J6 – Labrelotte Bay, St. Lucia

Dates: 21 to 29 November 1995

Callsign: J6/WJ2O

J6 – Labrelotte Bay, St. Lucia 2024-04-03T12:58:24-05:00

This was a quickly planned Dxpedition and I was not properly organized. I encountered a number of snags. The two main ones were the tube for the amplifier had a short in it. As soon as I applied the high power it emitted a fireworks display and promptly blew the fuse. I enjoyed watching this happen another two times until I ran out of fuses. I was very careful with the tube as I had it in it’s original shipping carton and hand carried on the plane but it must have gotten rattled somehow.

The second problem was the antenna. The resort had so much lavish vegetation that there was not clear spot for me to place it. A kink in the tubing provided an interesting 20 degree bend in the top few sections

After returning home many said, “I never heard you.” I wasn’t surprised.

Accommodations:
Windjammer Landing
Villa Beach Resort
P.O. Box 1054
Labrelotte Bay
St. Lucia, W.I.
Phone: (809) 452-0913
Fax: (809) 452-0907

We stayed at Windjammer Landing in Labrelotte Bay. This excellent resort hotel was a tad on the expensive side and a good thing we only stayed 8 days. It’s nice that the CQ World-Wide contest falls on a holiday weekend for the United States as most travelers stay home.

Labrelotte Bay

Villa

Tiered Villas in Labrelotte Bay, St. Lucia

Tiered Villas. All the villas were built in a tier fashion going up the hill.

St. Lucia Restaurant

Here is the view from the pool. The restaurant made excellent wood fired pizza. Above you can see some of the villas.

St. Lucia Resort Kitchen area, Labrelotte Bay

Kitchen area. It very spacious and comfortable inside our villa.

St. Lucia Resort bedroom

St. Lucia Resort bedroom.

St. Lucia Resort Living room

Living room

 

Vertical Antenna

Vertical Antenna

The top of the slanted vertical was not quite vertical. My thanks to airline transportation hazards.

ground rod

There was absolutely no place to pound the ground rod so we improvised.

 

Around the Resort

Resort pool in St. Lucia

Enjoying a swim.

Beautiful swimming pool in St. Lucia

Scary huh? When I hit the pool most mothers took their children home.

St. Lucia beach

St. Lucia beach.

Chris relaxing in St. Lucia beach

Chris, my XYL relaxing.

J6/WJ2O QSL Card

QSL Card front
QSL Card back

QSL ByKB3IFH

You need to hunt down Perry Mason, J6LA, at his office in the capital city of Castries. He has you fill out a simple form and one part serves as your temporary license once approved and stamped.

His office phone (which he will probably be mad at me for publishing) is (809) 453-1466.

Communications Building, St. Lucia

The Communications Building which houses the Communications Minister.

Communications Building office back side, St. Lucia

This is the back of the building where you need to go up these stairs to find the office.

 Trip Statics Report

Equipment

Equipment:
Kenwood TS-940 Transceiver
Alinco AL-80B Amplifier (with a useless tube)
486-DX laptop
Heathkit Micromatic Keyer
Butternut Vertical (almost vertical, see captioned photo link)

Customs

travel route, St. Lucia

Typical of Caribbean Island customs officials, they were very particular. You should have a complete list of your equipment including serial numbers available. They let all my cases in except for the one carrying the Transceiver. You need a special form from the licensing officer for that. Be sure to tell Perry Mason that you have equipment held up at the airport; as this is a completely different document from the license.