July 29, 2016 Neil Smith

YJ – Vanuatu

  1. Travel Options:
    1. Fiji Airlines flies directly from the states to Vanuatu.
      1. Roughly $2600 round trip coach class.
  2. Operations:
    1. Oddly sparse for how easily accessible this place is.
    2. Last worked analysis
    3. Large operation back in 2014 with 13.5k qso’s, but since then has been lacking. 1700q’s in 2016.
    4. YJ4AO 2016 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yVFlSwKSPL0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0LX9ZubLjK0
      1. Eratap Beach Resort, Efate, Vanuatu
      2. operating “holiday style” mainly during the local evening and night hours…
      3. Rig: Elecraft K2 with 100 watts (sorry, no amplifier), Palm Radio Mini Paddle
      4. Ant: Vertical dipoles (10m-20m), Lambda/4 Groundplanes on 30m/40m,
      5. Inverted L (80m) and an Inverted V dipole for 160m (thanks to Rod, YJ8RN)
    5. YJ0VK 2011 video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lRxBOaGq37M
      1. Arrived in Port Villa
      2. Nirvana (?) resort and spa.
      3. 40m vert, 20m vert, mosely jr tribander, “wires” for 80/160,
      4. Running 4 stations
        1. TS-480
      5. They ran during the OC dx contest too
  3. Propagation: