Travel

Ham-cation and Island Fun from St. Croix, USVI

One of my favorite ham pastimes is leisurely chasing DX. I've added many new entities and have achieved DXCC Phone and WAS Mixed awards in recent months. In 2011, my partner and I planned a trip to St. Croix, USVI - a fine opportunity for DX, sunshine and exercise. It also allowed me to test the strengths and weaknesses of my portable gear (in "paradise").

A Dream is Realized

There are ample articles online for "Suitcase DXpeditions," "100 Pound DXpedition" and "Caribbean Buddies." Personally, I want easy-breezy, reliability, fun and low maintenance to be the foundations of my trip.

Our visit to St. Croix just happened to coincided with the 50th Anniversary of President Kennedy making Buck Island Reef National Monument a protected area under the care the federal government, so I made that a focal point of the adventure. Buck Island is BEAUTIFUL, but they don't permit camping, so I decided to skip operating on the island and go swimming. This was a wise choice ... the swimming and picnic was a blast!

Buck Island and the reef are amazing natural resources. The 76-acre island is surrounded by a coral reef, which supports a large variety of wildlife, including hawksbill turtles and sea birds. Visit the Buck Island Reef National Monument web site for more information on the amazing place!

Selecting the Gear

My EmComm go kit was "re-tooled" for air travel and "vacation ops." All electronic gear was tagged, tested and stowed in interchangeable cases that could be swapped out and attached to special fanny packs. The 45 Watt Tokyo Hy-Power Model HL-45B amplifier failed during the pre-departure test, so I decided to leave it behind and run only 5 Watts output power using a Yaesu FT-817 transceiver.

HEX PAC Portable Wins

In lieu of extra power, I swapped the amp for a HEX-PAC® multiband portable beam made by Traffie Technology of Ashby, Massachusetts. A feather-weight power supply made the carry-on even lighter than originally anticipated.

Dipoles and other simple antennas can always get you on air, but I learned it's critical to have an antenna with proven performance available. The HEX-PAC® antenna, mounted with a shock-cord mast from BuddiPole®, outperformed all other antennas I took on the trip. Eventually, I packed up everything and just used the HEX PAC beam.

When operating CW or PSK, the portable beam facilitated contacts when band conditions were weak. At more optimal times, SSB contacts were relatively easy to make.

Everything Fits in a Radio Pack

Here’s my gear list from this adventure:

GoalZero® Solar Panel
Yaesu FT-817 transceiver
LDG Z-817H auto antenna tuner
GAMMA® power supply
GoalZero® battery and solar supplies
NUE-PSK® portable digital modem
iPhone® with logging software
Heil Headset® w/ boom mic
Traffie HEX-PAC® portable beam
BuddiPole®

Green font indicates equipment I'd take again, everything else just wasn't worth the extra weight. The new KX3 portable transceiver by Elecraft combines would eliminate many extra items (it integrates the rig, ATU, battery charger, keyer and digital modem).

Outcomes and Suggestions

The total QSO tally was extremely low – some may say not worth the effort – however, my sense of adventure, "amateur" experimentation, love of travel made this an unforgettable experience.

For the experimenter who is developing emergency communications or QRP radio kits, consider skipping the amplifier for this type of adventure. Diversify your resources with digital modes (see Elkraft's new KX3 rig!), get a solar rechargeable battery system and a featherweight power supply. Elastic Bandages with Velcro® quickly anchor lightweight shock chord masts are featherweight and permit quick deployment.