[3830] CQWW CW J79A(K7GK) SOAB LP

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                    CQ Worldwide DX Contest, CW

Call: J79A
Operator(s): K7GK
Station: J79A

Class: SOAB LP
QTH: Dominica
Operating Time (hrs): 40

Summary:
 Band  QSOs  Zones  Countries
------------------------------
  160:                    
   80:  303    17       48
   40:  775    23       72
   20:  943    29       78
   15:  755    26       76
   10:  768    22       69
------------------------------
Total: 3544   117      343  Total Score = 3,792,240

Club: Willamette Valley DX Club

Comments:

This was my first time operating from the Caribbean and, shall we say, it’s a
bit more fun that trying the same thing from Pacific NW. I was going to operate
field-day style and my main goals were to learn and have fun. It is a minor
miracle that I managed to be on the air at all, and, under the circumstances,
things turned out fairly well.
Our host in Dominica is a relation of a friend who is interested in ham radio,
but doesn’t have a ticket, at least not yet. Before going there I learned that
his place is in a bit of a hole on the wrong side of the island. The cabin is at
about 1500 feet above see level in a valley with almost all directions blocked
except west. The property does include the top of the ridge (roughly 2000 feet
above see level) and the plan was to set up the station up there and run an
extension cord all the way down. Upon the arrival to Dominica and climbing this
ridge I realized the absurdity of this plan – the spot is in the middle of a
rain forest and there is hardly any room to set up a tent not to mention to
assemble and lift the homebrew tribander I brought with me. Moreover, unless we
could airlift my stuff, there is no way to get it up there. We checked out a
couple of other places, one of which was finally chosen. The location I ended up
operating from is truly gorgeous, a 15 to 20 foot flat top of a ridge with
hardly any vegetation, probably 500 feet drop-offs on either side and a view of
the Caribbean sea. The tribander went up only about 18 feet, there was just not
enough room to tie it and since the spot is fairly windy, there was a distinct
possibility of it being blown down. Two inverted Vees for 40 and 80M sharing a
feed point were set up using a telescoping fiberglass pole tied to a lemon tree
on the edge of the ridge. Who knew that lemon trees had huge thorns? Those left
a few marks on my hands and are going be painful reminders of this adventure for
another week or so. By the time these antennas were up, the tent and rest of the
station was ready to go, I had zero energy and decided not to bother with a top
band antenna. I checked the antennas and discovered high SWR on 15M, did I miss
something during assembly? With no help, no way to get the antenna down and no
time left before the contest I decided to go ahead as is and figure out what to
do with 15 meters later. A 2-hour power outage Saturday morning gave me a chance
to slap together an inverted Vee for this band, of course I was hurting on 15,
but nonetheless it was much better than nothing.
The contest itself was a big blur, I tried to concentrate on the mults and
probably missed a lot of good running time. Pleasant surprises included being
called by SU8BHI, 8Q7DV and getting 6 mults in 3 minutes courtesy of S9A.
The weirdest moment of the contest came during my two-hour nap during the first
night. I woke up because the earth under me was shaking noticeably, and for a
split second I wondered if I’m I plunging down one of the slopes. Never have I
felt an earth quake so up-close and personal.
Finally, I would like to thank my XYL Julie for putting up with all this ham
nonsense and helping me out on this trip quite a bit, my gracious hosts Ron,
Jean, Tiana, Elroy and Tito, Brad, K7ZSD, for his tremendous help with the
pre-contest preparations and all who ended up in my log.

Denis, K7GK


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