Hawaii 2008
A 100 Pound DXpedition to the islands of Hawaii was undertaken in November of 2008. The trip included a swing through the Southern California, Oahu, and finally Kauai for a week. I had considered participating in the CQ World Wide CW Contest November 29-30, but I was having too much fun in paradise to sit in the operator’s chair for two days!
GOALS as they were prior to the trip
This is going to be a family-style DXpedition. I’ll play in the contest but I’m currently planning on a 15m single band effort (instead of SOAB). If 15m is open and I’m in the mood, I’ll put some QSOs in the log. Off-contest I plan on working 17m and perhaps 20m. The antennas will all be constructed from Buddipole parts and will likely be in the form of ground plane vertical antennas for those bands. I’ll try 30m and 40m, but I’m not planning on doing much on those bands.
While in California I’ll be working on my QRP DXCC from the hotel in San Diego. Hopefully sundown on the US West Coast will give me those openings to Asia that will help me snag those last few countries I need for this award. I’ll certainly be working some USA stations from there, too. I’ll drop a note on the spotting network when I’m on.
ACTUAL ACCOMPLISHMENTS
I did very little operating while on the trip. This was always going to be 90-95% vacation and 5-10% operating. It ended up being 99% vacation and 1% radio--and that’s OK! While on the island I looked up Harty Weiss (NH7Y) at the request of Rob Schweitzer (K0CD) to see if there was anything I could do to help him fix up his station while I was on Kauai. He waved off any help and instead the four of us had a very nice conversation. Here is a picture of the four of us.
NH7Y and his wife, me, and Sandy
Sandy and I also met Bob Sackett (K6TWA) and his XYL. They now live on Kauai and happened to walk by our beach house with the Buddipole system in the front yard. Of course they came up to the house to investigate! We got great tips on the island from them and even some fresh fruit off of their trees hand-delivered the next day. Hawaii really is paradise.
Other than checking into the Hawaii Afternoon Net one day and some other poking-around, I did little with the radio. But, fear not, it was still the vacation of a lifetime! You can see photos from the trip in our vacation gallery here.
MORE INFORMATION
Links below provide more information on this trip. I’ll include an on-line log when I’m done, too.
Calendar Equipment
QSL via NE1RD direct, BURO, LoTW, eQSL.