VP2V/AK0M and VP2VES - February 2008

Anegada, British Virgin Islands - NA-023

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Neptunes Treasure, Anegada, British Virgin Islands

• Trip Report
• Equipment
• Antennas
• QSL Info

TRIP REPORT:

Another enjoyable vacation to the British Virgin Islands is now unfortunately over. My wife Sandy and I were there from Feb. 11-18..This year I was a little more successful than last in getting on the air during our vacation on the island of Anegada. There were no problems this year with lost baggage or carry-on problems. Our room this year was on the second (top) floor at Neptunes Treasure, with very convenient access to a stairway and railing for mounting an antenna.

Initially I started with putting up the end-fed half-wave wires, and even had one pulled up over one of the palm trees. However, it moved around quite a bit due to the palms waving in the wind, had to be tied off at ground level to secure it, (where it was in a relatively well-traveled path) and was very “visible” to folks walking around. I just wasn’t happy with that setup.

So instead I installed my homebrew short vertical on the corner of the stairway railing. This was very convenient for adjusting the tap on the loading coil, and made it easy to quickly remove the antenna when not in use. I used a single counterpoise wire to the north tied off about 8ft up a palm tree trunk. The counterpoise had switches in it to allow me to set it to resonate on the band being used at the time. The antenna was fed using about 40ft of RG-174 coax through a toroid choke balun at the feedpoint.

The vertical is a close approximation of the PAC-12 design. Mine uses two or three 18” base sections of ¼” aluminum rod connected with ¼” coupling nuts. I have two coils, one is used primarily for 40 and 30m, the other for 20-10m. The coils are wound on PVC pipe using small solid hookup wire. The top is a telescoping 6ft whip. For on-ground or on-sand use, I have a small PVC base with a 12” long 3/8” spike. The whole antenna fits in a 22” long by 2” diameter PVC tube that easily packs in a suitcase for transport.

I only operated a couple of hours, with most of that being on Sunday afternoon during the ARRL DX CW Contest using my contest-only VP2VES call. My QTH for that was at Loblolly Beach on the north side of the island. I ground-mounted the vertical close to salt water, threw out eight 9ft radials on the sand, and set up my FT-817 using battery power on a bench under a thatch beach umbrella. Initially I started at 2.5w before realizing it, then switched to 5w for most of my QSOs.

Sending CW and logging was done using GOLog software on a Palm III PDA interfaced to a Serial CW Sender keyer. This meant I had to enter each callsign and exchange into the Palm using a stylus and the “Graffiti” writing method, which requires precise and properly-ordered pen strokes to make the proper character. This is quite a bit slower than using a keyboard and somewhat prone to errors that take a bit of time to correct. However it is ergonomically very suitable for portable operations of this sort and much more tolerant of a sandy environment. If my responses to calls seemed somewhat slow and awkward, this is why!

The pileup was HUGE and completely overloaded my receiver. Imagine a steady squeal due to all the stations calling once a QSO was finished. It was often difficult to pick out even a few characters. Once the pileup worked down some, the rate picked up quite a bit. I finally had to call it quits when the ride arrived that we had arranged to take us back to our room.

I did operate a little bit from our room using the vertical installed on the stair railing and my VP2V/AK0M call. Results even though using 50w then were not nearly so good as was had with the beach location.

This year I took along quite a bit less equipment than in the past, with much of it being in my carry-on. I’ve read about the “100 lb” and “micro-light” dxpeditions, but I think I was well below that. Certainly less than 25 lbs total. I still had more stuff along than I used, and I will continue to pare down the size and weight in future vacation trips. It’s an ongoing learning experience!

 As for other activities during the trip, we had a good time with just general rest and recreation activities. Some of our friends from last year were also there, and we enjoyed socializing with them as well as meeting new friends. We had hoped to do more snorkeling and fishing but the water conditions limited that, as it was relatively rough and there were strong currents due to wind. We did get to snorkel the near reefs a couple of times and really enjoyed that. Several books were read, and we managed to not get sunburned!

 QSLs are yet to be designed but will be full-color. Logs should be uploaded to LOTW by 1 April.

 We’ve already made plans to return next year in mid to late February.

 73, Steve AK0M, VP2VES, VP2V/AK0M

• Yaesu FT-857 transceiver at about 50w from our room
• Yaesu FT-817 transceiver at 2.5w and 5w from the north beach, using internal 2500mAH battery pack
• Gamma Research HPS-1A compact 12v power supply
• Palm IIIx and Serial CW Sender keyer
• GOLog logging software
• Koss "The Plug" earbuds
• Palm Paddles
• AZ Scorpion CW paddles

• 12v laptop power supply and fast charger for the FT-817 (backup)
• 1600mAH external battery pack for the FT-817 (not used; was not necessary)
• K1EL K10+ keyer. (backkup)
• HP200LX palmtop computer
• NA logging software
• Headset w/boom microphone
• Autek VA-1 antenna analyzer for antenna adjustments (not necessary)

• 40-10m homebrew center loaded vertical antenna based on the PAC-12 design; used on 40 and 20m
• Installed at about 14ft height and using one switch-tuned elevated radial sloping to the north to about 8ft high
• 40ft RG-174 coax feedline

• 20-10m homebrew center loaded vertical antenna based on the PAC-12 design; used on 20m only
• Installed with base at sand level about 15ft from saltwater on north side of the island
• Eight 9ft ground radials placed on the ground to cover northerly, westerly, and easterly directions
• 25ft RG-58 coax feedline

Addressed envelope and return postage is required for direct QSLs.

Direct QSLs are usually answered within a few days after receipt.
Bureau cards are accepted, but get processed as time permits and usually only about once a year.

73, Steve - AK0M, VP2V/AK0M, VP2VES, C6ASB

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Last revised: 27 March. 2008
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