HH2/K4NHW is my call sign when I travel to Haiti.  In Oct/Nov 2013, my trip to Haiti was my first real experience into the world of HF.  Granted, I had listened to several stations doing the 5/9 tango from other countries but I soon found myself on the otherwise of the radio being that station!

I was on a mission trip from church and discussed the idea of taking some radio equipment with me with our team leader.  He thought it was a great idea given the instability of the country and, frankly, I wanted to see how easy it would be to make contact back home… totally off of the grid.  So I took my FT 857, a small battery, a note pad and a sling shot and I gave it the old college try.  Well…  oddly enough, it was a success.

I was operating from grid FK38UL at 5323′ ASL!  At the end of the trip, I logged 236 contacts!  They were from 9 different DXCC entities and 39 US states.  (Keep in mind that I only had 3 HF contacts in the books before I left for this trip!)

Needless to say, this won’t be my last trip to Haiti, especially as a ham radio operator.

Once all of my entries were uploaded to HRD, I was able to export a map using Google Earth.  Here is a great visual reference of how well my setup worked.

Here is a view of the covered table that I used as my temporary ham shack.

This was the view from the shack looking out!  It overlooks the Leogane plain, the bay and Anse-a-Galets.

This is my setup during operation!  All of the equipment listed above as laid out from by backpack.  Not sure I would have done much different.

If you look close, you can see my OCF dipole up in the palm tree in an inverted V with the coax hanging straight down.