Three American amateur radio (ham) operators, using the Anguilla callsign VP2EZZ last Sunday set a new record in the multi-single category of the 2014 American Radio Relay League 48 hour (ARRL) CW (morse code) DX International contest.
Patrick Dolan N2IEN, Raymond Higgins W2RE and Lee Imber WW2DX, all from the popular US city of New York, made 4,263 morse code contacts or QSOs with other ham radio operators in the United States and Canada only for a grand total of 3.96 million points, according to the ARRL rules governing one of amateur radio’s well established and popular international contests.
The first time visiting ham radio operators, who have each been Federal Communication Commission (FCC) licencees for over two decades,surpassed the old record for a multi-single operation held by the VP2EN team of William Roberts Jr AA4NC of North Carolina, USA and Jim Stevens KI4HN, also a native of North Carolina in 1996 when the made 4,225 morse code contacts or QSOs for an overall contest total of 3.58 million points. Imber told the Anguillian that the team averaged about 100 QSOs (contacts) per hour.
Dolan, Higgins and Imber, who arrived on the island last Thursday flying directly to Anguilla from New York via Orlando, Florida, all praised the hospitality accorded to them during their brief visit to the island paradise.
“We love the warm weather and the friendly people…it’s really great to be here in Anguilla,” said Ray Higgins, who like his friend and business partner Lee Imber have participated in many DX competitions over the years.
Imber received his US licence or ticket in 1987, Higgins in 1988 while Dolan, who is a veteran in the television broadcasting business in the Long Island and Westchester areas in NY, secured his US ham radio licence in 1967.
This was the first contest they have operated in from the Caribbean. In July 2013, they participated in the International Amateur Radio Union (IARU) CW (morse code) contest from Iceland. Higgins and Imber have been contesting from the New York area for many years and have hold several records from their home city.
The amateur radio equipment used by Dolan, Higgins and Imber included two 100-watt Elecraft transceivers, an off center-fed dipole and an Italian-manufactured Expert amplifier between 500-600 peak output power from a private villa in SeaFeathers. The three hams operated continuously during the 48 hour contest utilizing split shifts of 2-4 hours per operator.
The 1996 VP2EN team had for equipment a 100-watt Icom 736 transceiver, Dentrol Clipperton 1kw amplifier, a Cushcraft A4S Yagi (beam) directional antenna at 60 feet and inverted V wire dipole antenna for the 80 and 160 metres amateur radio bands
Both Higgins and Imber confirmed that they will be one of the US teams competing in the WRTC-World Radiosport Team Championship 2014 ( also dubbed the Olympics of Ham Radio) scheduled for USA in July. Sixty teams from around the world, featuring top class operators, will be involved in the event which like the Olympics is held every four years. The last WRTC was staged in Russia.
The licence for the American ham radio operators was facilitated by the authorities in the Ministry of Communications.
(Published without editing by The Anguillian newspaper.)
