J3 – Grand Anse, Grenada

Dates: 20 to 29 November 1996

Callsign: J3/WJ2O

J3 – Grand Anse, Grenada 2024-04-03T12:53:43-05:00

We stayed at the Gem Holiday Beach Resort at Morne Rouge Bay. This is not a very fancy hotel but it is clean and inexpensive. For hams, this location ranks an absolute zero. You are on the side of a large mountain that blocks out Europe. Also, this hotel has a “make-shift” satellite cable system which is very TVI prone. My hours of operation were extremely limited due to this problem.

Each room had a phone but it was hooked to an outdated PBX system that wouldn’t allow me to connect my computer to E-mail. The hotel office had their “special fax line” which would have worked but they wouldn’t let me use it as they “wouldn’t know how to charge me.” The people were very friendly just as long as I only wanted to eat, sleep, drink and swim. They sure didn’t want me to do anything else.

The temperature was extremely hot every day (about 95 degrees Fahrenheit) with hardly any ocean breeze. I thought this was unusual for an island nation.

Most of the islanders seemed very ambitious. They practically all had jobs and worked hard to keep the island looking beautiful.

contest station J39A Grand Anse, Grenada

The hill where the contest station J39A operates.

Airport Terminal

Airport Terminal Grand Anse, Grenada

Airport terminal. This is the “street side” of Grenada’s large and modern airport.

 

Hotel

hotel in Grand Anse, Grenada

Hotel

Bar and Restaurant in Grand Anse, Grenada

Bar and restaurant.
Across the small parking lot.

Hotel bedroom in Grand Anse, Grenada

Bedroom

Kitchen in Grand Anse, Grenada

Kitchen

 

Island Tour

Nut factory in Grand Anse, Grenada

A nut factory. No, not an insane asylum.

Washing nuts in factory

First wash the nuts

Sorting nuts in factory

Sort the nuts

Bags of nuts

Bag the nuts

Nutmeg ready for export

Ready for shipment. Grenada is known as “The Spice Island”. Here are thousands of pounds of Nutmeg ready for export

Beautiful beach in Grenada

Grenada beautiful beach

Tour guide in Grenada

Look Over There
Our guide is trying to show Chris something.

Hot sulfur spring in Grenada

Sulfur spring. Hot sulfur spring. Bath anyone?

Skinny cow in Grenada

Skinny cow. I wish this girl would eat more.

Restaurant for a wonderful lunch in Grenada

Time for lunch. This stone house was converted over to a restaurant that served us a wonderful lunch.

Chris and Dave

Chris and Dave

Rum boat Grand Anse, Grenada

Party boat. Here is my wife Chris as we started a day on a rum boat. I love boats, I love rum, I highly recommend it.

contest station J39A Grand Anse, Grenada

The hill where the contest station J39A operates.

Dave, J3/WJ2O resting

Dave, J3/WJ2O resting.

J3/WJ2O QSL Card

J3/WJ2O QSL Card front
J3/WJ2O QSL Card back

First, you have to go to one office and get the paperwork filled out. You have to catch the proper official in his office so there are only certain times of the day you can do this. Then you go to another location a few blocks away and pay the fee. This office was busy, and we had about a half hour wait in line. This office issues the actual license and stamps your application. Then you go back to the first office and return the original paperwork with the fee stamped on it.

License

This was the most complicated process of licensing I’ve ever encountered. I’m very thankful to Gill for escorting me around.

 Trip Statistics Report

J3/WJ2O operating position in Grenada.

J3/WJ2O operating position in Grenada

Equipment:
Kenwood TS-940 Transceiver
486-DX Laptop Computer
Ameritron AL80B Amplifier
Butternut HF6V Vertical Antenna
Heath Micromatic Keyer

Customs

Having my usual pile of luggage, I hired one of the local baggage handlers and he loaded up a cart for me. The customs official asked me about my equipment which I explained what it was. She went over to ask a question of another official, came back and said, “it’s OK.”

travel route

On my way out of the building a man with a clip board approached me and said they were taking a survey and would like to know if I was handled courteously by customs. I of course said yes, but wondered if things would have been different had it not been “survey day.”