FJ/K5WE Saint Barthelemy DXpedition
June 2013
Operator: Jeff Martin – K5WE
The DXpedition
FJ/K5WE
Op: Jeff Martin – K5WE
QTH:
Colombier
Saint Barthelemy
CQ 8 – ITU 11
IOTA – NA-146
Grid – FK87NG
FJ/K5WE Saint Barthelemy Original Announcemnt:
My son Erik & I will be active from FJ – Saint Barthelemy as FJ/K5WE and FJ/N5WR beginning 3Jun13. Operation will be all bands, mostly CW, maybe some RTTY and SSB. We will check 6 meters for openings using a small yagi, but our emphasis will be CW on the HF bands. QSL to home callsigns. Local QTH is Colombier, Grid Square is FK87.
FJ/K5WE Saint Barthelemy Update:
Update on our trip to Saint Barthelemy – The island of St Barthelemy is 18 miles SE of Sint Maarten. We flew into Sint Maarten, then took a ferry from the harbor of Oyster Pond on the East Coast of Sint Maarten/Saint Martin. The main town on the island is Gustavia, named for an early King of Sweden. Our QTH was at a villa high on a hill top in the Colombier section of Saint Barthelemy. We made a total of 12,766 QSO’s in a little less than 6 days operating time. 402 QSO’s were made on SSB, 363 QSO’s were made on RTTY, all the rest were on CW. 19 QSO’s were made on 6 meters with a barefoot radio and a 3 element yagi on a ladder up about 10 feet. We had a Hexbeam for 10-20 meters which performed great, a SVDA vertical for 17 meters, and various wire verticals and dipoles for the other bands. A Yaesu FT450d and an Elecraft K3 radio were used, each with 500 watt amps. Saint Barthelemy is a very picturesque French island, with narrow winding mountain roads and beautiful scenery. We enjoyed our time there very much. Thanks to everyone for all the QSO’s. Also thanks to my son Erik, N5WR, for sharing this adventure with me… We will be ordering QSL cards from UX5UO. It will be a few weeks before we have cards and can begin the QSLing… Hpe to CU from the next one… 73… Jeff – FJ/K5WE