Caribbean Contesting Consortium Signal Point Rental Information

Signal Point - 2 Jan 2002 by NW0L

|  Rental Schedule 2008 | Rental Schedule 2009 |

| House Photo Tour | Station Photo Tour |

| Rates and Policies |

 | The PJ2T Station Home Page | Ham Licensing |

| Our Financial Philosophy | About the House | Overflow Lodging | Copy of Rental Agreement | General Curacao Information |
| Flights and Airfares | Customs and Immigration | Rental Cars | Maps | Archived Rental and Operations Schedule - 2000-2006 |

| Important Arrival and Departure Checklists - Print This |

Who Can Rent?

Signal Point (click here for a brief photo tour of the house) is presently available only for rental to hams. This does not mean you can't bring your family and friends, but the actual renter must be a ham. We won't expand rental to the public unless the ham community shows insufficient interest in using the place. CCC members get first priority on scheduling dates and receive preferred pricing because they contribute to the monthly operating costs of the place. Click here to read about how CCC membership works.

Rates and Policies

• Rental must be for at least one week, normally Tuesday - Monday, to accommodate contest weekends. Additional days after the first week are no problem.
• Your cost consists of Rent (covers use of the house), plus a Utilities Surcharge, plus Station Support Contributions (used to support the operation, maintenance, and improvement of the station) plus an Outside Maintenance Surcharge for tower maintenance. Your total cost is the sum of these three figures, appropriate to your dates and the size of the group. There is also a refundable $150 Damage Deposit required for non-CCC members. 
• 50% deposit is due at the time of booking, and the balance a week prior to the rental. This policy will be strictly enforced as our CCC club has experienced significant losses and inconveniences as a result of cancelled visits. 
• It may be of value for you to read "Concepts for Team Use of Signal Point."
• The QTH is available in "Bed and Breakfast" mode certain times of the year (see the schedule below). At these times, you will have full use of the station, one bedroom one bathroom, and breakfast will be served daily. The owners will be in the other (East) bedroom. 

• Additional days are 1/7 of the weekly rates for Rent and Station Support Contributions

Explanations of Rates

• The rent is slightly higher for parties of three or greater because the utility costs for water and electricity are very high on Curacao, as is typical of most Caribbean islands. Water comes from a desalination plant and is very VERY expensive. One load in the washing machine uses almost $4.00 worth of water.... Electricity costs about 36 times that in Ohio.
• In January of 2006 the club voted to impose a $100/week "Utilities Surcharge" so that we could afford to convert from dial-up Internet access to DSL, for the digital TV subscription, to help defray the cost of running the air conditioners in the bedrooms, and for our share of the cost of the security guard at the hotel.
• The "Station Support Contribution" money goes into a pot that is used exclusively for the ham station and antennas. A reserve is held for maintenance costs, and any extra will be used to buy better and more equipment and antennas. Over time, this concept will benefit us all in making the station better and better.
• In May 2007 at the CCC Dayton Annual Meeting we voted to impose another surcharge on ourselves and all visitors. The "Outside Maintenance Surcharge" is $175/week to help pay a commercial contractor on Curacao to do half of each year's tower scraping and painting. 
• In 2000/2001 we spent slightly over $22,000 to acquire towers, antennas (photo), and Heliax, ship everything, and then install it. Several CCC members donated many weeks of vacation time and traveled out of their pockets to build the station. We incurred considerable PJ2T station debt, which was finally retired in February of 2002. Your station support fees are now being used to enhance the station, including acquiring a generator, upgrading all radios for computer control, and stocking a reserve of backup equipment and tubes. We have found that it is very difficult and expensive to keep the transceivers, computers, and amplifiers running in the extreme tropical climate, and there are many hidden costs ranging from import duties to legal fees involved in establishing and running a large DX station.

Our Financial Philosophy

Contesting and DXing are fun and make for good international diplomacy. Accordingly, our philosophy is to make Signal Point as accessible to the ham community as possible, and at the lowest possible cost. CCC is a non-profit operation, and we are renting at a price that is set to only partially cover our losses. Your rent helps the CCC club keep the facility maintained and on the air. 

Facilities

The QTH consists of two bedrooms (click for photo of west bedroom, photos of east bedroom) with two twin beds each, a full bath each, and a full-function (but ugly) kitchen in the common room, except there is no dishwasher. (An additional room, the "East Sunroom," is under construction in 2006 but not yet complete.) The bedrooms are air conditioned. There's considerable American programming available on the wireless digital cable system at the house. The shack is in the common room. There are two large covered outdoor porches facing the ocean and a covered eating area at the edge of the ocean cliff. Click here to see a floor plan of the house. The home is clean, but very basic and utilitarian (photo) -- not luxurious -- in order to keep ours and your costs under control. There is a Maytag washer, but you must rely on the clothesline and the unceasing tradewinds for drying. There are no Jacuzzis, no hot tub, no pool, but the QTH is on the oceanside, atop a beautiful 36 foot high coral cliff overlooking the turquoise waters of the Caribbean Sea. In contrast to the pedestrian house, the amateur station is of world class calibre. Click here to go to the PJ2T Station Home Page. There's a sizeable library of ham radio books, "guy" novels, "gal" novels, and scientific books. Click here for the QTH's book list. 

Curacao as viewed looking southwest, 29 October, 2001. Photo by W0CG

PJ2T's "Ocean Pavilion" built December 2003.  Click for larger photo.

Booking and Scheduling

The Signal Point rental schedule is posted below. Entries in green are open dates. Dates were derived from the WA7BNM calendar site. If you would like to request a booking, please send an E-mail to Geoff, W0CG, ghoward@kent.edu. He will then poll the CCC members to see if they want to use the date you have requested. If not, your booking will be confirmed, usually in less than a week. (Members of the Caribbean Contesting Consortium have first priority on booking rental of Signal Point. This is because they are paying annual fees to the ownership entity as one of the conditions of membership.)

Signal Point Usage Schedule 2008

RED = Booked      GREEN = Available 

Signal Point Usage Schedule 2009

RED = Booked      GREEN = Available 

Overflow Lodging

We have been offered very competitive rates at the Sunset Waters Beach Resort, less than half a mile drive or walk from the QTH. If you have people who don't want to stay in the house, they can book at this resort. If you want to do so, please make your reservations by calling the Chicago office at 866.578.6738, x 107 and talk to Cory Acosta. Identify yourself as a ham associated with the Howard's #1 Groot Santa Marta PJ2T station and ask for the preferred ham radio room rate. Don't call or E-mail the hotel directly -- they'll just redirect you to Chicago. Also, lots of lodging is available elsewhere on Curacao. Please contact our friend Korra Juliana at International Accommodations (click here) for assistance with booking lodging, airport pickups, and most anything else about Curacao. You can also click here for lots more general info about Curacao.