k3trm

VP2MRM Montserrat 2007

Date: July 11-14, 2007 Grid: FK86vs IOTA: NA-103 Zone: CQ-08, ITU-11

After spending a week in Antigua, we decided it would be fun to make a side-trip to Montserrat since it's right next door. Like most people, we first heard of Montserrat because of the Soufrière Hills Volcano, which has been active since 1997. I don't think we were off the plane more than an hour before we started to regret only visiting for four days. The landscape was breathtaking! The mountains, which were made up of one active and six extinct volcanoes, sharply rise out of the ocean to around 3,000 feet above sea level and are covered in lush tropical vegetation, which is how the island earned its nickname, the Emerald Isle. My wife is still trying to sell me on the idea of buying a vacation home there! Maybe someday.

Once we arrived on the island and realizing how little time we really had, I decided to limit my operation to 10-20M SSB and RTTY, and 60M in the evening. The pile-ups were fantastic and I wished I had more time to spend on the air. Because 6M propagation had been so poor from Antigua, I decided not to assemble the 6M5X in lieu of spending more time on HF. As luck would have it, I heard afterwards that there was indeed at least one good opening to the area.

Results

The bands were in pretty decent shape during our stay and, despite the limited time, I still managed to net 879 QSO's. During the second day, I had a solid 20M opening to Europe and ran the "neverending pile-up". In about 4 hours, I made nearly half of my total contacts. Each morning there was good propagation on 20M into Asia, so I made quite a few contacts with Japan and several other countries from that region.

60M also proved to be a lot of fun in the evenings! Although there have been other operations from Montserrat in the past, there was still a high demand. While most of the 63 contacts were with North America, I also had a few with G, GM and VY.

On my next trip to Montserrat (which will definitely be longer), I want to spend more time on the WARC and lower bands. With more time, I would also like to focus on 6M as well.

Equipment

On the HF bands I used a 5-band Spiderbeam for 20-10M, including the WARC bands and a 60M dipole. My portable station consists of an Icom 706MkIIG, LDG Electronics AT-100Pro antenna tuner, and Alinco DM-330MV power supply. WriteLog v10 is used for logging and a K1NU interface for rig control.

QSL Information

QSL's can be sent to my home call with SASE or through the US bureau. Non-domestic SAE's should include $1 US or 1 IRC. Cards with insufficient postage will be returned via the bureau. Additional information can be found on my QSL Information page.

Accomodations

We stayed at Gingerbread Hill, a rental villa in St. Peters, which is on the north-western coast, near Little Bay. The owners, David and Clover Lea, are very welcoming to hams and Gingerbread Hill has been the site of many vacation and contest operations. Although this is not a "rent-a-QTH", David has made it very easy to set-up yagi antennas on the roof of their Heavenly Suite and wire antennas between the trees on the property. Several hams who are frequent visitors have left some equipment and an assortment of antennas which are available to visiting operators.

Gingerbread Hill provides nice paths to Europe, North America, South America and Asia. There's an extinct volcano to the east, although it is still possible to work into Africa. The view from the Heavenly Suite is amazing, with the sea immediately to the west and lush green mountains to the east.

Conclusion

It is difficult not to fall in love with Montserrat! Aside from the beautiful landscape, the locals are very friendly and everyone knows everyone. Between Hurricane Hugo in 1989 and the Soufrière Hills Volcano being active over the past decade, there's a bond that exists amongst the Montserratians that I've never encountered before. The Green Monkey Dive Shop runs a boat tour around the entire island, and it's difficult to fathom how much they've lost until you see firsthand their former capital city, Plymouth, buried under 20-40 feet of ash and mud. I have include some hi-resolution photos of Plymouth below.

We have every intention of returning to Montserrat someday soon. Because their new airport has a short runway, they can only land small planes from nearby islands. This makes getting there a bit of a chore, as you have change planes in Puerto Rico and Antigua to get there from the US. However, it is well worth it. I am definitely planning to renew my license annually and you can expect to see VP2MRM on the air again very soon!

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