DL1HCM/HI8
CQWW DX Contest CW 1998 SOAB/HP

Operator: Mike DL1HCM

The DL1HCM/HI8 log is here.

QSL Information for this activity
The QSL information for this activity is via DL1HCM.
The QSOs are already confirmed and the QSLs are out via the buro.
The QSL route via the buro is preferred.

the QSL card	the license

This was my second activity from HI land. This year I visited HI land from 24. November 1998 until 6. December 1998.
With the experience from my last year activity I took several parts of my equipment twice into the baggage: 
2 antennas for 80m, 2 antennas for 160m, spare coaxial cable, soldering equipment, fuses and other small parts that could fail.

I started from Hamburg with approx. 110 kg and arrived in Puerto Plata in the late afternoon.
I was happy when I arrived: rain, rain, rain, ... the land was under water.

I had the same QTH as last year on the peninsula Samana, outside the small city Las Terrenas in the north of the
Dominican Republic. Again thanks to my host Erwin DL4NCF.

Since I arranged some skeds on 80 and 160 the plan was to bring the station up during the next day .
So I started in strong rain to prepare the station. I needed the whole day and in the evening the antennas for 80m to 10m 
were ready.
The shack was on an real island. Is this worth for a new IOTA?

That evening I started with the first QSOs until my keyer (it is the K9CW contest keyer) after years of continuous and proper operation died. I did not found the reason and, according to Murphy, I had no spare keyer with me.

But I had a good luck: DL4NCF left his keyer. But his keyer required a 3.5 mm plug and my paddles are equipped with a 6.3 mm plug. 
No problem, just buy the needed plug and I would be back in business I thought. But not in HI.

I needed the whole next day driving on my motorbike through the region to find such plug. I found one in a TV repair shop.
This shop was amazing, approx. 1 square meter in size, made of rough wood and blue painted several years ago, a few kilometers away. 

When I was back I connected the plug to my paddles and found out that DL4NCFs keyer is not a high speed keyer.
I would not modify Erwin's keyer so I worked with this provisional thing. Anyway better this keyer than no keyer.

But after this episode my station

• IC 735 with Ameritron AL-811H

• Laptop with CT9 for logging

• Titanex LP7 for 30m – 10m

• Fritzel Rotary Dipole for 40m

• Home made pyramidal antenna for 80m

• Dipole for 160m

run perfectly and everything was fine for the contest. The signal was strong enough on all bands and properly readable.
The contest was great although HI is a 2 pointer and it was the time worth to evaluate the propagation conditions in advance.

This year again for the contest the call sign was to complicated and to long which was a real disadvantage.
I never experienced such wet contest. The house was about 1m high and around the house to whole area
was about 0.5m under water. So this was my first "under water" contest.

But nevertheless I was able to give many stations new band points specially on the low and WARC bands.
I operated on all bands (except on 30m because it was not possible to bring the Titanex into resonance) 
in CW and some SSB (Yes, in SSB).

Total QSO vs. bands:

Thank you to all stations who worked me. See you next year in the CQWW.

The DL1HCM/HI8 log is here.

www.dl1hcm.de / 15.02.2006 / Contact