for most of the day, and with no wind and no air conditioning, it was a little bit like camping the first night.
We woke up promptly at sunrise. The house is mostly glass, with sliding glass doors on all sides and no curtains on three sides. The sun comes straight into the bedroom, so you have to get up at sunrise. At that point, we got our first look out the windows to see where we were. What a view! We were on the peak of a hill with sharp drop-offs in all directions 900 feet above the ocean to the north and overlooking the entire island. Although St. Thomas was 35 miles away, we could see it out the north window and could see cruise ships with a small telescope.
I spent the first morning putting the station together. I was a bit disappointed that there wasn't much equipment there at the operating table - just a rotor box, power supply, and a big amplifier sitting on the dining room floor. Dawn said she couldn't lift it, and I didn't bother with it either. Then Karen discovered a bedroom closet that had lots of stuff in it including the backup radio, an antenna tuner, and lots of wire. Later that day, after reading some of the files at the operating desk, I found the storage room outside that had long runs of coaxial cable and a backup generator, which I never had to try out.
As I was attaching cables to the back of my radio, I looked up through the glass doors and was surprised to see a waterspout over the ocean near the east end of the island, probably 10 to 15 miles away. I yelled for Karen to look, and she grabbed the camera, but it had dissapated quite a bit by the time we got the picture. It looked just like a tornado, complete with visable counterclockwise rotation. After living in tornado alley all my life, I had to go to the tropics to see a tornado.
We drove to Christianstad on the first day, just to look around and find a place for lunch. From our table, we could look out over the ocean, and if we looked more to the west, we could see our house at the top of the ridge about five miles away. That evening, we returned to the house and I finally put the radio on the air, choosing to use morse code rather than the microphone. I made a short call and got a response immediately. After a very short exchange of signal reports, I made another call, and two or three people answered. Within a few minutes, I had a pileup on my hands. I was on the 10 meter band with the antenna pointing just west of straight north, and conditions were very good to Japan. I had to develop skills quickly to handle the huge volume of signals, and it took about two hours to make short contacts with everyone who stuck around to get in my logbook. I figured it would be like that every night, but conditions were never as good after that first night. Nevertheless, I was amazed at how many people wanted to talk to me. I didn't think the Virgin Islands was that rare, but maybe it is for the Japanese.
On Friday, we spent most of the day driving around the island, from Point Udall, the easternmost point of the United States, past the radiotelescope, casino, and oil refinery. We toured the plantation museum and learned about the history of the island, which was owned by the Danish until about 1917. The island was divided into about 150 sugar cane plantations, and the countryside is dotted with the remains of the windmills that powered the presses that were used to make sugar, molasses, and rum.
Of course, the main goal of the ham radio activity was the contest that started on Saturday at 5:00 pm local time. All contacts in the contest were to be made with morse code, so it is somewhat of a test of concentration and endurance. Fortunately, contestants are allowed six hours of 'off time' during the 30 hour event. In the morning before the contest began, I practiced by making contacts in a different contest, an international event sponsored by the Ukrainians.
Fortunately for Karen, the cable TV started to work late Friday afternoon, so she had football games to watch while I was on the radio. This created a bit of a challenge, as the Iowa Hawkeyes were supposed to have finished their game with Penn State before the contest began. Somehow, Iowa managed to play well enough to go into overtime. So, as the contest began, I had to keep one eye on the TV looking for score updates. Amazingly, the Hawkeyes won! After that, I tried to concentrate more on the contest, but Karen was watching the Northwestern-Michigan game, a see-saw game with both teams scoring over 50 points. Karen would let out a big cheer for every score, but somehow I managed to keep making contacts with all the distraction.
During the first few hours of the contest, I made contacts at a rate of more than 80 per hour. This is pretty good considering we had to exchange for each contact a sequential contact number, a category code, the year we were first licensed, and our location. I took about 4 hours off to sleep and used the other 'off time' for breaks. Karen fed me well during the contest, and one advantage of morse code is that you can talk with your mouth full! By the end of the contest, I had made contacts with 1,110 other stations, including at least one from each of the 80 'sections' of the U.S. and Canada, giving me a 'clean sweep'.
I had some hope that I might be the only low power station from the Virgin Islands, so I had a chance at winning the section, but I heard someone else from St. Croix on Sunday about 50 contacts ahead of me. While I slowly gained on him the rest of the day, his final claimed score was 17 contacts better. I also heard another portable station on St. Croix and a multi-operator station on St. Thomas, so no one should have had a problem working the Virgin Islands this year.
After the contest, Karen informed me that she had made reservations for a boat trip on Tuesday to Buck Island, a U.S. National Park. She didn't want to go snorkeling because she is quite near-sighted, but they told her they had special goggles, so she signed us up. Not being much of a swimmer, I figured it might still be worth trying once, and it was interesting in spite of the clouds which made the water much darker. After the snorkeling, we were taken to the beach on Buck Island, but it was pouring rain by then. Besides, there was no place to dock the boat. If you wanted to go to the island, you had to swim there. Next time, we'll ask more questions when we sign up for a trip to the beach. Still, it was an interesting trip despite the weather.
Election day in the Virgin Islands was interesting. Although the locals weren't allowed to vote for President, there were plenty of roadside rallies promoting the local government candidates. Since we were on Atlantic time, we decided to go to bed at a decent hour and wake up to find out who won. I woke up at sunrise in time to see the same CNN anchors remarking how long they had been up and that they still didn't know who won.
Before we left the island, we did venture over to Fredrickstad to see a few cruise ships docked there. We mingled with the tourists, did a little shopping, and ate at the French restaurant. We tried to visit a woodworking shop in the rain forest nearby, but were greeted at the shop only by great big dogs who were doing a good job keeping people away.
As our plane took off towards the east from the airport, we turned northward and had a great view from the left side of the plane of Windwood. Even from the air, it stood out as a magnificent place to stay.
Karen recommends that you read the ham radio version of our trip, as much of it is actually in English.
Click here to read the ham radio version