Update from St. Pierre - Day 2

It was a productive day despite having done some sightseeing.  I visited Ile Aux Marin yesterday via zodiac boat.  (It does not feel like a real DXpedition without being on a zodiac).  The island has plenty of history and is largely inhabited only by summer homes.  It was once the center of fishing where they processed cod by the millions.  The cod has vanished for 20 years and the only fishing left is for lobster and a little crab fishing.  Lobster is very cheap here.  If you want to save money on your meals - eat lobster.  The breakfasts are really good and the coffee is so good I drink it black.  Typical French - croissants and bread.

I have worked 363 contacts in 2 days.  Here are the notable call signs:

G7VJR - Michael Wells - CQ DX Hall of Famer and owner of Clublog
VE3EJ - John Sluymer- DX Hall of Fame - and DXpeditioner to South Sandwich and South Georgia in 2002.

KV1J - Dxpeditioner to St. Pierre multiple times

W4BUW - George Hall
N0TR - Tom Rouse
WM4AA - Matt Collier
KU4XO  Matt Holley
N4XL - Kevan Nason

I am not as efficient in sending because the RCA cable is missing to connect my Winkeyer (still at Ken's place) so I have to send manually with a paddle.  Just try sending FP/NY4G with a paddle perfectly 400 times and you know what I feel like.  No complaints though.  The pileups were well behaved though.  There was this one Puerto Rico station that kept QRMing the W8 call and kept the W8 station from hearing my report.    It just annoys me that I keep calling PSE W8 and I still get the QRM.   I moved around the pileup to get away from the WP station and worked guys.  I finally felt sorry for him and worked the WP4 station.  He called me again on a different band and was well behaved.  Perhaps he learned his lesson.  Because of my relatively weak signal and 75 watts or so out - I will stay exclusively CW and RTTY as it will be the most productive.  The hike up and down the hill is formidable - about a 500 foot elevation gain.  I am at a nice elevation here at the B&B and have clear take offs to Europe and the US.  The weather is typically windy and wet so I will try to stay high and dry (andstay healthy   to boot).  If there is a nice day again (like yesterday - oh wow - yesterday was awesome) - I will try to work from one of the bluffs.  Also there is very little noise interference where I am away from the city center)

I got to a chance to pratique mon francais beacoup aujourd-hui and can switch from anglais a francais quite handily.   German keeps creeping in and invariably I mix in ein when I should be saying une..

L'ile Saint Pierre  est tres belle et Josette Dodeman est tres tres gentil avec moi.  Il y a beacoup a travailler aujourdhui avec les radio amateurs tout le monde.  A bientot de Saint Pierre de FP/NY4G