KE7X has already started his trip to The Bahamas, but as of this morning, we still didn't know if we would be able to get to the villa! Tropical Depression Noel flooded the road to the villa, and you needed a boat to get to the house for the past 2 weeks. Finally, the water on the road is being pumped out so we should be able to get to Finiterre. For the past few days we had been frantically trying to find an alternative villa, but none that really met our needs.

For those of you thinking of going to Eleuthera, which I would highly recommend, we found a great little villa on the water which is an excellent location for verticals, and is probably the best radio location on the island for verticals with a great water path to Asia, NA, EU, AF, and SA. Check out http://www.bahamas-rental.com/ But it's a small but nice 1 bedroom villa, without a telephone. A true getaway trip!

CU on the bands Saturday night.

Kenny C6ATA

Tropical Depression Noel

TD Noel formed right over Eleuthera and hit the island hard at the beginning of Nov. There was flooding all over the island, especially near the villa. On the way to the house, there was 3' of water in many places, and no place for it to go. Reports from the island indicate there were places with 9' of standing water. The fire department has been busy pumping water to restore the flooded area and roads. In the area around the villa, there are normally many large "ponds" - in some places they are called small lakes - so there's no place for the water to drain to. Luckily Finiterre is on a 45' bluff, so the house itself was not flooded. Eleuthera should be back to normal by the time we arrive (keeping our fingers crossed)! Hopefully the storm cleaned up the power line noise :-)

The photo is the beach in front of the villa. Last year, we stayed at the Kokomo villa, which is next door.

We should be partially operational the evening of the 17th, probably on 17 & 30m. We've had a lot of interest from JA and EU to be on 160m. We will spend a lot of time on 160m, but we won't be operational until the 19th (local time).

In the CQWWCW contest, we will be running 3 single band low power efforts:

• C6AKX (Fred, KE7X op) will be on 20m
• C6ATA (Kenny, K2KW op) will be on 40m
• C6ARR (Tom, N6BT op) will be on 160m

We have a hard time working Asia from C6, so we hope to hear you in the pileups!

73, and have fun in the contest! Kenny K2KW, C6ATA