VP2VEM and VP2V/N5AQ

October 4 through October 13, 2019

QTH on Cooten Bay, Tortola – K5WE

British Virgin Islands

 

OKDXA members Jeff, K5WE, will be active as VP2VEM and Bill, N5AQ, will be active as VP2V/N5AQ from Tortola, British Virgin Islands beginning October 4 through October 13, 2019. Located on the island of Tortola, Cooten Bay is on the North East coast of the island.

 

The Island

 

The British Virgin Islands consist of the main islands of Tortola, Virgin Gorda, Anegada, and Jost Van Dyke, along with over 50 other smaller islands and cays. About 16 of the islands are inhabited. The capital, Road Town, is on Tortola. The islands had a population of about 28,000 at the 2010 Census, of whom approximately 23,500 lived on Tortola; current estimates put the population at 35,800 (July 2018).

 

View of Cooten Bay from QTH – K5WE

OPERATIONS

 

The DXpedition team will operating all bands 160 through 10 meters, mostly CW with some RTTY, FT8, FT4, & SSB. Equipment includes K3 radios with 400 watt amps (BVI Legal Limit). Antennas will include a Hexbeam for 10, 12, 15, 17, & 20 meters, a Crank-IR vertical for 80 – 10 meters, and dipoles for 160, 40, and 30 meters. Dunestar bandpass filters to help with inter-station interference.

 

 

VP2VEM Live DXpedition Clublog

 

 

VP2V/N5AQ Live DXpedition Clublog

 

 

 

QSL INFORMATION

Depending upon a reliable Internet connection, logs will be streamed live on the Clublog display below or will be uploaded as soon as a reliable connection can be established. Logs will be uploaded to LoTW upon returning home. QSL via ClubLog OQRS, or QSL VP2VEM to K5WE, QSL VP2V/N5AQ to N5AQ…

 

OKDXA Members can schedule contacts on any band via email

 

Propagation Prediction

The ACE-HF prediction assumes 100 W from my transmitter and dipoles up 1/4 wave from Norman Oklahoma to VP2V. The SSN is set to the current value: zero. The graph in the upper right shows the SNR color coded as in the legend, with frequency on the y-axis and UTC on the x-axis. The prediction uses the VOACAP absorption model.

 

 

UPDATES

The DXpedition Team is scheduled to leave Tulsa early morning on Thursday Oct 3, flying to Houston, San Juan, then on to Tortola, BVI. They should be on the air sometime on Oct 4. Hope to put a bunch of OKDXA DXers in the log…

 

VP2VEM Update:
We arrived at our Tortola north coast QTH late in the evening on Thursday Oct. 3, 2019. My snowboard bag with the Hexbeam and mast did not make the Cape Air flight from San Juan to Tortola. The bag arrived on Friday and required a trip back to the airport to pick it up. The Hexbeam install did not get completed until about Noon on Saturday the 5th. Worked through many software and hardware issues. Had problems with RF getting into the gear. QTH was nice. Close to the ocean, very scenic. WX was hot, with very sticky humidity. Pileups were good. Total of 12,038 QSOs from the two callsigns. Made an effort to get some 160 meters and 60 meters QSOs in the logs. Majority of QSOs on CW, also significant number on FT8, FT4, and even a few on RTTY and SSB. 70% QSOs with Europe, 26% with NA, just didn’t hear many from Asia or elsewhere. Had mountain behind us in direction of stateside and JA. Clear shot toward Europe. VP2VEM had some logging issues, using 2 different front end programs, N1MM and WSJT-X, then pushing the data to DXKeeper, then out to Clublog. Actually it worked pretty good, but had a little clean up to do when I got home. So, email me if any issue with your callsign in the log. Logs are now uploaded to Clublog and LoTW. QRT at 4:15PM on Saturday Oct 12th and began taking down antennas, then packed up everything. Sunday Oct 13th, Flew back from Tortola to San Juan to Chicago to Tulsa. Got home about 11PM, totally exhausted… Tnx for the QSOs… CU from the next one… 73, Jeff – K5WE, VP2VEM

Here are a few pics from our trip…