We are off to the Caribbean again Dec 4 - 12, 2011 to St. Lucia (J6) with a third BuddiPole DXpedition team. We have a "new" team that will get the opportunity to experience St Lucia and the fun of being the DX! Like the Dec 2010 expedition, the goal will be to operate battery field portable from beaches, mountain tops, and other vista locations using BuddiPole antennas and accessories. After a lengthy license application process, we received new J6 licenses. Guy, N7UN, received his permanent J68UN callsign authorization. Budd/W3FF received his permanent J68FF callsign.   QSL direct to each operater with SASE or LOTW. And look for us to participate in the ARRL 10m Contest on Dec 10-11th using the contest callsign of J68UN.  Hope to work you from St Lucia!

We are off to the Caribbean again Dec 5 - 13th to St. Lucia (J6) with a  second BuddiPole dxpedition team.  We have a "new" team that will get the opportunity to experience St Lucia and the fun of being the DX!  Like the Feb 2010 expedition, the goal will be to operate battery field portable from beaches, mountain tops, and other vista locations using BuddiPole antennas and accessories.  After a lengthy license application process, we received new J6 licenses.  Guy, N7UN, received his permanent J68UN callsign authorization.  QSL direct to each operater with SASE or LOTW.  And look for us to participate in the ARRL 10m Contest on Dec 11-12th.  Hope to work you from St Lucia!

Half our team is already enroute from the west coast to overnight in Fl. and then to meet the rest of the team in Miami for our Tuesday flight to St Lucia.  We arrive around 3 pm in J6 and with a two hour drive to the Villa, we won't get many antennas up Tuesday night.  But early Wednesday, the 20m, 17m, and 15m antennas will go up and we will be on the air! 

No more announcements on this website.  But we will be in constant interaction with the "Chat" gadget, mostly announcing our current activities and answering any questions folks have.  Follow our blogsite for current daily announcements and planned activities for the day by the team.  And don't forget the WEBCAM...live video and sound of our villa activities.  Hope to work you from J6!

Wow!  Where did the time go?  With our J6/homecall licenses in hand, ALL we have to do is pack and get to the airport in time!  Sounds easy!  But, even to a populated, modern (Radio Shack, Home Depot) country, you can’t forget anything, especially the critical “magic” connector that makes villa and field portable operations possible.  So it’s a process of staging everything for a radio setup and operating to ensure it all works.  Then you pack the backup “stuff” in case you or someone on your team needs that “magic” connector. Same effort begins with your clothes (minimize, minimize), your rain gear, your hiking gear, etc. 

For me, one goal of this trip is to minimize my suitcase(s) weight but yet have everything I need to operate either from the villa or beach portable.  Can I get under 75 lbs (one suitcase as checked baggage and the other as carry-on for my K2 radio and lithium-containing batteries which must go with carry-on baggage) and have my antennas, coax and extra-coax, my Macgyver-kit, etc.  No easy feat and each member of the team is struggling with the right balance:  “just enough vs too much weight/not enough room”. 

We did have one set back.  Scott, NE1RD, will not be able to come on the trip due to a recent work-related projects that completely interrupted his dxpedition plans. We will miss you Scott! 

There will be one more Press Release next week announcing our J6 effort.  Certainly the excitement is building with the BuddiPole team!  Hope to work all of you from J6.  So now back to packing….

Our local host/landlord picked up our J6 licenses, paid the administrative fees, and sent them to our stateside contact for US postal distribution to the team.  Normally this would be a two-stop process in St Lucia at the NRTC (National Telecommunications Regulatory Commission) in Castries. Previous ham applicants have said to "plan at least a good part of a day" to complete this administrative task ("island time 'mon").  One agency stop is to receive you TAN (Taxpayer Account Number - an ec50 fee) and then to a second building to obtain your actual license (a 10 page "booklet") at the NRTC for an ec25 fee ( $1= ec2.65 where ec is for the Eastern Caribbean dollar).  The license also includes your NRTC approved ("stamped") Customs Inspection form that was one of the application forms for pre-clearance approval of our "telecom equipment", i.e. our radio transceivers, through  St Lucia Customs. 

To have a local host provide this level of service in our behalf minimizes the risks of "license snafu's" and will certainly allow us to get on the air much sooner than planned.  And it was advantageous to have the license booklet in hand for several reasons:

1)  We noticed in the License Conditions section that we did not get authorization for 30m or 60m band operation.  Our team License Regulatory point, Mike/KC4VG, will follow up with his contact within the NRTC for clarification.  The point is to review carefully the license for any problems or issues in order to resolve them before arriving.

2)  The last page of the booklet (Annex B) contains a "short form of licence".  We intend to make a photocopy then laminate to have on our person for portable, field operations while on St Lucia.

3)  Make a photocopy of the booklet including all receipts and the Telecom Customs Inspection form as backup documentation in the event the original is "misplaced" for whatever reason.

4)  We did receive the ITU designator for St Lucia, J6, as part of our first year call, e.g. J6/N7UN.  Previous applicants received calls like J68/homecall or even more challenging, homecall/J68.  So this is a welcome relief as it makes our DX exchange much easier.

Our J6 host just emailed the good news that he has 9 signed (by the Ministry of Telecommunications) Amateur Radio licenses in hand!  Based on previous anecdotal information, this is a record!  In about 6 weeks from license submission requests to actual signed licenses by the NRTC!  We had heard stories of 3+ months between application and receipt of license documentation.  Either our local host was very influential or the NRTC is streamlining the Amateur application process.  We were all concerned that "the application process" may have lasted well into January creating a great deal of angst among our team and even fears of arriving on St Lucia to have no licenses.  Thanks to team member Mike Greenwood/KC4VG and our local host Richard Devaux for the great effort.  We are on our way...ok, ok, maybe just another step closer!

Our local host delivered our bundled package of all nine applications to the local NTRC office, thereby eliminating the risks of international and local mail deliveries.  Within a week five of us  received an email confirmation acknowledging receipt of our application on November 12th.  The remaining four confirmations came within the next few days.  And this time, the email and followup postal letter was for an "Amateur Radio Licence"!  So with a sigh of relief, we knew our requests were at least with the right regulatory office!

Our single point-of-contact with the St Lucia Telecom bureau, Mike/KC4VG, submitted our team license applications as one package.  Our local host/landlord volunteered to personally submit the applications/fees at the Telecom bureau office in Castries, St. Lucia.  Hopefully "the personal touch" would facilitate the application process?

With assurances of immediate action, we soon were receiving our receipts for license applications to the Family Radio Service!  You can imagine our fear, anxiety, and concerns.  What was going on?  But Mike/KC4VG quickly and tactfully, emailed the Telecom bureau about the mistake.  Within hours, some of our team were receiving corrected acknowledgment application receipts for Amateur Radio Service!  Yahoo!  The first big step in obtaining permission to operate in J6 is overcome.  Unfortunately, the work week ended with several of our team not receiving anything (yet) which prompted a lively email discussion among our team as to reasons why....

Now, with hopeful anticipation, we await the next step in our application process.  But we know Mr. Murphy is lurking!  It's all part of the story!

This year the group will be operating from the north end of St. Lucia (J6). Various modes including SSB, RTTY, and CW will be on the air, along with "golf cart mobile", "bicycle mobile" operations, beach side, ocean cliff side, including a possible Gros Piton (http://www.naturalbornhikers.com/GrosPiton/GrosPiton.htm ) mountaintop  operation.  Each of the operators has extensive experience operating from "unique" portable locations or various DXCC entities.

Eight of the nine operators for this 2010 DXpedition were part of the Montseratt VP2M (2007) or the FS/PJ7/PJ6 St. Martin Buddipole DXpedition (2009).

The 2010 DXpedition headquarters will be at Chateau Devaux on the north end of St. Lucia. This excellent site is perched on top of a 300’ cliff overlooking the Caribbean with excellent take off angles toward North America and Europe. A number of portable operations are planned from several beaches, on top of ocean cliffsides, and the “exciting” mountaintop of Gros Piton.

The group goal will be to work stations from all over the world using Buddipole antennas and other newly-developed Buddipole antenna accessory products. The operation will be the week before the Orlando Hamfest. Operators will be using J68/homecall and plans include that contacts to be uploaded to LoTW, eQSL, and an on-line log. Those wanting hard copy QSLs should send a S.A.E. and appropriate return postage or an SASE to the homecalls of the operator(s) you have worked.