Hello from Saint Martin !

I tryed hard to make happy stations from Asia but opening hours were very short and after amplifier damage it was difficult task...

SP9FIH at CDG Airport in Paris. Rather cold as for 7th April.

Two hours took me to tune right length of radial to match my provisional extention of 40m vertical (yellow wire on photo). It worked well but no many callers. Only 7 QSO on SSB and about 60 on FT8 last night.

4th April will be the last night when I operate on 40m. Probably FT8 or RTTY...

And for 5th April I will try to rebuild antenna for 60m. Last chance for laggards who missed my first days operation.

Becuse of strong wind I cannot put up VDA for 15/20m. Instead I managed to hang sloping dipols for these bands. I hope they will work....On photo above you can see all my antennas: 2 element vertical for 40m, mast of sloping dipoles for 15/20m and VDA for 12/17m. Amplifier is damaged, so now operation is only 50W on FT8 and 100W on SBB.

I was lucky to have first day on the island with rather medium wind. Day after putting up antennas was more windy and from that time speed of wind is between 27-36 km/h. It makes  planned antenna change (20/15m instead of 17/12m) not possible. Maybe on Friday wind will allow me to modify antenna setup.

I will participate in the contest as Single Operator 40m entry if my antenna survive...

Antenna is in good shape but transceiver is transmitting distorted signal in SSB and higher driving power is needed to control amplifier. Probably Icom needs repairing... I gave up with WPX contest.

My QTH in Saint Martin has very little space for antennas. I will operate until Friday 26th March on 60, 30, 17 and 12m. From the middle of next week operation will be on 40, 30, 20 and 15 meter bands.

My operation and your joy is dependent on local managers of Nettle Bay Beach Club. If they insist on me to take down antennas and finish making contacts with amateurs around the world what can I do?

Let's hope they care about good publicity...

Propagation window from Saint Martin to Japan is very short. Please do not call me from USA/Canada when I am calling Japan.

Due to Covid obstacles and travel problems to some countries I decided to go to FS - Saint Martin in Spring 2021. It is not very rare but Far East and EU still need the entity on WARC bands.

It is IOTA: NA-105. QTH loc: FK88kb