History: This is a high power Multi-Single category operation for the ARRL CW DX contest, February 19-21, 1999, with overall coordination being furnished by the Caribbean Contesting Consortium.

This will be the fourth year that some of our team members have contested from VP5. The original operation was VP5VW, led by Don Karvonen, K8MFO. That op memorialized Hal, W9VW, and attained the second place world multi-multi ranking in the CQ WW CW DX contest, being edged out on points, but not on QSOs, by Roger Western's group in Ghana. VP5VW made more contacts than any other station on the planet in that contest.

VP5FOC followed, doing a scaled-down multi-multi for fun in the 1997 CQ WW CW contest. Last year the group switched to the ARRL CW contest, using the callsign VP5FXB in honor of the late Al Slater, G3FXB. Once again we placed second in the world, aced out by the V26B team who did a great job, trouncing us on 10 meters when the propagation gods favored Antigua on that band. You can read all about VP5FXB, and even view the logs and download on-the-air audio by clicking on this link.

For 1999, we are realistic enough to know that the outcome of the contest depends almost completely on 10 meter conditions. Knowing that, our goal is to put up the best possible numbers, have fun, and then hope.

Once again, the site will be the famous "Hamlet" contest QTH of Jody Millspaugh, VP5JM. This is one of the best radio locations in the world, about 150 feet above salt water in all the right directions. VP5JM is located on the north shore of Providenciales, one of the major islands in the Turks and Caicos. Please follow the this link for more information about the Turks.

Philosophy: We are out to have fun. This means that the team consists of guys and gals who have their fun in many different ways. Some prefer to operate, so the team includes some of the best CW contest operators in the world. Others like to build stations and do antenna work, so we've included team members who may not want to operate, but have a lot of fun building the stations. Others are wizards at electronics and emergency equipment maintenance. Still others want to do logistics support and even cook. Our point? There's room on the team for ALL KINDS of interests -- not just for hotshot CW operators!! Everyone can have fun in a teamwork environment like ours! If you're interested in joining our team, send an e-mail to Geoff, W0CG, the coordinator of our operation ( ghoward@kent.edu ).