C6ASB - February 2006

Abaco Island - NA-080 FL16

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Another winter respite to the Bahamas from the long Iowa winters is now behind us. As before, this trip was planned to coincide with the ARRL DX CW contest in which I would be a casual QRP-class entry. We stayed at the Van Gogh Bungalow from Feb 15-22, 2006, at Casuarina Point on Great Abaco Island, about 18 miles southwest of Marsh Harbor, the third largest city in the Bahamas.

• Travel
• Location
• Radio operations
• Contest operation
• Next time?
• Closing comments
• Equipment
• Antennas
• QSL info

LOCATION

The Van Gogh Bungalow is a very nice fully-outfitted 2 bedroom cottage facing south and right on the beach. We spent a lot of time on the back deck and the beach enjoying the sunshine and warm temperatures (highs in the 75-85F range). Sunrises and sunsets were often spectacular. The water was about 80ft from our back door, and with our bedroom on the back of the cottage we would leave the windows open at night and hear the water lapping at the shore all night long. We bought our groceries at the three grocery stores in Marsh Harbor, and did almost all our own cooking, usually on the barbecue grill in the evenings. Our transportation was a small rental car from Sea Star Car Rentals at a very reasonable rate. Gasoline was $4.38/gallon, but we didn't use much since we only left the cottage when we needed groceries (1 trip).

The small neighborhood at Casuarina Pt is primarily residential, and I'd estimate that 80-90% of the population there is Bahamian local full-time residents. They were extremely friendly and welcoming, and we felt very comfortable with our stay among them. It was a real pleasure to mix with the locals. We particularly enjoyed developing a friendship with JR Albury and his family. JR works in both construction and as a fishing guide. We met by chance the second evening we were there, when he knocked on our door wondering if we were the ones who had contacted him about a fishing trip. Well, we weren't, but we ended up spending quite a while talking with him about fishing and the local area. He invited me on a fishing trip on Saturday with him and his son, Charles, which was a fantastic experience. We fished on the nearby reef; I caught my first barracuda, we caught a couple of snapper and hooked a very large tuna which burned up JR's reel before we could land it. I got to eat fresh conch for my first time, and we pulled right up alongside a sailfish. It was a truly enjoyable day, and I thank JR immensely for the experience. We ended the day by grilling fresh fish at our cottage and having a couple of Kalik (pronounced like "kah-lick") beers. Later during our stay, we enjoyed conversation and an excellent meal of conch fritters and grilled conch at JR's house.

Cherokee Sound at Casuarina Pt is very shallow. There are many sand bars that appear at low tide. However, it hosts an excellent saltwater flats fishery including bonefish, snapper, barracuda, and a myriad of other flats species. Offshore and reef fishing in the area is also exceptional if you hire a guide with a boat; JR provides excellent service as such. There's a lot of pressure on the bonefish fishery so they are quite hard to catch without a guide, but the numbers are significant. I spent some time nearly every day wading out and doing some fishing. I am told that the snorkeling out on the reef is very good if you're willing to make the walk out there, but I didn't do that on this trip.

I spent a lot of time preparing for this trip, primarily in antenna selection. I knew in advance that my operation in the contest would be only part time, probably 12-20 hours maximum, and that impacted my choice of antennas. I wanted to maximize the number of QSOs for my limited operating time, so I decided to emphasize obtaining the best signal I could get into the higher ham-radio-density areas of the US (W1, W2, W3, W8, and W9); I figured that multipliers outside those regions would come along just as part of normal operation. (Domestic ham-radio-density great circle maps can be generated here.) This set the criteria for the azimuthal radiation pattern to be primarily NW through N for the contest, and NW through NE for out of contest operation..  

Then I needed to determine the optimum antenna take-off angle for those areas. Some research led me to conclude that I wanted to have relatively low take-off angle antennas, though this may be somewhat contrary to general established thought. I targeted single-hop take-off angles in the 10-20 degree range for the approximately 1000 mile path to the aforementioned areas. This established an initial criteria for my antennas. Other criteria included: low-cost; easy to transport  in my fishing rod case and other luggage(i.e. lightweight and small); and quick and simple installation and takedown. I had a 32ft Telepole for support. These criteria led me to select vertical antennas: vertical end-fed half-wave antennas (EFHWAs) for 40-10m; an inverted L for 80m (and 160m if I felt adventurous); and a homebrew 17ft vertical for 20-10m with a loading coil for 30/40m as backup.

CONTEST OPERATION

My contest results were disappointing and remain perplexing to me. Recent experiences both from the Bahamas as well as the US indicated that I should be able to maintain a rate of 50-60 QSOs per hour for this amount of operating time, and should be able to "run" pileups rather than do primarily "search and pounce". This even with QRP and simple antennas. This was not the case this time. I was unable to generate any runs, and my search and pounce efforts indicated that I had a very weak signal. European and South American signals were very strong, even the lower power stations, but I heard relatively few US/VE signals. Thinking my take-off angle must be too low, I reoriented my antennas to a low horizontal position, and this only resulted in the expected decreased signal strengths from the DX stations but still few more or stronger US/VE signals. I had backups for my feedline and radio, and those made no difference either. So I would operate for 20-30 minutes at a time before getting frustrated and QRTing until trying again later, hoping propagation would change. My results never improved during the contest. Results on the EFHWAs and the backup vertical were essentially the same. I ended up with 122 QSOs during the contest for a little over 4 hours total operating time.

However, after the contest, on Monday and Tuesday evenings, I easily sustained pileups at 10 watts output (only 3dB or 1/2 S-unit more than my 5W during the contest) on 40m with plenty of US, VE and eastern and western European stations. So my station was working as I had expected during those times. I was also able to generate pileups on 17m during the day.

I remain unable to explain what happened during the contest. Maybe propagation was just "long"? Maybe I had an inherently bad location? (I don't think this was the case.) Possibly the US/VE stations were primarily using directional antennas, pointed at Europe, which put me off the side of their pattern and therefore 15-25dB weaker? It's particularly perplexing since I not only had trouble contacting US/VE stations (which I could have explained by being QRP), but also heard far fewer stations than usual, and they were weaker. Changing take-off angle had little effect either. I really think having to compete with EU stations had something to do with it.

Outside the contest my results were better, though my limited operating time only produced an additional 152 QSO's. 

My IC-703 transceiver performed very well, even in the contest environment. I experienced a little bit of filter blowby, but it was not a problem. The operating ergonomics of that that radio are quite good given its size. The built-in antenna tuner allows some leeway in how well the antennas are tuned, and is a real plus. Possibly the only better choice I could think of might be an Elecraft K2. I don't have one of these (yet!) to know for sure.

Logging was all done with the free N1MM Contest Logging software. This works very well, but it does take some getting used to after being familiar with CT and Writelog. Radio interfacing is very simple, and I especially liked the ESM (Enter Sends Message) mode. I did have some problems occasionally while using it though, so if you heard some strange CW messages, this is why.

NEXT TIME?

What would I do different next time? I'm not sure what I could change to improve results at the QRP level and given the antenna transport and support constraints that I have. Maybe I'd have a 44ft doublet (small amount of gain over a dipole on 20-10m, but higher take-off angle) in an inverted vee configuration as a second antenna to the verticals. Or I would forego the 32ft Telepole entirely and just take the 17ft vertical, which telescopes down small enough to fit in my regular suitcase, thus negating the need for the fishing rod case and eliminating that extra piece of luggage. I'd probably change to RG-174 coax for this particular location, as feedline runs were short and the smaller, lighter-weight coax would be a plus for travel weight and size. It would be nice to have 20 watts or so of power that still allowed for a small power supply and battery backup if needed. I never had need to use my battery backup this time, though. I might pare down some of my backup items to reduce transportation weight and volume.

CLOSING COMMENTS

We really enjoy the Bahamas out islands and hope to return on at least an annual basis. They are very laid-back, and for the most part non-commercialized. The people are very friendly and welcoming, and are what I describe as "genuine"; no airs about them. English is the official language. Transportation there and back is relatively easy and inexpensive. Cost-wise for us, it's comparable to what it would cost to spend a week at a US beachfront location. It's easy to get a ham radio license. It's close to the US and has a good propagation path to Europe as well, so QRP operation with simple antennas is very feasible. The islands are fairly low-lying, so there are no mountains to deal with propagation-wise. The beaches and water are beautiful, and the fishing and snorkeling are great. Weather is usually very comfortable, although the December-February timeframe can be quite iffy since they are subject to cold fronts; weather-wise, we've been lucky in February twice and unlucky once. 

On the other hand, if you're the type of person that expects lots of action, nightlife, fancy restaurants, far-upscale accomodations, and many tourist activities, the out islands may not be for you; you might consider Nassau or Freeport instead.

EQUIPMENT

• Icom IC-703 transceiver (operated at 5w output during the contest; 10w otherwise).
• Yaesu FT-817 transceiver for backup and truly portable use (not used).
• Small 12V 3A power supply salvaged from an old laptop computer.
• 9.6V 3000mAh battery pack and charger for power backup (not used).
• N1MM logging software running on an IBM Thinkpad T22 laptop.
• HP 200LX palmtop computer with CT software for logging backup (not used).
• Palm IIIx, GoLog software, and Serial CW sender for logging backup (not used).
• Homebrew computer interface for ICOM.
• Homebrew Yaesu CAT interface for FT-817 (not used).
• TX/RX radio/laptop audio interface (not used).
• Headphones; set of earbuds as backup.
• Computer headset/boom microphone and interface for FT-817 (not used).
• K1EL K10+ keyer packaged in an Altoids tin.
• Bencher paddles.
• Autek VA-1 antenna analyzer for antenna tweaking.

• PAR Electronics EF-20/40 EFHWA antenna (used on 80m by jumpering-in an additional 24ft of wire to the end, then feeding it directly at the base against a simple ground radial system rather than through the EFHWA transformer; still non-resonant on 80m but the IC-703 tuner would match it).
• 20/15m EFHWA using a homebrew 15m coaxial trap and a PAR Electronics EF-10/20/40 transformer.
• 30/17m EFHWA using a homebrew 17m coaxial trap and a PAR Electronics EF-10/20/40 transformer.
• 32ft Telepole (mine is actually about 30.5 ft tall).
• Homebrew  40-10m vertical: 11ft of telescoping aluminum tubing with a 6ft telescoping whip adjustable to a 1/4-wave on 20-10m; tapped loading coil added at 11ft for 30/40m use. This antenna combines elements of the PAC-12, AD5X, and Buddipole designs, along with some ideas of my own. It currently telescopes down to 3ft total length, but could be easily shortened to 2ft or less. It was mounted on a 3/4 inch wooden dowel pushed into the sand about 15 inches.
• Eight 9ft 3-conductor ground radials for the vertical, made from rotor cable, oriented from roughly 270 degrees to 45 degrees azimuth to cover the US/VE, Europe, and JA.
• Four 19ft 3-conductor ground radials, made from rotor cable, used with the 80m antenna configuration.
• RG-58 coax - 40ft, 25ft, and two 15ft lengths.

Steve Sutterer AK0M
1928 Continental Drive
Cedar Falls, IA 50613
USA

SASE requested with direct QSLs.

Direct QSLs are usually answered within a few days after receipt.
All C6ASB logs are also available on LOTW.
Bureau cards are accepted, but get processed as time permits and usually only about once a year.

73, Steve - AK0M, C6ASB