It is 40% Dutch and 60% French; the two countries having peacefully shared dominance of the island for several hundred years.
Although we stay on the Dutch side, passing the border onto the French side can be easily missed since there is no formal border control and nationality is marked simply by signage welcoming visitors to the respective country as you drive along the winding coastal road.
As we have done a few times before, Holly and I exercised our hobby of Amateur Radio during the
trip and set up a small, portable radio station from the condo where we stay.
Our vacation partially coincides with one of the major annual amateur radio operating events, the CQ Worldwide DX CW contest which I took part in. I recently learnt that my entry set a new contest record from the island when running low power - see the certificate below!
We were also on the air at other times whilst at the resort.
If you're interested in learning more about
Amateur Radio
, please take a look at the
American Radio Relay League
or
Radio Society of Great Britain
websites. There you may find both general and specialist information about the hobby, including information on how
to obtain your own Amateur Radio operating licence.
2015 marked the first time I operated from Sint Maarten.
Here is a very short video taken during the
2015 CW WW DX CW Contest
showing how it can sound to be at the DX end of a pile-up.
Checkout the Monday November 7th 2016 edition of
100 Watts and a Wire
podcast for additional information about the dual-DXCC trip.
