It's been an interesting couple of days. I arrived in Dominica yesterday afternoon around 3:15. Everything seemed OK until I went through customs. When the customs officials saw my Icom 7000 I was asked to put up a $300 U.S. deposit on the radio. They said that the deposit was required in case I should try to sell my radio on the island during my stay. I tried to convince them otherwise but they would not budge. I did not have $300 U.S. in cash with me so I had to leave the radio with them overnight. They also wouldn't give me a hard copy of my license until I paid the deposit. Fortunately, this morning, Gwen the very friendly owner of Seacliff Cottages where I'm staying gave me a check to leave as the deposit. Customs will give me the check back when I leave (with the radio) and I'll simply tear the check up then. I went back this morning and collected the radio and my license. I woke up at 6:00 this morning with the sun so I had some time before I went to the airport to get the radio. I used this time to measure and build the antennas. I constructed 2 full-wave 40M loop antennas with 1/4 wave RG6 matching sections. George, K5KG told me about and Lambert, J73LC (who I met at the airport this morning) arranged the services of the amazing Donford. He is a local guy who is renowned for his climbing and antenna erecting abilities. He came by this afternoon and climbed coconut and palm trees on the property to put up the antennas. Here are a couple of pictures of his work today:
We put up 2 antennas. A delta loop in the backyard behind the cottage broadside to North America and a square loop across the street broadside to Europe. Here is a view of the EU loop. It is hard to see, but the loop is betwen the fourth and sixth trees from the left:
The early results of these antennas are amazing. I was working loud EU pileups on my CQ an hour before sunset. I had so many calling I had to go split and even that was unmanageable at times. When I switched to the NA antenna, NA signals came way up. This looks like a great combination so I can null out 2 point NA signals to concentrate on 3 point EUs. What I've seen of the island looks beautiful. This is a very mountainous, jungle-filled island and very green. I hope to do some exploring Monday-Wednesday after the contest. The location here at seacliff seems perfect for radio. It overlooks the northeast coast of the island and is at a pretty good height above the sea. I'm sure most of the outstanding antenna results are due to the location. I rented the one bedroom cottage. It has no air conditioning, but a ceiling fan is really all that is necessary to keep it cool as the temps are in the low 80's in the daytime and mid 70's at night. We have gotten a couple of rainshowers during the day and evening to cool things even more. It also has great WiFi internet access. Here's a picture of the cottage from the front:
Here is the view across the street to the Northeast. This is the same view the EU loop has....
CQWW is less than 24 hours away. I feel this is going to be a lot better result than I put up in C6.
We put up 2 antennas. A delta loop in the backyard behind the cottage broadside to North America and a square loop across the street broadside to Europe. Here is a view of the EU loop. It is hard to see, but the loop is betwen the fourth and sixth trees from the left: 
The early results of these antennas are amazing. I was working loud EU pileups on my CQ an hour before sunset. I had so many calling I had to go split and even that was unmanageable at times. When I switched to the NA antenna, NA signals came way up. This looks like a great combination so I can null out 2 point NA signals to concentrate on 3 point EUs. What I've seen of the island looks beautiful. This is a very mountainous, jungle-filled island and very green. I hope to do some exploring Monday-Wednesday after the contest. The location here at seacliff seems perfect for radio. It overlooks the northeast coast of the island and is at a pretty good height above the sea. I'm sure most of the outstanding antenna results are due to the location. I rented the one bedroom cottage. It has no air conditioning, but a ceiling fan is really all that is necessary to keep it cool as the temps are in the low 80's in the daytime and mid 70's at night. We have gotten a couple of rainshowers during the day and evening to cool things even more. It also has great WiFi internet access. Here's a picture of the cottage from the front: 
Here is the view across the street to the Northeast. This is the same view the EU loop has.... 
CQWW is less than 24 hours away. I feel this is going to be a lot better result than I put up in C6.
1 comment:
Thanks for bringing your Dxpedition to the interactive world of the Internet. Thank you as well for your blogging effort from J75W. All the best this weekend and contest on!
73 de Scot, KA3DRR
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