Our QSL Card from Bora Bora Island, French Polynesia
In February of this year, we had the opportunity to travel to Bora Bora Island in French Polynesia. This South Pacific destination is absolutely beautiful! When Anita (AB1QB) suggested that we take a portable HF radio with us, we had no idea what sort of experience we were going to have! We put together a portable HF station and antenna system and obtained licenses from the officials in French Polynesia. I also tested our portable HF setup on business trips to Arizona and Florida in advance of our trip.
Bora Bora Station
Our location in Bora Bora was about 400 yards from the beach and 8 ft above saltwater. Needless to say, this made for some exceptionally good antenna performance and our station worked very well there.
Our “Shack” in Bora Bora
We took a TransWorld Antennas Vertical dipole (all bands 20m thru 10m) and a two element Buddipole 10m beam with us to Bora Bora. Both of these antennas are good performers and are very portable (especially the Buddipole system which literally fit in the bottom of our suitcase).
Bora Bora Antennas
Anita and I had only very limited experience operating a pileup prior to this trip from our participation in the 13 Colonies Special Event as K2K, the New Hampshire, USA digital station. It was quite an experience when we went on the air in Bora Bora for the first time using SSB phone and had at least 50 stations trying to call us at once! Anita (FO/AB1QB) and I (FO/AB1OC) did a little over 1,500 QSOs while on this trip. We earned a Worked All States (WAS) and a Worked All Japan Districts awards based upon our operations there. This trip allowed us to learn a great deal about DXpedition’ing, pileup operations, propagation, portable station design, and QSL’ing for a DXpedition. We are going to be sharing our experience via a presentation at the upcoming Boxboro 2012 Hamfest in Boxboro, MA USA later this month. If you are in the MA/NH USA area, please join us for our presentation at Boxboro 2012 on Saturday, August 25th.
– Fred (FO/AB1OC)
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Very interesting… wish I could go back. I operated FO0KUZ from there in 2000. It was a vacation – ham radio took a back seat, but I had a lot of fun. Used a 20M dipole between our hut and the next one with a small MFJ tuner and a Alinco xcvr., was on one of the outer islands. Forgot name of hotel.
Note: I had a choice of either using my call sign with a FO prefix or getting THEIR call sign. de K9KUZ
Hey
We are planning a trip to Bora bora in Jan 2016.
I wondering how hard to get ham license there and his much cost?.
I’m US extra class. WV6E
My wife Enkhee technicIan W6VEE
73
Tom
Tom,
It was not difficult to get a ham license for French Polynesia. There is an online application at http://www.anfr.fr/fr/polynesie-francaise/radioamateurs.html – the site is in French so if you are not fluent in French, you may need to use Google Translate to translate it. I mailed our applications along with a cover letter explaining our plans (translated to French using Google Translate) and received an email with the licenses attached a few weeks later. The application now has an email address and fax number – you may want to try multiple methods. You will need an US Extra license for operating privileges in French Polynesia.
73, Anita/AB1QB