03/16/13

P40DC DX-Pedition; Aruba

I (K3LP) operated from Aruba in September 1996 while on vacation with the local assistance of David O'Dor (P43DO). The trip started out great, then yielded a little stress! The Holiday-Inn on the northern end of the island gave me authorization to install antennas on the roof and operate the radio, but all went wrong when the R7 vertical I purchased for the trip had a broken coil core and the switching power supply went south.

I headed out to find some place to operate and discovered the P43DO beam antenna. After a few minutes of conversation, I got authorization from David (P43DO) to operate from his QTH. At the end of the trip, David and I updated the F43DO station with a nice TS-450 HF rig that I had purchased at the Dayton Hamfest specifically for this trip. The new HF rig complemented David's existing TS-430 and TS-440 rigs already in the shack. This DX-pedition had the potential of being a real bummer, but was saved by a new friendship.

• P40DC - Aruba - September 1996

All P40DC QSO's were made from David Odor's (P43DO) QTH. Here are so photos from the trip and other Aruba guests:

P43E, K3LP at the Dayton Hamfest 2004