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Little Cayman and Grand Cayman Islands
By Bill Musa, K5YG
In the fall of 1998 Susan and I made plans for a dive vacation to the Cayman Islands. At that time we had no idea that a DXpedition would be combined with the dive vacation. The idea never crossed my mind because we were planning to visit Jody, VP5JM in June, and I would operate from there. Also, our dive gear weighs about 75 pounds, adding ham gear to that seemed out of the question.
1999 started out with a freezing business trip to Minnesota, followed by 5 or 6 more trips to various places up north. By March I had been away from home for about a month. It became apparent that we would not be able to make our annual trip to the Turks & Caicos Islands in May/June due to my workload.
While on a business trip to Maine, less than two weeks before our trip to the Cayman Islands, I got the bright idea to take a rig with us! There were a couple problems though, I did not have a DXpedition station, nor did I have a Cayman Islands Amateur Radio License! Why should little things like that stop any DXer?
The second half of that trip brought me to my companies main office in New Jersey. I made the "mistake" of asking a Ham friend at work if there were any places around that sold Ham radio equipment. He told me that Ham Radio Outlet had a store in New Castle, Delaware, only 40 minutes to the south of Moorestown, NJ. To my delight I was also told that Delaware has no state sales tax! So off to Delaware I went. I spent 4 hours at the HRO store - The FT-1000MP sure looked nice, but a bit heavy to carry. I looked at those new Icom rigs with LCD displays, etc. Finally I zeroed in on a IC-706MKII. I almost left without purchasing anything, but at the last minute, 5 minutes before the store closed, the salesman brought out a nylon carrying case, complete with shoulder strap, that the entire station would fit in! That was only $30 more -- I was hooked! How could I pass up such as deal? I purchased the IC706MK11, with CW and SSB Filters, an Astron SS-25M Switching Power Supply, MFJ-971 Portable Antenna Tuner and a MFJ Low Pass Filter. When I got back home I explained to Susan that I bought a little bit of "ham stuff" while on my business trip that we could take to the Cayman Islands with us. She was delighted! I received her blessing to take it on our dive vacation with the condition that I operate CW! What a sacrifice - ha – Not many wives would agree to have someone shouting letters and 59 into a microphone right next to the bed! We reached a mutual agreement – If I bothered her, I would QRT immediately!
The next step was to obtain a Cayman Island License and Equipment Import Authorization. With the help of Bruce, ZF2NT, and a very, very cooperative, understanding licensing authority (Office of Telecommunications) on Grand Cayman, I obtained verbal approval and the call ZF2YG. After numerous phone calls and faxes between Ocean Springs and Grand Cayman it appeared all was in order. The final step was sending the application and fees to GC via express mail.
The next problem to solve was what type antenna to build prior to leaving. I remembered working Roger, S79OY (KF8OY), who is a seasoned DXpeditioner, who uses wire antennas. Roger suggested I build a dipole fed with 300 ohm line and gave me some ideas on a center support. I built the dipole and as a back-up antenna I built a 10M dipole fed with miniature 1/8" RG8 Coax. I called this my "stealth antenna", everything was green including the insulators. When hung vertically from a tree it was almost invisible. I tested the 10M dipole in my back yard hung vertically about 20ft off the ground. I made contacts with friends Bushy, ZS6YQ and Ron, VK2ARJ using the "stealth antenna". The performance was down from the 4 elm mono-bander, but perfectly readable. Short haul into Europe did not do very well on the vertical dipole. The low angle of radiation was favoring the long distance contacts. I did not have time to test the 180ft dipole fed with 300 ohm twin lead.
Two days prior to departure I was advised that my application had not arrived in Grand Cayman! I sent another package via Federal Express, just in case the first package may have been lost in the mail. The license and import authorization was faxed to me the day before we left.
Little Cayman Island
As it turns out, I used the 10M hung dipole hung vertically from a tree for all contacts from Little Cayman Island. I had about 350 contacts, most being on CW, with numerous Europe & stateside stations. I also worked my friend Ron, VK2ARJ on a daily basis. I had one CW contact with a ZS6. I could not use the long dipole on Little Cayman due to not having suitable end supports, and I wanted to stay "low key. I tried loading into a Long Wire – forget it without a good ground. Ten Meters opened into Europe every morning about 30 minutes after sunrise. There was quite a bit of CW activity from SP land. SSB operation was restricted to the evening, just prior to dinner. I did not operate after dinner, when folks may be looking at TV because I was getting into the cable.
Grand Cayman Island
I could not operate on 10M from Grand Cayman Island due to a very high QRN level. I lengthened the 10M dipole to cover 20M and was able to use it, with the tuner, to operate on 40,30,20,15 and even had a contact with K2FF on 12M! I had another 150 or so Q's from Grand Cayman. Ten meter CW operations got a lot of attention from both Little and Grand Cayman. It did not appear that many cared about working a ZF on 20 CW. Using the little tuner, I was able to load the 20M dipole on 30M quite well and made some contacts there. I also made a few on 40M CW. Strange things do happen – While casting a fishing line up into a palm tree at the Cayman Dive Lodge a fellow staying there walked up to me and asked if he could help – He introduced himself as Pat, KC4AAA!! He helped with the dipole installation and we became very good friends. He loved the IC-706MK11 as the only rigs he used was Collins KWM2s.
The Dive Lodge staff was very much interested in my Ham station, as I was the first one to operate from there. They only had one TV located in the Bar – After dinner they showed videos so TVI was not a problem. I can now really appreciate what it takes to go on a DXpedition, where you take your Ham gear. What a learning experience! We were 150lbs overweight on the flight from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman! We had two complete sets of SCUBA gear, U/W Camera, Digital Camera, film camera and the Radio Gear. Of course I brought much more "stuff" than I needed.
I learned much from this operation. I need to spend more time testing antennas prior to my next DXpedition. I also need to figure out how to reduce the amount of "stuff" that we take with us. It is also a good idea to check out airline weight limitations and charges for excess weight. We had to pay $150 for excess weight on the flight from Grand Cayman to Little Cayman. It is also a very good idea to apply for your license months in advance if at all possible.
