V44KF

Bay Road, Basseterre, Saint Kitts. West Indies Today is a great amateur radio day for me, V44KF, in the Federation of Saint Kitts and Nevis. The Saint Kitts Nevis Anguilla Amateur Radio Society in its 46th year held its AGM on Tuesday February 4th 2020, and elected a new Executive. First, CONGRATULATIONS to the new Executive, and I expect that they would seek to carry our Amateur Radio Society to a new level. I know that they will, and I expect many FIRSTS  for our Society. Going forward our Society has to incorporate modern business practices if we are to avoid the problems we have weathered over the years. We all need to come to grips with the fact that our Amateur Radio Society is a non-profit organisation, and amateur radio could be a very expensive hobby. I think it would be helpful if we can think about the many ways that we and our Society can attract the assets that we need to make our Amateur Radio the best in the world. I am a senior citizen and I am will...

Today is another nice, bright, beautiful sunny summer day in Saint Kitts. The ideal visitor destination this time of year, for guests of the Anthem of the Seas, the Norwegian Epic and the Viking Sea, three cruise liners berthed at the Port Zante Cruise Piers in Basseterre, the Capital City of the Federation. Amateur Radio Operators frequently visit our island on cruise liners, but I am told that ham operators cannot use their amateur radio equipment on the cruise liners. It is their liner and they make the rules, but smart amateur radio operators get a license from the countries that they plan to visit, so that they can operate their amateur radio equipment, mobile, portable or otherwise, when they are on the island.  I am happy for these visiting amateur radio operators because there is practically no RF interference, noise or frequency jamming on their signals when they operate from the beaches, or the hilltops in Saint Kitts. View of Port Zante cruise port from the lawn up o...

Greetings to all Amateur Radio operators and all persons interested in the Amateur Radio hobby at home and overseas. Do you know that the country of JAPAN has over 1.29 million Amateur Radio operators? Is it that they know something that we do not? Why do the Japanese people take Amateur Radio that seriously? Nobody else in the world is that serious. I suspect that if we get serious about Amateur Radio we can learn something that we can adapt to our SKN environment. No point trying to invent the wheel again. Can I give you an exercise, find out why over one [1] percent of the Japanese population are Amateur Radio Operators? You may discover something that we can scale down and apply to our Saint Kitts and Nevis. http://www.n0hr.com/ham_radio_population.htm For 2020 I am still into trying to develop and grow Amateur Radio in Saint Kitts and Nevis. This is what an Amateur Radio Society is supposed to do. Saint Kitts and Nevis is a member of the IARU, who is about developing ...

2020 New Years Day Sugar Mas Carnival Parade Welcome to 2020 and my world of Amateur Radio. As I begin a new year I like to take a minute to briefly reflect on my amateur radio, and on amateur radio in our Federation, as far back as I can recall. Amateur Radio in St Kitts and Nevis is due in part to the Amateur Radio activity of Amateur Radio Operators, past and present, who dedicated their time and effort to the hobby. There comes a time when we need to give THANKS to all the Amateur Radio Operators and their Families. Amateur Radio Operators are unique, and Families have to develop unique skills to live with people who talk a foreign sounding language and exchange coded messages with other amateur radio operators across the world. This activity sometimes go on for hours, and into the darkest night, when the long distance communication is best.   This is a short list of Amateur Radio Operators who have helped me, and some of our present amateur radio operators, ...

V44KF shack under construction In the last six [6] months since my last blog many things have happened to Amateur Radio in Saint Kitts and Nevis. The most important was that of the NTRC, the Telecommunications regulator, in early October 2019, notifying the electric company that their smart meters system was causing RF interference, and that they should "cease and desist" from causing that radio frequency interference immediately. That give me hope, and I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. The notice that I saw also instructed the amateur radio operators to inform the NTRC as to the RF interference experienced at their radio stations. To date the RF interference at my radio station V44KF has not gone away. I am encouraging our amateur radio station operators in Saint Kitts to kindly update the NTRC as requested, so that the NTRC can continue to do their job effectively, providing us with frequencies that are free and clear of any RF interference. The picture a...

Greetings and Happy New Year 2019 Today I have decided to combine all my ham radio blogs into one and post them here. Ham radio is alive but not doing well in St Kitts. This is my personal view after being a ham radio operator for over 50 years, since 1968. I have seen many things coming and going, but nothing has affected our ham radio like what we have in these technological times. We live in the times where the laws which are designed to protect us are challenged by unscrupulous and selfish people, who only want to collect something for themselves, at any cost. They seem willing to take matters all the way to the Supreme Court of the land, knowing full well that this is a case that they cannot win. This is the kind of people that wish to kill ham radio in our St Kitts. So we have to stand up, put on our gloves, and do what we must, to ensure that our ham radio continue to live in St Kitts, for the good of future generations.  The snapshot above was made a few minutes...

Greetings from the ham radio station of V44KF. If you are not yet into the ham radio hobby, let me invite you to investigate this hobby on google, learn more about the hundreds of ham radio operators in every country of the world, and join this unique band of ham radio operators who share a common joy of contacting each other on various digital radio communication modes around the world. But contacting each other is just a drop in the bucket, because these same ham radio operators are ready, willing and able to help each other in times of emergency and disaster situations no matter what country they may be in. Truth be told, no matter what country you are in, there will ALWAYS come a time when we have an emergency and disaster situation. The good thing is that ham radio helps us to be prepared for this eventuality. You may be the only ham radio operator in your community, and your ham radio knowledge and training in emergency communication can help you saves the lives of all the peo...