During the tour this page gives you the Tour Diary by the members of the team. Updates when possible on a daily basis.

Wednesday 25nd August

• Departure 11.30 local time from Anguilla by boat to Sint Maarten. Departure 14.30 local time from Sint Maarten to Amsterdam via Paris.

  Some personnel remarks :

  	Martin PA4WM : Thanks to everybody. Travelling through the Caribbean, visiting St.Maarten/ St.Martin, Nevis and Anguilla, rigging up the equipment and activate them on our shortwaves was a thrill. The 40.000 qso mark is something I never had guessed, but very exiting to pass. So everybody thanks for the many contacts and the nice pile-ups. It was a pleasure! I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Thanks for the feedback on the internet. The team was great, but it's time to divorce and go back to the wife and kids...73, Martin
  Rob PA5ET : This was my fifth Caribbean Tour and also the biggest. It was a big challenge to go with a bigger team and more rigs. We just stayed long enough on each island to keep the pile-ups and long enough so everybody could work us. Passing the 40.000 qso's is great, I will be busy again answering all QSLs. Changing my callsign from PA3ERC into PA5ET ready was an improvement in CW. Having Internet on each location was perfect, the Packet Clusters made overtime. I like to thank Alex PA1AW for maintaining the excellent web-site, over 4000 hits, wow. Our audience behaved correctly and I really enjoyed working everybody. I like to congratulate all team members for their super job, the team spirit was really there. Again all equipment performed outstanding without any problems. Unfortunately my employer wants me back again so I can't stay any longer. See you next year from . . .
  	Henk PA3GCV: I want to thank everybody who made this tour to a success, the conditions were not always our friend but still we made many contacts. Normally I am a SSB operator but I made also a lot of CW contacts, I learned a lot in CW and want to thank everybody for these contacts, it was not always easy but we survived. We also made some contacts on the topband which wasn't an easy job because of the heavy static qrm , only on Anguilla it was possible to put a few in the log. I liked traveling around but I am happy to go back home to my wife and children, its not easy to be three weeks away from them. See you on the band 73 ....
  Ronald PA3EWP: This tour was a very big success, like the prior Tours. I want to thank everybody for making this Tour a great success, not only the radio amateurs for the pile-ups but also all the others on the back-side and internet visitors. Thank you all for all the positive comments. This was the first time we had so big group and it was a great success, more antennas, equipment and so on. We were mostly active 24 hours a day. Our portable operation on FS, V4 and VP2E gave a special dimension on our Tour. Everybody behaves OK during the pile-ups, specially the Europeans (thank you). After logging more than 40.000 Q's, we can look back to a big success. I hope that everybody had the same fun working us as I had working you. Thanks everybody, see you next year from ....
  	Peter PA4EA: After not participating in last years Tour, it was good to be back. Thanks for all the nice responds via internet and on the bands. Sometimes the pile-ups were huge, while on other moments it was hard to stay awake with only a few takers. It was a challenge to run a pile up in CW on a portable location with a keyer of another operator. Also, to keep the log sheets from blowing away wasn't easy. These 3 weeks have gone bye very quick, so now it's time to go home and have a good rest. Back to the 'wrong' side of the pile-up.
  Dennis PA7FM: My first Caribbean tour and HF expedition / holiday into the Caribbean. Just great to be on the good side of the pile-up and enjoying the islands possibilities for a good vacation on the other side at the same time. Sri 6m would not really work, just missed some propagation there,but that's the guess in this time off the year.Thanks for all feedback on the bands and hope to see you all some other time from somewhere else on one of the bands.

Tuesday 24th August

• In the early hours we passed the 40.000 qso mark. Time to celebrate, but not for long, we have to move on. This was our last day of full operation. Despite of the lacking propagation the day was filled with lots of activity and again many made it into the logs. During the night we only activated the lower bands, as we broke down a part of the antenna farm before sunset. Tomorrow the 25th at 14:00z this years Caribbean tour will come to an end, as we will hit the road to catch the ferry and start our journey back home.

Monday 23rd August

• The flux improved but the A & K raise resulting in bad propagation on the high bands. In the morning the whole team toured around the island to make some pictures and buy t-shirts, in other words behave as normal tourists. In the afternoon we tried to setup the mobile station but the sw appeared to be 1:5 on all bands so we cancelled this idea and went to the beach while the other 3 operators were active from the villa. In the evening mainly the low bands were activated and again some European made the log.

Sunday 22nd August

• The flux and A & K index improved a lot resulting in 17 to be open early in the morning. We had to stop the operation for about 2 hours this morning due to severe thunderstorms. When the air cleared the operation continued. The high bands were in good shape and many qso's are logged during the day on 10,12 and 17 meters. Due to the bad weather the mobile station was not used today, who wants to swim in the rain ... Coming night we will focus again on the low bands. Talking about the weather, hurricane Cindy is on it's way from East Africa to the Caribbean. It goes very slow so we will already be at home before it reaches this area. In the evening many Europeans were logged on 80 meters, and during the night mainly 30,40 and 20 were activated.

Saturday 21st August

• One of the best days again, despite the medium flux and high A. 12 meters was open from the start and 10 meters joined in shortly after. One half of the group enjoyed operating from the villa were the higher bands were open until sunset. The portable group enjoyed the island in the morning hours, and went to the beach around 2pm and operated only 15m. We felt that 15m was not as good as 12 and 10m. During the evening and into the night Rob, Henk and Martin were at the villa again. Besides the "normal" bands we focussed on the low bands as well, and finally the first contacts were logged on topband. A couple of stations out of the US and Europe made it into the 160m log.

Friday 20th August

• Today we have visited the Emergency Operating Centre of Anguilla. Today they had their yearly exercise to test all equipment and procedures in case of a hurricane of other disaster. We tried to make contact with the Barbados Emergency Centre which didn't work, however the contact with the British Virgin Islands was successful. We made only one contact with Venezuela on 20 meters. We compared our FT990 with their Icom transceiver and experienced that the FT990 has a better reception of weak signals. In the afternoon the Tour continued, Ronald, Dennis and Peter manned the mobile station on 15 meters while Rob, Martin and Henk made most contacts on 17 and 20 meters. In the evening Ronald and Rob participated a couple of hours in the SARTG RTTY contest and will continue doing this in the other 2 x 8 hours sections. Also 40 was in good shape, Europe was worked far after their grayline. Lots of Europeans made the log on 30 meters.

Thursday 19th August

• We started at 7 o'clock in the morning to finish the station and departed to the Telecommunication Officer of Anguilla to get our licenses. Originally we would get VP2E/homecall but we convinced him that this was to long . . . so he agreed in VP2E + last 2 letters of home call. So we got permission for: VP2EET, VP2EEA, VP2EWP, VP2EWM, VP2EFM and VP2ECV. The Telecom Officer also showed us the Emergency Operating Centre. They have a R7000 on the roof of the Police station and an old Icon transceiver. Tomorrow between 12Z-16Z we are asked to operate this station using VP2EOC to test the station and do recommendations how to improve the station. These QSO's won't be part of the Caribbean Tour so no cards will be sent. We invite stations to call us to test the station VP2"E"mergency"O"perating"C"entre. The first QSO's are made on 6 meter with VP2MDD and KP4BZ at 15.30Z. After 6 hours of operation about 2400 QSO's are logged. 17 was again the best band during the day and in the evening 20,30 and 40 were ok. The flux is still low and the A and K index are still high, hopefully this will improve.

Wednesday 18th August

• During the greyline the propagation was very bad. Early in the morning we started to take down the antennas and prepared us for departure. We made 17.323 QSO's from Nevis, mostly on the WARC bands and in SSB. The plane will leave at 16Z from Nevis to St. Maarten were we will take the boat to Anguilla. We arrived at 1600 local time at the villa. The Communications Department was already closed so we didn't had our licenses yet. In the mean time the antenna's are setup and everything is prepared.

Tuesday 17th August

• The propagation was bad during daytime. We had on 20 meter a good path to Europe for the first time, we worked a lot of Europeans on 20 meter cw. In the afternoon Rob, Dennis and Ronald went to a new portable qth on the Island. They went to a little mountain at approx. 500 meter high. The temperature was very high on the top > 40c, there was no wind at all. They worked only 15 meter SSB and CW. The signals on 15 meter were much stronger than from the main location. At the end of the afternoon we took down the 6 meter antenna.

Monday 16th August

• The regular way of downloading the logs, photos and diary failed this morning so the portable crew of the day took the files to the village were we found the villa rental company very helpful. Through their internet account Rob uploaded the files to Alex, the webmaster back home. Propagation was not as good as yesterday and operation had a slow start this morning. While the operators at the main station were looking for the bands to open, the portable crew found one of the most beautiful beaches of Nevis. 10 meters opened up nicely into the US, and Ronald worked many stations on this band. The other higher bands were good as well. The portable crew focussed on 15m. Europe and NA were favourite, that is with a lot of fading. Unfortunately no Japanese stations were heard. Again RTTY was given extra attention, and about 600 RTTY QSOs are made so far. In the late afternoon we had a good run on 30 meters to Europe and later to North America. In the evening we were surprised again by the visit of 3 local hams. Earl V44NEF, Elbert V44NE and McCoy V44KMC came by and brought along some island made drinks. While the sun was setting we enjoyed the good live... At european greyline 40 and 80m showed to be open and many european station made it into the logs. Tuesday evening at 21Z we take down the six meter beam and Wednesday morning at sunset we take down the rest of the station. We hope to be in the air again Wednesday evening from Anguilla.

Sunday 15th August

• Rob, Ronald and Dennis made a tour around the island while Peter, Henk and Martin stayed at the main station. The mobile station wanted to go to Lovers Beach but this location was already occupied by locals have a bbq with raggea music. We found a new location just at the end of the runaway of the airport which sometime gave some qrm when an aircraft departed. Only 15 meter ssb was activated and almost 600 stations were logged. The main station had the best day so far. 12 and 17 meter was the best band. It was open for hours into all directions. In the evening 17 and 20 were the best bands. We also tried 80 and 160 meters again without any success. At the end of the night we logged almost 14000 QSO's from V4 land.

Saturday 14th August

• 17 meter seems to be the magic band, as this band is almost open 24 hours a day. Even through the darkest hours we were able to work Europe and Asia. Around 11z the band opened excellent to Japan, and again we were able to log numerous of our Japanese friends. Since we shift on a daily basis to either operate from the main station or from a second location, it was Martin, Peter and Henk who hit the roads again. Visiting beautiful Charles town, were the people are living in a very friendly and relaxed caribbean atmosphere, and finally stopped at Lovers Beach were the second station was rigged up. The R7000 vertical stood only 15m away from the blue ocean and looked non stop to wards Europe and North America. We concentrated on 15m, since operating this band at the main station creates to much interference. The band opened nicely to Europe and NA. The funny thing was that the main station (about 3 km from Lovers Beach) didn't work any stations on 15 at all. This situation we have seen before on PJ7 and FS land, what a little mountain can do ! On the portable stations the signals were loud, and many made it into the log. At the main station, the other bands were operated, and Ronald fired up his RTTY gear. The low bands are still behind. 160m is really a problem. We haven't heard single signal since the ant. was raised. And static with a s9 level is not uncommon. 40 and 30m is good, but 80m is suffering also. Receiving the signals is the real problem here.

Friday 13th August

• Again in the morning the bands were open. An inverted L for 160 has been added to the antenna park. Rob, Ronald and Dennis did some sight seeing and went to a resort to find an operating place with a fixed power supply. The first attempt paid of, it's the same place we had dinner yesterday. We found a perfect spot with clear view to the USA and Europe. Rob was very happy because now he could use the notebook again to run cw. At the end of the afternoon a lot of Japanese stations made the log on 12 meters. The main station worked a lot on 15 and 17 meter. At 00Z the WAE contest started which makes live hard on the regular cw bands. So probably we will avoid these bands during European activity and concentrate on the warc band and ssb.

Thursday 12th August

• Today was our first full day of operation from Nevis. As we did on St.Maarten, we split up the group and Martin, Henk and Peter went to a different spot on the island to operate mainly on 15 and 10 mtr. In the morning hours they went on a sightseeing tour and found a nice spot with a clear view towards Europe and North America over the Atlantic. The rest of the team, consisting of Rob, Ronald and Dennis stayed at the house to operate from there. Conditions were good on the higher bands with strong QSB. We were happy to work a lot into Japan for the first time.

Wednesday 11th August

• The flight from PJ7 to V4 land was perfect. A very nice view to the other Islands. We arrived at approx. 10 o'clock in the villa. This time we are sure from a perfect take off to USA and Europe. We have a clear view to St. Kitts. After assembling all the antennas we were ready around 21Z, when the first contacts were made. During the night we were not active on the lower bands. After 15 hours there are nearly 2.000 QSO's in the log included a few on 6 meters.

Tuesday 10th August

• This night 20 & 40 meter was very good. Europe was still workable at 07Z. In the morning for the first time 10 meter opened and many Europeans made the log. Also 12 was wide open so it promised to be a good dx day like last Sunday. Peter, Ronald and Dennis went to FS land and logged about 750 calls including some Japanese for the first time. In PJ7 land mainly 10,12,15 and 17 are activated. The PJ7 & FS operations was stopped at 22Z. The balance so far is 9700 QSO's in 5 days. Tomorrow the team will move to Nevis, the flight will leave at 08.25 local time and they hope to be QRV again from V4 land at 18Z.

Monday 9th August

• The propagation were very good until 08Z, then all bands were dead and nothing could be worked anymore. We didn't hear a single signal on 160 meters . . . In the morning the bands were still quiet so be decided to visit Marigot the capital of French St.Martin to buy some t-shirts and behave as tourists. In the afternoon Martin, Henk and Rob went to FS land to be active again from their portable locations. Because of the late arrival they wanted to stay longer then the previous days, this meant that the last hours would be in complete darkness using a torch to see the logsheets. About 500 stations from mainly Europe are logged despite the propagation were very poor. Comparison of the two operating sites (FS/PJ7) showed that the location in FS land appeared to have a better antenna situation for North America. The signals into Europe are the approx the same from both locations. Our 6 meter beacon is still running 50 watts into a 5 element yagi pointing to Europe. Today we heard for the second time weak Spanish TV but no stations has been heard. The rest of the team remained at the PJ7 camp spending their time pressing F1 without a lot of response. Tomorrow Dennis, Peter and Ronald will go to FS land for the last time. Sunday has been the best day so far. Tomorrow evening at 23Z the PJ7/FS stations will be taken down because of the early departure to Nevis on Wednesday.

Sunday 8th August

• Today started very well, the propagation improved a lot on all bands except 10 meters. Dennis, Ronald and Peter went to FS land. They had better propagation then yesterday and worked over 800 QSO's. The PJ7 team worked a lot of European stations on 12,15,17 and 20 meters followed by 30 and 40 meters late in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning the whole team will go to Philipsburg to buy some t-shirts and see the capital city. In the afternoon Henk, Martin and Rob will return to FS land. This evening we will activate 160 meters. Tuesday evening 23Z the stations will be taken down because of the early departure to Nevis on Wednesday.

Saturday 7th August

• In the morning we didn't work a lot of stations. Rob Henk and Martin prepared the visit to FS land. Instead of taking one of the fibre masts the R7000 was dismantled so they could work from 10-40 meters without changing antenna's. As from 13.30 local time they activated FS mainly on 10 and 17 meters. Rob logged the first 27 CW QSO's with CT then the battery was empty of the notebook and he had to continue with the ETM keyer and paper log. As from the moment the FS station started the pile-ups are huge, also big signals from North America which we didn't hear from the PJ7 station. At the moment the FS station was working a pile-up on 10 meters the PJ7 station couldn't hear a thing !!! so it's true to say that the PJ7 location is not that good as we thought it would be. About 500 contacts are logged in 4 hours time. The PJ7 team spent most of the time in the swimming pool because of the low signals, only a couple of Europeans made the log. Tomorrow Peter Dennis and Ronald will go to FS land and will try to activate 10 and 12 meters. The FS location is Oriental Beach, a place surrounded by salt water on 3 sides giving an excellent take-off to all directions. We used the rental car as power-supply and a towel as tent to protect the operator against overheating. It has been over 30 degrees celsius all day and no shade, only a bottle of warm water. On the picture page you can see how it looks like.

Friday 6th August

• N4PSE was the first station worked in the Caribbean Tour 99 on 30 meters at 0116z N4PSE by PJ7/PA5ET. We all hoped for big pile-ups but the start was very moderate, only 30 meters was running fine for a two hours, other bands we only logged a couple of stations. Because we all were tired we went asleep to recover from the long journey. Henk cooked us very nice breakfast. Dennis PA7FM has set up the 6m antenna and started the beacon on 50.140 and heard the Spanish tv channel so the yagi is working fine. We had some interference between several bands and decided to build some monoband antenna's. We setup a 17 meter Delta-loop, a 40 meter vertical and an inverted L for 160 meter. After completing the antenna's we listened on the bands and heard only noise and no stations so we went to the beach to get a color. We started white and returned red. After lunch we split up the group and Rob PA5ET, Martin PA4WM and Henk PA3GCV went to Philipsburg, the capital of Dutch Sint Maarten, to arrange an Internet account. After that they went on to FS land to find a good QTH for operations this weekend. The plan is to be 2 afternoons active from FS this weekend so all operators can attend once. FS will only be activated during day time. The other three Ron PA3EWP, Peter PA4EA and Dennis worked their first pile-ups.

Thursday 5th August 1999 - The journey:

• Early on the thursday morning from several parts of the Netherlands we arrived at Schiphol airport at about 6.15 local time where Martin (PA4WM) and Henk (PA3GCV) already checked us all in (They arrived 15 minutes earlier). Result, much more fun on the plain, as we all had a place next to each other. After checking in the 250 kg luggage we left the Netherlands at the day a a very hot summer ended and it started raining. It was time to leave Holland. The first part of the flight (from Amsterdam to Paris) was in time so we had plenty of time in Paris to catch the next flight to PJ7 land. To get in the mood we drank almost all beers in the plain. 9 hours later we arrived on a very warm and sunny St.Maarten. We had some delay at immigration because we didn't knew the address of the villa we were staying. After several telephone calls the nice lady who collected us from the airport sorted out the problems and we could continue our journey to the Villa. We arrived at 16.00 local and had 3 hours before sun-set. We had decided to setup 3 stations before starting the operation. The villa location was not that good for take-off to North America as expected because of several mountains standing in the way. Because of the heat we needed a refreshment, Martin still wearing his jeans jumped in the swimming pool while the others found some bottles of cold beer in the fridge. After 3 hours of hard work we have setup two R7000+ and one R7000 all separated 30 meter of each other. Also the six meter yagi was prepared to setup.

2 August 1999 ; Rob PA5ET :

• Today all radio equipment and computers are packed and ready for shipment. Total weight of all equipment is approx 170Kgs. Two Days before kickoff . . .

29 July 1999 ; Rob PA5ET :

• Today the licenses for V4 arrived. If possible on Anguilla we will try to get local calls instead of VP2E/Homecall. We have to arrange this at arrival. One week before kickoff . . .

23 July 1999 ; Ronald PA3EWP :

• Last weekend we had the final meeting at Ronalds (PA3EWP) place. 90% of the equipment has been collected by Peter (PA4EA), he will make the final check. A few things have to be arranged for the departure. The portable computers must been updated with the same version of software (CT, WF1B a.s.o.).

  We are still waiting for the switched power supplies which will be donated by one of our sponsors, but till now the sponsor didn't receive the shipping from Japan. This could be our biggest problem. So we are looking now for alternatives, but there is not much time left till the 5th August. Lets hope the shipment will arrive very soon.

  We received a few request about PSK31 and RS12/13 QSOs. This weekend Ronald (PA3EWP) will try to experiment with PSK31 on his laptop computer. So there is a big possibility that we will be qrv with PSK31 from 1 laptop (that is the only one with an integrated audio system). RS12/13 is a different story, in the last years we were active a lot of time during a some orbits. But there was not much activity. And when we are working satellite 2 bands (10 and 15 meter) are in use. When someone is working a nice pile-up on 10 or 15 meter we don't stop the pile-up for working satellite. Sri for the satellite operators.

  From now on we have only 14 days to sleep before we are qrv from the Caribbean. See you in the pile-up.