This was our first out of country DX-Expedition, and we had a GREAT time!
First, I'd like to recognize two wonderful people who helped lead us through the Government and Customs Offices of St. Lucia to make this happen. Givan J69AC and Frans Jr. J69DS. Thanks Guys! We'll do lunch again soon!
We flew from O'Hare to the deep southern Caribbean, to the island of St. Lucia. If you draw a line dew west from St. Lucia, you intersect South America, it is VERY far south.
We were really there on vacation... staying at Sandals Halcyon Resort (more pics of the operation). The staff found our radio experiment "quite interesting..". but they were very supportive.
Our gear package was an ArrowII dual band antenna mounted on a photography tripod, and a Yeasu 847. Heil Headsets were used, and all passes were recorded on audio cassette for later review of the QSO's. An Astron SS-30M switching power supply supplied 12 volt power for the 847 and ARR 432 pre-amp on the ArrowII.
Tracking was done via a Garmin GPSIII for knowing our exact location and the correct time, and PocketSat V2.0 running on a PalmIIIc handheld computer.
Our results were very good, 4 countries, 41 Grids, and over 100 QSO's. Jeananne would run the rig, and I pointed the Arrow and talked. We were also able to maintain DAILY contact with N9WJV Mike, back home in Milwaukee WI who relayed "howdygrams" to our moms and friends at home.
On the map below, the violet boxes show the locations of Grid Squares we worked INTO. And YES... That is CM97 California to K6YK about 4050 miles on FO-20, and about 3,600 miles to N7SFI DN70 in Utah. Our closest contact was with FM1DQ on the island of Martinique, 21 miles away!
This Map was generated using WinGrid by Randy N7SFI.
Here is the Schedule of all the Satellite passes we were on.
Here is the Complete QSO Log, I hope you find your call on the list, we had a GREAT time working you all!
Here is information about getting an Amateur Radio Reciprocal License in St. Lucia.
Thanks for your patience for us portable OP's on the FM birds!
73 Gary J6/N9UUR & Jeananne J6/N9VSV
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Feb. 23, 2001