Operating Suggestions for Visiting Hams

If you are contemplating HF operation here, consider the following:

Most hotels are eager to please their guests, but before you come down and start stringing wires all over the place, make arrangements with the hotel management. They may be able to put you in a room that is more ideally suited for your operation.

Much of the islands are rock. One would think that in this idyllic environment, surrounded with salt water, that a good ground would be easy to come by. Wrong assumption! A balanced antenna that works without a counterpoise will probably give you better performance as well as less RFI problems than a multiband vertical that relies on a good ground. The new half wave verticals seem to be popular and of course nothing beats a dipole fed through a tuner's balanced output, with ladder line.

It is summer down here 12 months of the year, so 80 / 75 meters has limited use due to the constant high QRN level. Most hams here use 20, 15 and 10 meters in addition to the WARC bands for most of their activity.

The U.S. Virgin Islands is a territory of the United States, so no reciprocal permits are necessary. It never hurts, however, to register your gear with U.S. Customs before you leave the states. In this way, you have proof that you brought the equipment OUT of the U.S. and eliminate any problems should a customs official question whether you bought your equipment in the states or abroad. (It's a good idea to do that with anything like cameras, computers, etc.)