Rent-a-QTH on Bora Bora. Private Island Resort. Three separate bungalows. Contact: Stan FO5IW or Ron FO5VO/N6VO. Box 164, Vaitape, Bora Bora, French Polynesia OR to N6VO Call Book Adr. Phone: In Bora Bora 011-689-67-62-45, USA 714-559-6209 FAX: In Bora Bora, 011-689-67-62-39, USA 714-559-4832
Hams get a 10% discount on
the bungalows, but there is no discount on food or beverages. There is an Icom 731, 3 ele Yagi (rotator
not working as of 1/1/01), and antenna tuner.
There is a USD $3/hr fee for using the 220v generator, which is usually
operational from 18.00 to 22.00 local.
12v power is free.
Email: stan@mail.pf Hotel Website: www.mai-moana-island.com or http://members.home.net/ronie1/bb.htm
Feedback from Bill, W1HIJ
on Dec 25, 2000:
Below is a complete report on
my stay at FO5IW (Mai Moana Island) in Bora Bora. You might want to update the
listing.
1. No longer are there amps there (they disappeared in the hurricane of '97).
2. Current antennas are only a tribander mounted on 20 or so feet of tower which is out in the lagoon.
3. Radios are available, but they aren't the latest. I took my own FT990 there
and it worked perfectly.
4. I am returning to the island in May of 2001 for CQ WPX CW and will bring and
leave an 80M/40M vertical for use there.
5. The food, the facilities, and the location are all GREAT!!
6. The place is highly recommended.
To all my friends in the DX and Contesting Communities ---
I promised a report on the trip to Bora Bora, and here 'tis! It's almost
impossible to describe in an email the joys and pleasure of the two weeks spent
out in the South Pacific. I actually kept a journal (aren't laptops
wonderful?), but now trying to boil the content down to something readable
seems like a monumental chore. In any case here goes ---
It's fairly early on a Sunday morning - the doorbell rings and it's the van guy
to haul me, luggage, radio, and miscellaneous secret stuff to the LA Airport.
All goes well, and the first heart stopping experience of the trip is going
into the terminal and discovering a HUGE long line of people standing in front
of the check in counters at Air Tahiti Nui, and this more than 3 hours before
departure. But I decided I was on vacation after all and I should just practice
the "Zen of waiting". :>)
Anyhow, it turns out that the people in this airline have their act together.
Did I mention that Air Tahiti Nui was founded in 1996 and flew its first flight
in November of 1998? Did I mention that they have 1 (that's right ONE) aircraft
(an Airbus 340)? Nonetheless, they did a superb job of getting everyone on
board, settled, and in the air for the eight and half hour trip to paradise. I
would highly recommend them as a carrier if the twice a week schedule fits your
requirements. The people are great, the food is a definite cut above the usual
spot-welded scrambled eggs, and the whole thing is carried out with Polynesian
dignity and French flair.
Anyway, Capt Jacques (and the GPS) managed to find Papeete within our allotted
fuel load and suddenly paradise was flying by the windows at touchdown speed.
There was the usual delicious recognition by my sense of smell that I was back
in the island tropics, and automatically my clock shifted to "island"
time. Off to a small hotel (not the best, but a long way from the worst I've
ever stayed in) for the night, since arrival was too late for transfer to Bora
Bora.
I won't bore you all with the details, but soon after arrival I was settled in
the bar in front of a cold (well, sort of cold) Hinano beer, surrounded by four
or five Tahitians, and soon discovered that the legendary hospitality of the
Tahitians hasn't degraded since the days of the late 18th century and Capt.
Cook's visit. All I can say is that it's a good thing I (unlike Cook's
sailors), wasn't in charge of the equivalent of the ship's nails. I would have
given it all away just like they did! (As an aside, two weeks later while
waiting for the return flight, I overheard two American couples complaining
about the rude, grasping nature of the people they'd met in Tahiti. All I can
say is that wasn't my experience - I guess it's all how and what you bring to
the party).
Next day, I was off to see Papeete and visit "Point Venus" above
Matavai Bay, where James Cook (he keeps popping up in this narrative), spent
several months in the late 1760's. I wound my way around Papeete, sipped a
couple of double espressos, and eventually headed back to the airport for the
short flight to Bora Bora. It's about 175 miles northwest of Tahiti and
therefore is in what are referred to as the "leeward" islands
(downwind from Tahiti). The French name "Iles sous le vent" seems
much more poetic and appropriate to me.
As a hint of what is and what is not important, the flight to Bora Bora was
delayed because of a major shower - not that the airplane couldn't take off you
understand, but jetways are unknown and we would have been like drowned rats
had we tried to get to the airplane. That airplane by the way, is an ATR 72
twin engine turboprop - so anyone who doesn't like flying in "small"
planes need have no fear, this isn't a small plane.
We flew through (well around, actually) some of the most glorious thunderheads
I've seen since the last time I was in Louisiana in the summer; 45 minutes
later arriving in real paradise. Bora Bora for those of you who don't know has
a population of about 6000 and is really rural, except for those really
expensive hotels you've read about. A gorgeous place, even with an almost cloud
filled sky. The airport is built on the remains of a strip constructed in 1943
as an American supply base. But the terminal is pure tropics. Walls are unheard
of, and the airport itself is on a motu (small island) in the northwest corner
of the lagoon. Transportation from the airport to anywhere else is by boat;
some big, fancy, high speed boats, some medium sized boats, and the one that
met me, a 14 foot aluminum outboard powered skiff. As soon as I met my host,
Stan Wisniewski, I knew that I was home!
Stan (FO5IW) is a "retired" filmmaker who has chosen to make his home
on a really small motu (how small? I could walk around the perimeter in under
five minutes) which is about a 10 minute boat ride from the airport. On this
motu lives Stan, his wife, their two year daughter, Anais, a cat named Vodka,
and a dog named Martin. Also there are three bungalows, a kitchen/dining room,
and a ham shack. The "resort" is called Mai Moana and has been in
operation for about seven years. In 1997 however, a major hurricane swept over
and through the island and essentially everything but the concrete building
which now houses the generator and workshop disappeared. So effectively
everything has been rebuilt since then.
Words are simply inadequate to describe the beauty, tranquility and serenity of
the island and the setting. The colors, the smells, the sounds, the people,
everything combines to define the perfect fantasy of a South Pacific
"desert island". It can be experienced or imagined, but not really
described.
Facilities are excellent - not luxurious, but far above "adequate".
And the food - have I mentioned the food? Truly exquisite. Local stuff, lots of
seafood of course, but with a leavening of classic French cuisine and style.
I've been fortunate enough to eat some pretty good stuff in lots of interesting
places in the world, but I have to say that never have I experienced such
consistently good food for so long a period. I not only never had a
"bad" meal, I never even had a mediocre one! Here's a partial list -
broiled mahi-mahi served with a local vanilla cream sauce, chicken marinated
in lemon juice, then covered in honey, broiled and topped with ground peanuts,
Polynesian style ceviche with the addition of coconut milk (yes, from coconuts
that fell off the trees on the motu), a classic French charcuterie served with
Feta cheese and super virgin olive oil, New Zealand green lipped mussels cooked
in white wine and onions, and it goes on and on …
But enough of the creature comforts - after all I hauled 30 kilos of radio,
wire, computer and stuff. What was it like operating from there? In a word (OK,
two words) "really neat!". This was my first experience operating
from the South Pacific and it was certainly different than I expected.
Conditions were pretty good in general. The solar flux was around 190 to 210
for the first few days and then drifted to around 160 by the time I left. In
general the geomagnetic numbers were OK except for a day and half when the A
was around 15 to 20 and the K got as high as 4.
Here was the setup. I took my FT990 and a laptop computer (very graciously
loaned to me by Darwin, KF6RHB). Also took along a manual antenna tuner and
three hundred feet of copper wire. The antenna setup on site was a triband beam
(TH3) mounted on about 20 feet of light tower. The tower itself is about 100
feet from the building that is the ham shack, but the magic is that of those
100 feet, about 60 of them are covered by 1 to 2 feet of salt water. So the
reflection gain is about as good as it gets. There is no rotator as such, but
rather the tried and true line attached to one end of the boom. Other end of
the line is tied to a medium size rock. Rotating the antenna meant wading into
the lagoon, finding the rock, picking it up and walking it around to a position
that would point the beam in the desired direction. Needless to say, it was OK
to do that in the daytime, but doing so after dark could be hazardous to your
ankles from the sharp coral.
Propagation was interesting to say the least… The first real experience was on
the night after I arrived. Around 8:30 local after dinner (0630Z) I went trolling
on 20 meter CW. Much to my surprise, the strongest signals were from EU,
sounding much like the EU signals I'm used to on summer evenings in Southern
California. Anyhow after working a couple or three people, I realized that the
volume of callers at the end of each QSO was growing at a rapid rate. Pretty
soon the end of a QSO would result in an ever widening wall of sound. It was
taking me somewhere between 30 and 45 seconds to pick out a partial call, so
the rate was only somewhere in the 40's. I had gone with the intention of
having a vacation that included some radio rather than playing DXpedition, so
that was no problem. That operating time became my regular pattern, two hours
of pileup after a great dinner and some good red French wine is a wonderful
digestif!
For those of you who haven't experienced it, being on the dx end of such clamor
is initially one of the more intimidating things you can subject yourself to.
But, it doesn't take long to get the swing and rhythm down so that it becomes a
really relaxing way to spend a couple of hours. A couple of lessons I
learned: One - work split, either by sending "up" or
consciously working the top edges of the pileup. It makes everyone's life
easier. Two - don't grab a partial call and ask for a confirmation with EU
pileups. It just doesn't work, if you respond with a "2D? kn"
everybody calls again anyway! What I found most effective was to send the
partial 2 or 3 times and then continue on with the exchange. The station in question
(and usually that station only) then almost always would respond with a full
call or any corrections, and then you're done.
Anyway, it was a real blast. Typically I'd operate each evening for 2 to 2 ˝
hours before the generator went to sleep for the night. For the first few
nights, conditions were excellent, but then around the 4th or 5th night, the A
and K went up and EU either disappeared completely or was so weak as to be
unworkable.
During the daytimes, I didn't operate very much. Most of my time was spent
snorkeling, kayaking, doing a daily "beach inspection", and similar
critical tasks. What time I spent on the air during daylight was usually on 10
meters. Some days 10 was in great shape and I could get to North America with
no worries. On other days, 10 was a local band with some very nice chats with
A35, ZL and VK.
As an aside, I rediscovered some aspects of ham radio. Communications ability
takes on a whole new meaning as you become aware of the relative remoteness of
these little specks of dry land in a very big ocean. I came away with a much
greater appreciation for the value of amateur radio.
Since I knew ahead of time that there were no low band antennas, I took along
some wire and put up a 200 foot long wire which was only about 20 to 30 feet
above ground. That wasn't very successful on 40 or 80 for long haul stuff, I
suspect because the take off angle was way too high. Nevertheless I did get
several thousand miles in most appropriate directions. Interestingly enough, EU
was quite loud in FO on 40, much louder than I would have expected for an
almost 10,000 mile polar path. Unfortunately, the high angle of most of my
radiation and only 50 to 100 watts of power meant that that not many EU
stations heard FO0SCH on 40. The antenna wouldn't tune at all on 160, so that
band was a washout.
Some RFI problems (with the VHF based telephone system) kept me off 15 almost
entirely.
In conclusion - in retrospect I can think of nothing about the trip that I
would change to make it better (except to make it longer of course!) I would
highly recommend Mai Moana as a place to go and rediscover yourself and one of
the most beautiful places in the world. Stan and his wife and daughter provide
some absolutely magnificent hospitality.
My bottom line is that before I left I gave Stan a deposit for my next visit.
I'll be back in late May for another stay and will do the CQ WPX CW contest
from there. Recommendations don't get any more solid than that.
Thanks to all who worked me, you contributed to a perfect holiday!
73 de Bill, W1HIJ/FO0SCH
CT1EAT stayed at FO5IW’s QTH in 2000. You can see some photos of his trip at: http://www.qsl.net/ct1eat/fotos_e.html
Ham Friendly Hotels: Jim, K9KUZ just came back from a trip (Oct
2000) to a few islands in FO, and offered a few ideas on hotels for hams. Jim notes he secured permission from the
hotel/resort managers by FAX prior to arrival. He found the hotels eager
to please tourists.
Tahiti Beachcomber Park Royal - nice place but I don't know
where I could have strung a wire antenna. Plus, very close to airport.
Moorea Beachcomber Park Royal - gorgeous!!! But stay away
from the ocean side bungalows, unless you are honeymooning. The units
that are facing and -on- the lagoon would be the best places for
antennas. (and a good view too)
Bora Bora Lagoon Resort - this is not on the main island, but on
Motu Toopua, about 1/2 mile off the main island. I operated from here for
five days. The hotel manager told me that this was the FIRST amateur
operation from this resort/island. Notes: the over-water bungalows
are fantastic, but very poor locations for antennas. Better to get a
beach-front unit for hamming.
If you have questions about these locations, contact Jim, K9KUZ at: k9kuz@arrl.net
Do you have more information on places to
operate in this country?
Use the handy feedback form to send me
information.