Issue 43 Six News, October 1994
By Jack WB4NFS
My wife, Laurie and myself had a wonderful time during our stay in Bermuda during the week of 24 June through 1 July 1994. We were there to celebrate our 10 year wedding anniversary and enjoy the beautiful pink sand beaches of Bermuda. My very understanding wife had agreed to me bringing along my Kenwood TS-690S and antenna so I wouldn't get bored while she sunbathed each day after I was done getting burned. This arrangement worked out very nicely as it allowed me some time to operate in the morning and then again in the early evening prior to us going out to dinner.
We stayed at the Grotto Bay Beach and Tennis Club which is located in Hamilton Parish, Bermuda. Our room was on the ground floor and our patio looked out onto Castle Harbour just north of the causeway leading over to St. George. Upon our arrival, and following our real unpacking, I was able to assemble the antenna and set up my station. I mounted the R-5 HF vertical on a pole about 1 meter off the ground and about 4 meters from the patio. This location provided a good clear shot to the Northwest around to the Southeast. The rest of the compass was blocked by the large hill that the rest of the hotel complex was situated on. I feed the R-5 with RG-8X through an MFJ Econotuner. Prior to our departure for Bermuda I had plans of taking a two element portable 6 meter beam. However, these plans fell through and at the last minute I packed enough wire to make a 6 meter dipole once I arrived in Bermuda.
On our first day I operated on the HF bands with plans to build my 6 meter dipole on Saturday morning. On Saturday afternoon I got on the HF bands again for about an hour and then decided to switch to 6 meters to see what I could hear with the R-5 HF vertical. I figured if there were any Es at all, I would hear plenty of U.S and Canadian stations as the Field Day contest had just started. At 1957z I switched to 6 meters and was able to tune up the R-5 vertical using the tuner I had in line. I had not got around to building the dipole. You know how vacations are.
The band was crowded with signals and I quickly worked G0NPI for my first 6 meter contact from Bermuda. For the next hour and 45 minutes I worked 105 stations in the U.S, Canada and Europe (52 of these contacts were with Europe). At the end of this report I have listed all Europeans worked during this opening (I omitted the North American stations from this log).
That was it for the European opening but I continued to have excellent propagation into the U.S. and Canada. I finished out the week with about 420 contacts and 113 grids on 6 meters. As I said previously, this was all done with the Cushcraft R-5 vertical and 50 watts running through RG-8X (not a classic set-up by any means).
It was my pleasure to give so many European 6 meter operators a new county and grid. I am getting special QSL cards printed up and will QSL to all that request a card. QSLs can be sent to the following address or sent to my home call QSL Bureau:
Jack O'Mara, 14378 Shetland Ct, Woodbridge, VA 22193, USA..
Stations worked between 1957z and 2144z in Europe on 25 June 1994 were;
G0NPI
DJ6NI
DJ7SP
DJ9KG
DK3RV
DL5FCJ
DL7QY
F6AUS
G0FYD
G0JFW
G0JHC
G0NYL
G1EMJ
G1SWH
G2ADR
G3MCS
G3NSM
G4AFJ
G4ASR
G4HBA
G4IFX
G4IGO
G4KUX
G4SEU
G4XNS
G6HCV
G6YIN
G7EQM
G7OEC
G7PBY
GJ4ICD
LA9ZV
ON4KST
ON4PS
ON7YD
OZ2LD
PA0JMH
PA0LSB
PA0OOS
PA2VST
PA3BFM
PA3DOL
PA3FYM
PA6DYS
PB0ALN
PE1EBJ
PE1OUC
SM3EQY
SM6CMU
SM6FHZ
SM7BAE
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