Topband: on behalf of 4V1TL for TB reflector

[Sam Harner]

It was an honor to participate in a special event station commemorating the
founder of Haiti, General Toussaint Louverture who led the first successful
slave rebellion. Haiti has a proud history and provided important assistance
to their neighbors, including important assistance to the USA in the
Revolutionary War. The 4V1TL callsign is a special club callsign assigned by
CONATEL to the Radio Club of Haiti (RCH) to commemorate Toussaint Louverture
who led the only successful slave rebellion in history and helped to
establish the first black-led democracy in the world .  The 4V1TL operation
will continue throughout 2016 by operators of the RCH.  The callsign include
the letters "TL" as a memory to General Toussaint Louverture

 

The QSL manager for 4V1TL and other RCH callsigns has always been W3HNK.
Joe is an outstanding and wellknown QSL manager. To my knowledge W3HNK does
not participate in LOTW.  QSL  directions for our portable calls are at the
discretion of the operator.  HH2/N3BNA via KA2AEV and 100% on LOTW.
HH2/WS6X via WS6X.  Not sure about LOTW at this time, I have only returned a
few hours ago.

 

A word about our 160m operation.  It has been my dream to put in a serious
effort on 160m from Haiti using a tall broadcast tower.  Except for the east
coast of USA, Haiti is rare on TB.  Other bands are less needed by the
deserving.  The reason for the need on TB is that all existing Haitian
stations are using compromised antennas. My idea was to fill some of the
need in EU and west coast with an effective antenna.

 

Our results have exceeded my expectations. We worked over 100 EU stations
and more than 250 western USA stations. FOr most of these and many others we
were a new one on 160. Our hearing was less than perfect and we were
suffering from quick QSB that left many partial callsigns out of the log.
But with 885 QSOs, we were hearing at least some of the callers.

 

We could not have been successful without the efforts of Jim WS6X. Jim built
the huge 160m delta loop that gave us the big signal, did most of the
operating on TB, and was a wealth of technical expertise.  We did not have a
big amp.  We only had a solid state ALS1306 with no mods. The good signal
was due to the antenna, perhaps aided by the 180 foot tower that supported
it.  We needed every inch of that 180 foot tower to put up the delta loop.
The tower is located in a saltwater marsh and happens to be resonant on 80m
and near 40m.  We look forward to using the tower in future contests along
with a WRTC yagi and a SteppIR vertical.

 

If anyone is interested in joining us in a future contest, please let me
know.

 

Thanks for all the contacts on topband.

 

73,

 

Dale - N3BNA  (just an operator for the special event station of 4V1TL)



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