Saturday, October 3, 2015

Chesterfield Islands



Here is an update from the Chesterfield team courtesy of Bernie W3UR

"The wind continues to blow. If you imagine being in a wind tunnel with a wind speed between 20 - 30 knots, and occasional stronger gusts you'll understand the challenges. Wind and tent noise makes it difficult to hear, even with cans, so we apologize for repeats. Sleeping is difficult because the tents are shaking. The pile-ups are energetic and orderly, THANK YOU. The team continues to be in good spirits and dealing with the situation as you would expect.

Safety is a priority - we're being overly cautious when it comes to taking chances with antennas. Today we installed the 2 SteppIR beams and tried to install the Battle Creek Special but the winds were too strong to complete the installation, The SteppIR are withstanding the wind and working well.

The tents are holding up well, the very deep sand requires us to pay constant attention to all guy wires and ground stakes.Placing 50 pound (22 kg) sand bags at the most critical guy points has helped immensely. Because of the rough seas the skipper will bring supplies to the island 2 times per day until the sea calms down. We are hoping for a break in the weather in 24 hours. Being on a tropical island you may not think about it being cold, but tonight it is cooling down and we're all wearing layers and jackets, however there has been very little rain.

The bands are in good condition, with excellent runs to all geography, we've had excellent openings and hope propagation continues to be favorable.

Team Chesterfield"

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