[Fourlanders] Jamaica Status

[Sherman Banks]

Looks like you made a Jamaica Mistaica!

https://youtu.be/PsKZewdhDtk


-----Original Message-----
From: Fourlanders [mailto:fourlanders-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of
Jim Worsham
Sent: Wednesday, June 22, 2016 11:09 PM
To: fourlanders at contesting.com
Subject: [Fourlanders] Jamaica Status

Everyone is here in Jamaica.  The Villa is wonderful.  It is night now but I
will take a photo  and send it tomorrow.  Now for the bad news.  We ran into
some Jamaican bureaucracy at the airport.  Apparently there was some
paperwork with customs that was supposed to be done beyond just getting an
amateur radio license.  Too make a long story short, they confiscated our
radios.  We have the antennas but anything that was electronic and/or had a
serial number was confiscated.  They even threatened to take our tablets and
laptops but backed down when it was pointed out that hundreds of other
people were coming through customs at that time with tablets and laptops.
We are going to go ahead and put the 6 meter yagi and HF dipoles up starting
tomorrow under the assumption that we will be able to get something going on
those bands eventually.  2M EME is in doubt.  We are attacking this on
several fronts from here.  Today we called and emailed everyone starting
with the US Embassy t  o the new ARRL CEO asking them to intercede with
Jamaican customs on our behalf.  This was an honest mistake on our part,
there is no commercial interest involved here and they just need to dial it
down and give us our stuff.  The second front is we have two other operators
flying in on Saturday and they are both bringing K3s with them.  They know
what has happened and have both been told to not mention anything about
amateur radio when going through customs.  That was our mistake.  It started
when the customs inspector asked about the bags with the antennas in them.
We should have just said that it is aluminum tubing for an awning or
something.  Instead we used the words amateur radio antennas and everything
went south from there.  Lesson learned.  Third, we are trying to contact
some well known active hams here in Jamaica to see if we can borrow
something that will get us on HF and 6.  Keep your fingers crossed and I
will keep you updated.  Feel free to pass this along to
  anyone who might be interested.

73
Jim, 6Y4KX

Sent from my iPad
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