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Upcoming Activities
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| June 12, 2004 |
Family Day |
| June 26 - 27,
2004 |
ARRL Field Day 2004 |
| July 11 - 12,
2004 |
IARU HF World Championship 2004 |
| October 16 -
17, 2004 |
JOTA (Jamboree
On The Air) 2004 |
April, 2004
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The general members' meeting was held on April 7.
2003 - 2004
Activity Report |
March, 2004
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During the club
meeting on March 10 Jean Claude introduced the
Logbook of the World. |
February, 2004
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We have
cleared the old shack in the RC-Building. The new
shack is being painted and there is still a lot of
work to do. Thanks to Juni, Fernando, Charlito, Ivan, Tim, Brett, Torry etc.
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On February 7
Castro PJ2CFM participated in the SDA QSO Party from the RC-shack which
still smelled of paint. In spite of the low score, Castro hopes to
participate next year again. |
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On February 10 Ir. Jan van der
Rees held a sophisticated lecture about GSM.
We were impressed by all the GSM features.
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On February 16 we
climbed Seru Gracia to trace the problem of the repeater PJ2PZ/R.
It appeared that a defective power supply and a broken antenna caused the
problem. This link to Aruba
will be fixed as soon as possible. |
January, 2004
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On January
00.00.00 Zulu many hams logged in on the Happy New Year Net, even Joop could
drop in from Mexico City via IRLP. |
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The Club meeting
of January 14 was dedicated to EchoLink with a presentation by Brett.
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December, 2003
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On December 17 the
“End of the Year Meeting” was held at the QTH of Joop and Tonny. Brett
memorized briefly the passed activities and mentioned the plans for the year
2004.We observed one minute of silence for the deceased members and
relatives. Christmas-music was performed by Etzel (keyboard), Castro
(guitar) and Brett (flute) and our XYL’s prepared a lot of nice food. Many
thank to you all, ladies. |
October, 2003
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The club meeting
was held on the cable layer vessel Tyco Responder which has our harbor as
its home port. After the official part host Tim PJ2
/ NW7TP guided us through the ship for a
great excursion. Thanks to Tim for the hospitality. |
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Also in this month
the mast and antenna of Scouting Camp Ronde Klip was renovated as a
preparation for JOTA. |
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Roland PJ2RM
became, as a scout leader, the National JOTA Coordinator. |
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On October 26
Brett participated in a radio interview of Radio
Paradise, regarding JOTA with Hopman Ariadne Schoop and Scout Daniel Corsen
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On July 12 VERONA
participated in the IARU HF World Championship Contest with Head Quarter
call sign PJ2HQ along with the Caribbean Contest Consortium CCC at Coral
Cliff. Operator list: PJ2BR, PJ2EP, PJ2VR, PJ2MN,
PJ2WOL, PJ2BVU, PJ2CFM, PJ2JW, K9SG, K4LT, W0CG. Several interested hams
visited the house of Geoff PJ2DX. VERONA members had a wonderful time and
for all of us a lot of new experiences.
More... |
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The Lunar Eclipse
on June 14 should cause a big shadow on the moon and we planned to watch
this event together from the mini airstrip near Playa Canoa. However, there
was more shadow over Curacao due to the cloudy weather so we had to cancel
the moon watching. |
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On June 28, three
stations were operating on the ARRL Field Day 2003
with: Station PJ2BR at Playa Canoa with PJ2VR, PJ2AA, PJ2ZZ, PJ2BG, PJ2MN;
Station PJ2EP at the parking lot of the Hospital with PJ2FF, PJ2AR,
PJ2WOL and Station PJ2JW at Scherpenheuvel with
PJ2DH, PJ2BVU, PJ2CH.
More... |
April, 2003
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The backup
equipment at the Emergency Operational Center EOC in the Feffijk Building
became operational through the efforts of some VERONA members. |
March, 2003
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On March 6 one of
our dearest members Arthur PJ2AM passed away. Many hams came to express
their sympathy on the farewell ceremony. |
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Repeater PJ2A/R
moved from Cocori to the penthouse of Fernando’s apartment building in
Otrabanda. It perfectly covers downtown Willemstad and the south coast.
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On Saturday January
18, a group of 17 persons, consisting of radio amateurs
and a some relatives went up the traffic tower at Hato for an
excursion guided by the head traffic controller Mr. Erich Menig.
More... |
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2002 News |
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June 28, 2003
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Back |
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On
Saturday June 28, VERONA had three field day stations on the air, from
15.00 - 22.00 h (local time) at the following sites:
PJ2BR at Playa Canoa NE-coast (with PJ2BR, PJ2VR, PJ2AA, PJ2ZZ, PJ2BG)
PJ2EP
at the parking lot of the hospital
(with PJ2EP, PJ2FF, PJ2AR, PJ2WOL)
PJ2JW
at Scherpenheuvel (with PJ2JW, PJ2DH, PJ2BVU, PJ2CH)
P2EP, as the most real field station intended to work as an emergency station
from a location close to the hospital. The station had the hospital’s permit “on
paper” to use the location.
PJ2JW
had the intention to introduce HF-operation for N- and C-licensed hams.
Our youngest ham worked Israel from Skèrpenè.
PJ2BR
was equipped for diverse modes ( i.e. data and satellite communication)
Thanks
to all participants in the background, for assistance, equipment, visiting and
the nice food.
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January 18,
2003
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Back |
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On
Saturday January 18, a group of 17 persons, consisting of radio amateurs
and a some relatives went up the traffic tower at Hato for an excursion guided
by the head traffic controller Mr. Erich Menig. The busy air traffic at that
moment offered us the opportunity to get a good picture of the invisible work
that is being done up there for the passengers.
The air
traffic controllers direct the traffic and provide the pilots with info on the
wind and air pressure around the airport (VHF
119.6 MHZ)
Arriving and
departing planes are directed safely from and to the fixed traffic routes to
avoid collisions or near-collisions.
With an
average of 100 landings or takes off on busy days these air traffic controllers
have their hands full. Apart from an excellent tour we enjoyed a magnificent
view of the airport and the Caribbean Sea.
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The
Area
Control Centre
is
located at Mahuma in the building
where the Meteo is also housed. Head traffic controller Mr. E. Ignatius was in
charge of the guided tour.
All air
traffic in an area extending to 300 nautical miles North-East to North-West of
Curaçao is directed from here. With about 30 flight movements per hour these
air traffic controllers are constantly on the alert and warn pilots for crossing
traffic. (VHF 124.1 MHZ). By applying difference in altitude and time zones the
planes are kept apart from each other.
The constant
concentration during the work demands that the air traffic controllers have a
break after three hours.
The new
radar system that becomes operational this year will facilitate the work and
will increase the traffic safety even more.
Verona has
been invited for an excursion when the moment is there.
President
Brett PJ2BR thanked Mr. Menig and Ignatius and the XYL of Cedric PJ2CJB handed
them a small present thus closing this excellent excursion.
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July 12, 2003
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Geoff Howard, PJ2T, of the Caribbean Contesting Consortium
had a superb idea to join forces with VERONA and enter the IARU contest as a
Head Quarter station. Not only was this an enjoyable
“get-to-know-each-other” event between the CCC and VERONA members, but it
also turned out to be a real contest. Geoff, Gary and Dough made the
PJ2-hams familiar with the CCC equipment and “initiated” them into the
contest procedure. After this it was a serious matter and the joint team
reached an unexpectedly high score.
In the “remote” past VERONA had successfully participated
in some CQ WW contests.
 1972:
PJ2AA became the global winner in the phone multi-operator/single
transmitter class and also in the CW class. (See picture with some
participants)
1973: Another victory for PJ2AA in the CW category.
In 1975 VERONA was awarded the 6th place on the world list
in the multi operator/multi transmitter class (phone). This event took place
in the shack of Chet Brandon PJ9EE at ……….. Coral Cliff. (In those days
still called Playa Hundu)
Great HF-operators of those days were among others: Jossy
PJ2MI, Eddy PJ2CJ, Bert PJ2CW, Ronny PJ2CL, Willem PJ2WI, Arie PJ3ARI, Bruce
PJ9CB, Age PJ2AW, Ike PJ2CR, Joeke PJ2VD, Wally PJ2HR, Peter PJ9VR, Louise
PA0LOU (guest).
Much more information about those days can be found in the
book “Honderd jaar Radio”, published on the occasion of VERONA’s 50th
anniversary (source PA0VDV, ex-PJ2VD).
Some reactions on the event:
CCC and VERONA Friends,
I've posted some photos from our
joint VERONA/CCC contest operation as PJ2HQ. Please point your browser to
http://www.pj2t.org/photos.iaru.2003.1.htm . From there you can click the
link to Page 2 of PH2HQ photos, which contains many links to large, higher
resolution photos. Thanks again to everyone who participated! It was great
fun, we made > a lot of new friends, and we posted a highly respectable
score for the first ever Netherlands Antilles HQ station in this contest.
We have received many positive comments on the operation from all
over the world. I hope we will be able to contest together as a joint group
in next year's IARU contest, again signing PJ2HQ. We can have fun pushing to
beat the 2003 score!! Special thanks to Cindy, my XYL and our friend Evie
Loftin for preparing the feast during Saturday's Open House and for being
patient with the mass-invasion of the house over the weekend
73, - Geoff, W0CG
I would just like everyone in the VERONA club to know how
much fun I had with all of you at the IARU contest. I had become friends
with W0CG over the air and on the internet and had always wanted to come to
Curacao for a contest and finally had a chance to do it. Geoff said that
their might be some of the local hams show up to operate. I was very
surprised with the number of hams and their enthusiasm for getting on the
air. I had the privilege of helping several of the hams get started in the
contest and then just watched them make contact after contact. I hope I
didn't step on Castro's foot to much while he was keying up the
transceiver!! You have a great club and I had a great time staying with
Geoff and Cindy and meeting all of you.
Gary, K9SG PJ2/K9SG [email protected]
My experience with PJ2HQ.
That evening, after long looking for the place, it was situated so remote,
and asking the neighbours how to get into the yard, I arrived at around 9.15
p.m. What I saw, was above comprehension. All kinds al wires and cables,
computers and rigs...I never saw a thing like that, not even in the
magazines! After looking around I wanted to try my luck.I took place behind
one of the rigs, ready to be thought how to score some points. I started
slowly..and whenever I forgot to press in the footlkey, I got a blow/kick...
So I learned it the hard way..but after some minutes (more than ten) I could
fly alone...What an experience it was. I would like to thank all the guys
from the States and their ex-yls. I will never more forget that evening..
Early in the morning around 3 a.m. I left for home..just before the cock
crows.....Till next year..God spare lifes.
Castro, de PJ2CFM
My first IARU contest experience.
This is indeed my first contest. I have enjoyed it tremendously! The
operators were just like family! I was really amazed to see all the Verona
folks coming in one by one to attend this contest. I surely hope we can do
it again in the near future.
73 de Brett |
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