Discovery Bay, Jamaica
The 6Y2A QTH is just west of the center
of Discovery Bay, on the north coast of Jamaica. Discovery Bay is argued to be
the point where Columbus landed. Our operating site was set up on two adjacent
villas with a coastline that roughly went from 310 degrees, through north, to
110 degrees. This provided us a water path for the entire USA, Japan, Europe,
and most of Africa.
The villas were on a total of 3
flat acres, around 3' above sea level, and had 400' of rocky beach-front. The
villa used for operating was about 80' from the rock wall on the ocean, and the
other villa was set back about 110'. (Both had swimming pools!) On either side
of the villas were vacant properties, with a total of another 400' of
beach-front. There were a few trees that were 50' tall, but not enough in the
right directions to utilize for antenna supports. There were very few existing,
solid points to guy tall masts for Yagi antennas. The ground around the villas
was grass, with several inches of topsoil (on top of coral), which proved
sufficiently deep to hold a typical tent stake.
Arial view of Discovery Bay. Our
villas were at the very top of the photograph.
Great circle map centered on
Jamaica, at sunrise. Note the mutual hours of darkness with Japan, which is FB
for the low bands!