Two Suitcase.htm

The Two-Suitcase DX Adventure

By Randy Johnson, W6SJ
November 15, 2004

Limited funds, a sandy beach and foreign soil can make all the difference!

Whenever I hear a signal from an exotic location, I visualize that ham operating under a palm tree and I want to pack my bags. Even if you have only a passing interest in DX or contesting, you can get excited thinking about going on your own DX-Venture. Actually, it's not as difficult as you might think, and the great thing is that there are a lot of wonderful travel destinations that are surrounded by warm water.

A serious DXpedition involves amassing a mountain of gear, and requires months of planning and expending tens of thousands of dollars. If you are going to one of the "Most Wanted Locations" that can be justified, but what about trips that you and I might do? Is it possible for the average ham to arrange his own DX-Venture? You bet it is!

Chasing Bonefish--and DX

I had an opportunity to do just that in February 2004. One of my loves other than radio is chasing Bonefish, a terrific game fish that is found in the warm waters around Caribbean islands. I had been thinking about a trip to The Bahamas and calculated that I could arrange a trip to coincide with the ARRL DX CW contest. Our small resort was on Grand Bahama Island , NA-080, about 75 miles from Miami . I told them about my radio and they agreed I could erect some antennas.

With the exception of a carry-on bag for the critical equipment, these two bags are all it takes!

Airlines allow two pieces of checked luggage plus one carry-on and a personal item, which can include a laptop computer. Subtract one case for clothing and personal items, and you end up needing to fit the radio equipment into two suitcases. Since I was not about to hang the success of my trip on the goodwill or competence of the baggage handlers, I wanted the critical radio equipment and computer to go with me into the airplane cabin in a suitcase small enough to meet the carry-on size requirement.

I had several positive recommendations from owners of the ICOM IC-706, so that's the transceiver I chose. After getting acquainted with it at home for a few weeks, I was quite pleased with it but felt the need for a narrower filter, so I chose a 500 Hz filter. We get so used to the filters in our home rigs that it may be easy to overlook their importance--until they are missing.

I live in a community with CC&Rs so I am antenna challenged already. My primary home antenna is a Force 12 Sigma 5 vertical. It works well on all bands from 20 through 10, and breaks down into 24 inch segments. The antenna weighs in at 13 pounds with the base. As for the lower bands, I prepared an 80 meter dipole with enough rope to be able, hopefully, to be able to hang it.

This little cottage on Grand Bahama Island was perfect for the DX Adventure.

The Station Takes Shape

Wanting a 40 meter antenna and a backup, and not knowing what I was getting into, I took a small HFp vertical antenna from Ventenna, a 24 inch long, 2 pound package. The IC-706 does not have a built-in antenna tuner but I took an MFJ-421 and a SCG SG-239 remote tuner.

As to odds and ends, I took along my Logikey keyer and Bengali paddle, and my laptop computer loaded with a N3FJP's logging program and his contest program for the contest. Finally, I took along a small test meter, a small soldering iron, solder, an assortment of wire, connectors and hand tools. For those who want to make sure all the bases are covered, check Joe Pontek's excellent if exhaustive list at the National Contest Journal 's Web site.

We arrived at our location, North Riding Point Club on Grand Bahama Island in time for dinner as the flight from the West Coast took all day. I got all the equipment unpacked, hooked it up, erected the Sigma 5 and C6AWS was on the air.

Randy Johnson, W6SJ, hard at work operating station C6AWS.

The first thing you realize is that you are popular. No one ever joins a pileup to contact a W2, W6, or W8, but when you get to an exotic location, you will be extremely popular when get on the air. It didn't take long to rack up 100 QSOs, mostly to Europe .

After fishing the next day, I strung the 80 meter dipole "around" the cottage, 67 feet across the front, then 33 feet wrapped around each corner. It was sort of a half-loop, about 10 feet high. Next, I erected and set the Vetenna vertical to operate on 40 meters. It worked quite well. I asked West Coast stations what my RST was, really , and they said, "5NN, really!"

The Ventenna set up for 40 meter operation. Palm trees can make any antenna more attractive.

I had hoped to use to get the 80 meter antenna to operate on 160 with a remote tuner, but when I tried that it fried my keyer--too much RF floating around the shack. So I scrapped that idea. A word of advice would be to get these things working at home, because the opportunities are limited once you get to a remote place. So I was able to operate on all bands except 160, and while you certainly give up multipliers, I was out for fun, not to amass a killer score.

Because of the fishing commitment and the need to minister to my spouse's needs, I didn't get in as much itinerant DXing as I had hoped, mostly after getting back from fishing and after dinner, not the best times for contacts with Europe. Nonetheless, I did manage 200 QSOs with US hams and another 200 non-NA stations, including 57 countries. That's more than I contact in a year from the West Coast! I tried to get a lot of time in on the 10, 18 and 24 MHz bands and, according to QSL cards received already, gave a "new one" to some guys, and that made me feel good.

A close-up view of C6AWS.

A Hoot

The contest was a hoot compared with my previous experiences from California . I got off to a slow start because I stuck it out on 15 meters longer than I should have. I also think that I was a little overcome by the bedlam that occurs when the contest first starts. I also was unprepared for the way the bands sound from the East Coast versus my West Coast experience.

The bottom 60 Hz of the bands were wall-to-wall European stations, mostly above S9 plus on the meter. It seemed as if the most common thing I heard was, "5NN K." I found a signal every 600 Hz so it was tough just to find a spot to operate. I would find a 1 kHz separation and squeeze in, and operate until someone louder bounced me out.

I went to bed at 10 PM local time, had trouble sleeping both Friday and Saturday nights, so got up at 1 AM, took a sleeping pill, and got in about an hour of hamming on 40 and 80 while waiting for the pill to take effect. At that hour, I was astonished at the number of US guys who were apparently staying up all night. Anyway, I was quickly able to "run" at rates in excess of 100 per hour.

I was fishing during the day so was able to start again after getting back and 15 and 20 meters were great from the West Coast to Bahamas . The best time was late Sunday. Of course, in those last two hours guys are tuning up and down the bands trying to find "new meat," and I was it. I started with 2 hours, 12 minutes left in the contest. I managed to make 290 QSOs, an average rate of 130 per hour. According to the chart generated by the logging program, there were periods when the rate was over 150 per hour!

The C6AWS antenna farm.

Better than I Do as W6SJ

In my 20 hours of operation I made a total of 1103 QSOs, and a claimed score of 560,000. That's not huge, but sure a lot better than I had ever done being a W6 S&P station. It certainly was a lot more fun being the object of affection of so many hams.

The good news is that I have figured out how to fit a station in a carry-on size suitcase, and antennas and personal stuff in two other suitcases, which means that I can take it anywhere. So can you! You just need to be a little more creative about your vacations. You can let your spouse think about the beaches, and you just make sure that the beach is someplace from which you can operate. Based on my experience, I would recommend a two-suitcase DX-Venture to any ham.

Would I do anything different? Well, next time I will get a carry-on bag with wheels, as it wasn't much fun schlepping the radio suitcase around the airports. Other than that, I'm ready to go. There are also a lot of places in The Bahamas as well as places like Belize that have Bonefish, so I'm looking forward to future trips. If I'm willing to take a chance on the antenna, maybe I can get my radio gear into just one suitcase.