Jamaica Photo Gallery: 6Y9X

We operated CQ WW SSB contest as 6Y9X from the 6Y1V station just west of Montego Bay.

The left rotating tower has stacks for 10, 15, and 20 meters. The right tower has two MonstIR antennas on ring rotors. There is a 4-square for 80m and a delta loop for 160m.

villa and antennasSteppIR tower rotating tower and stacks Richard and rotating tower base 80m four-square

The 20m stack was not connected at the shack. Paul went up the rotating tower to see if the problem was there. It wasn't. Following the coax down the hill we found it had been cut, apparently by a machete during brush clearing. Paul spliced it, and we taped it up along with the other cables in that bundle which had been nicked. Paul climbed the other tower to check on the broken truss for the top antenna and to deternmine why the rotors were not indicating correctly.

Paul climbing the rotating tower 20m coax repair 20m coax repair Paul atop the SteppIR tower Paul climbing around the K0XG ringrotor

Inside the shack are three IC8700s and three Acom amplifiers (one spare of each) and a complex coax switch network, plus the controls for the stacks and for the rotors.

rotor and stack controls coaxes coax switches

We made about 12M points in the contest. Although the station survived Hurricane Sandy (with the generator at the ready), we spent some of the contest time (when we had internet access) straightening out how we were going to get home as the storm surged up the eastern US coast.

Acom amplifier control left operating position right operating position


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Last modified 2 October 2018