Signal Point - Our Curacao QTH
(Click on photo for larger image.)
PJ2T's Ocean Pavilion
Signal Point - 2 Jan 2002 by NW0L
| Caribbean
Contesting Consortium Signal Point - Our Curacao QTH |
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(Click on photo for larger image.) |
PJ2T's Ocean Pavilion |
Signal Point - 2 Jan 2002 by NW0L |
CCC's contesting QTH is the former home of PJ9JT, John Thompson, W1BIH. This historic site has been the home of many contest wins since 1971. CCC contests from the QTH under the callsign of PJ2T, in commemoration of John Thompson's long history of association with this station. Click on the links below for more information about the QTH. Links will be activated as fast as we are able to obtain material. Click here for aerial photo. |
| From 1971 until 2000, John
Thompson, W1BIH, (click here for
photo) owned this QTH at Coral Cliffs on the island of Curacao. The home became known
arguably as one of the most famous contesting and DX locations in the world. The operator
list during those decades was a "Who's Who" of contesting. Even Vic Clark,
W4KFC, has operated from this location. In 1989, RadioTeam Finland operated PJ9W to an
all-time record in the CQWW SSB contest from a field immediately adjacent to this house. John's place, which came to be known as PJ9JT, has been the site of many world-high titles. In 1970, PJ0FC operated in CQWW CW, with the call licensed to Vic Clark, W4KFC. That team included W2TA, K4BAI, W4BRB (W4OO), K4BVD/6 (W6OAT), PA0VDV (PJ2VD), W4DQS (W4QM), W4GF, W4KFC, and K4SHB (N4TO). In 1997 and 1998 the station won the Multi/Single category of the ARRL CW DX contest, with W1BIH and W1WEF at the helm. Incredibly, all of this was accomplished with a tribander and wires, attesting to the magic of the location. |
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CCC purchased this home, hopes to be able to learn as much of the history of the QTH as possible, and plans to chronicle that history on this web site. Stay tuned.Our hope is to build up the station to an even higher level of excellence. W0CG's XYL, Cindy, suggested the name of Signal Point for the QTH, and the CCC group has agreed wholeheartedly. Please keep an eye on this site for news and developments, and for the links below to be activated and expanded, as appropriate.
"Signal Point" is located within the property limits of what was formerly known as the Coral Cliffs Hotel. This large, campus-like complex of buildings was at one time owned by Chet Brandon, PJ9EE, and was operated under a series of different owners between the early 1970s and the present time.
In the early 1990s, Radioteam Finland mounted very large scale contest operations from the grounds of the Coral Cliff, setting incredible new records as multi-multi entrants in both the SSB and CW portions of the CQWW contest. The SSB operation is beautifully documented in the famous video produced by Jack Reed, WA7LNW. The Coral Cliffs became famous as a top contesting location as a result. If you know more about these operations, or can point us to that detailed history, please send the info to W0CG ( ghoward@kent.edu ) for inclusion in this site. We'll post more history here as we are able to obtain it.
In September of 2000, the former Coral Cliffs re-opened under American ownership as the "Sunset Waters Beach Resort" and is now operating as an all-inclusive. Click here to view their site. The new resort is offering very attractive pricing to hams and families who are operating at the Signal Point QTH and require additional lodging. If you book there, please coordinate the bookings through W0CG (ghoward@kent.edu).
Detailed History of the PJ9JT QTH
From W1BIH by Telephone on 6 June 2001: In the 1960’s, Chet Brandon, an American ham, quit the rat race and bought the Coral Cliff Hotel on the West Coast of Curacao. In 1967, John Thompson, W1BIH, assembled a team that included W4KFC, W4GF, W3GRF, W1TX, and W1FJ to operate the CQWWCW contest from the hotel. Antennas were Field Day style, with the 80 meter dipole held off the ground by a 10 ft. pole. The magical propagation from that location resulted in a world high score for the contest that year. W1BIH repeated the feat in the next few years, and finally bought a piece of oceanfront property adjacent to the hotel. He built a small concrete-walled house and in 1973 began 25 years of contesting from that vacation spot. At first he had to use W1BIH/PJ2 as a call, but eventually talked the authorities into issuing him PJ9JT, a much less cumbersome and eventually quite famous call. Many times the CQ or ARRL contests were won from this QTH, sometimes by John alone, sometimes by a team. Even into the late 1990’s, PJ9JT continued to dominate the DX contests
There is a considerable additional history associated with this home, beginning in about 1970. We will be working as time permits to capture and record as much of that history as possible. If you have background, photos, or any other material such as magazine and newsletter articles, please contact W0CG ( ghoward@kent.edu ) and we'll include it on this site. We have been super busy getting the place established -- once the dust settles, we'll have more time to do historical research. PLEASE help!
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The photo of W1GNC was taken during a winning Radiosport operation on one
of my 6 trips to John Thompson's. This trip, W1XX and I operated PJ9XX (I was PJ9MM much
to K1MM's consternation since I beat Bill to the call) Early in the contest we lost one
leg of the 3 phase power, no air conditioning but we still had 220 for the amp and then
all the power went out for a couple of hours so I ran the rig off the rental car battery.
I even had to use a bug! Anything for the rate! Ran 40 CW at PJ9JT and 10 CW at PJ2CC
world winning MMs a long time ago. |
PJ9GIW Multi/Multi Win - CQWW SSB 1973
| E-Mail from W4GIW: I am Van Fair W4GIW/PJ9GIW: From the Thompson house in Curacao we won the CQWW phone multi multi in 1973. I think you will be surprised at what we used to score 11,132,443 points with 9 operators. W4GIW, K4BAI, K4CEF, K4DJC, W4GKF, W4MCM, W4SSU, W4YWX and WB4RUA. Several have changed their calls. I am sure you know Paul N4PN/W4YWX and John K4BAI who went on to become great contest operators. | Click here for .TIF file of the contest results, 1973, for CQWW SSB. |
PJ9JT: CQWW CW 1974
K4GKD (Dick), W1TX (Roy -
SK), W3LPL (Frank), WA1STO (Rosalie, now K1STO), WA1STN (Jim, now K1TN), PJ9JT (John,
W1BIH), W1GNC (John, now K0IO)
Not in Photo: DK3KR (Juergen), PJ2ARI (Ari), PJ2VD (Joeke, now PA0VDV), PJ9EE (Chet)
As above, time has not permitted us (yet) to build much history of this operation yet. Please help -- send Geoff anything you know on the Radioteam Finland's great "Spirit of Victory" operations on Curacao. ghoward@kent.edu You can click here for a photo of the crew of the famous 1990 operation. (Thanks K4LT.) Our CCC QTH is not quite visible in the distance at the right of this photo.
The same applies to photos -- we hope to have an excellent historic photo album on this site.
If you've not visited the region before, you'll find the Caribbean to be magically, and amazingly different. Curacao is an extremely arid desert island, surrounded by ocean, hot every day of the year, in a place where the wind appears to blow backwards. If you wish to know more about the Caribbean, we can recommend an excellent book "Caribbean World, A Complete Geography," by Professor Neal Sealey. The book is available from www.amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0521377641/qid=1008079787/sr=1-12/ref=sr_1_11_12/104-4461831-8296701 .
