All Inclusive
Three hams from Western New York traveled to Suriname to operate in the ARRL DX CW Contest. We stayed at the shack rental of Ramon Kaersenhout, PZ5RA.
Ramon offers a complete package as he took care of everything and did a wonderful job at it. He provided airport transportation, all meals, use of the shack, arranged for the license and even spend a day giving us a driving tour of Suriname.
PZ5RO Operators: Redd, AI2N; Ken, N2ZN; Dave, WJ2O
click image at the top of the page to watch a
YouTube video of Ken operating PZ5RO.
Operators
Ken, N2ZN
Red, AI2N
Dave, WJ2O
Operating table
Our Acom 2000A amplifier is one solid amp!
PZ5RA QTH. Ramon’s house is to the left with the shack on the right. Tower is in the middle.
Ramon, PZ5RA and the vehicle that got us around.
Stringing a BOG. Here’s Redd before the contest stringing a BOG (Beverage On Ground) down the street.
Rum and Coconut Salute. The start of our after contest celebration.
Our antenna: a Mosley PRO-67-B Yagi.
Another perspective of the tower.
Inside The Shack
Bedroom. One of two almost identical bedrooms with 2 twin beds each.
Kitchen at PZ5RO
Ham radio operating room
Shower
Waiting at the airport.
Our Surinam Airways flight back to Aruba was 4 hours delayed.
QSLing
3,000 qsl cards arrived from Germany and ready to start qsling
QSLing station. This is a photo inside AI2N’s (Redd) house who has been very diligent in doing the QSLing chores
Licensing:
Our host, Ramon, PZ5RA, made all the arrangements for our license.
License for PZ5RO from Suriname.
Equipment:
Elecraft K3 Transceiver
Acom 2000A Amplifier
HP NC6120 Laptop Computer
Green Heron Radio Boss Keyer Interface
Mosley PRO-67-B Yagi
Dipoles for 80 and 160
Below is the contest results over the weekend:
ARRL DX CW Contest Results.
Megapoint Award for the ARRL contest.
Visa:
For a US Citizen to enter Suriname you need to first obtain a visa. I obtained mine by sending in all the requirements to their Embassy in Washington, DC.
Here’s a photo of everything I sent to the embassy:
1.) Completed Application
2.) Printout of Round Trip Airline Ticket
3.) $100.00 Money Order
4.) My Passport
5.) SASE
After less than a week I had my passport returned with this visa attached
Documents sent for my Suriname Visa
Travel:
First we flew to Aruba (see section on P4). Then we boarded a flight to Suriname via Surinam Airways (yes, that is correct, they don’t use the ‘e’ in their name).
Travel visa for Suriname.
Ken and Redd waiting at an airport bar in Aruba for our Suriname bound flight.
Ticket from Aruba to Suriname via Suriname Airways