Travel, Lodging, and Costs

AIR TRAVEL

Getting there is easy. American Airlines has two flights daily from Miami to Providenciales (AA 285, arriving at 3:04 PM and AA 625, arriving at 6:34 PM). It's a quick, easy, and luxurious 1:20 minute ride on a 727 or a 757. Roundtrip airfares from Cleveland vary from about $360 to something like $520, depending on when you purchase tickets. Watch for sales, pick your dates, and grab tickets when they are cheap. I watch prices on EaasySabre via Prodigy. You might also watch http://www.americanair.com/aa_home/features.htm and http://www.traveldiscounters.com/ . If I see good prices, I'll let you all know right away by e-mail. Everybody else do the same? Help us find the best fares as a group...! Another good source of travel deals is http://www.travelocity.com .

AMERICAN AIRLINES BAGGAGE LIMITS TO PROVO

Each passenger is allowed two checked bags with a combined weight limit of 100 lb and one carry-on bag with a weight limit of 40 lb. (Thanks to W8TK for this info, current as of 9 January 1998.) See also the e-mail thread (thanks K4LT) about travel cases for radio equipment.

AMERICAN AIRLINES FREIGHT POLICIES

Thanks to Goose for the following info.

Talked to American Air Lines on thursday and here is the scoop. We can ship some of the stuff "Priority Parcel" Air Freight to Provo for the following prices:

0-50 lbs = $75

51-70 lbs = $150

These are the costs per parcel. The container that holds the amps, etc. cannot exceed a total size (L+W+H) of 90 inches. You can check the freight between 4 hrs and 1 hr before flight departure but you must check it in the day of the flight. You have to make out some shipping/customs documents (more on that later) in triplicate to ship with the package. AA requires a connection time of 2 hours in Miami or San Juan to insure delivery at the final destination on the same day. This means that we could essentially have our stuff on the same flights that we are going on !!! If the connection time is less than 2 hrs, we will get it the next day. The only fly in the ointment is that the freight offices are only open on Mondays through Fridays. But the guy says that since we are going to the Caribbean, we could probably sweet talk them down there in Provo to release it.

LODGING

You're welcome to make your own lodging arrangements, but it will probably be cheaper and easier to make them through the contest group. This is a VERY rough stab, but figure something like $500 lodging for 5-6 days, in a shared-living kind of setup. More, of course, if you want a lot of privacy. In addition, we're working with Jody to secure one or possibly both of the houses that we rented both during the VP5VW and VP5FOC operations. These are both on the beach, about four miles from the contest QTH, and sleep quite a few people with ease. Depending upon the total number of people coming, we will need to work on other locations. If you know your dates FOR SURE, please let me know, and I'll put them into the lodging planning. K4LT is working with Provo Villas (see http://www.tcivillas.com/ ) for more information on lodging on Provo.

OTHER COSTS

There will be some costs common to the entire team, such as shares of the cost of renting the station QTH, possibly leased computers, possible equipment shipping and insurance costs, QSLs, and others that are presently unforseen. We'll simply divide this cost by the number of operating hams on the team.

RENTAL CARS

Rental cars are available on Provo, but reservations need to be made as far in advance as possible. Make your own reservations -- you can save some dollars by arranging to share a car with someone else on the team. The agency is "Provo Rent a Car Limited", (809) 946-4404. They're not cheap -- on the order of $50/day. You must have a Visa card -- they won't take anything else.

PASSPORTS

You need not have a passport. An original U.S. birth certificate will get you into and out of the country. A passport is very good insurance while traveling out of the states, though. Call the post office in your town and ask for the location of a post office that does passport servicing. Pick up a passport application form at AAA or a travel agent. Then go to AAA, Kinkos, or almost any commercial photographer to get an official passport photo shot. Take the photo, the completed application form, and your birth certificate to the passport-servicing post office. The fee is $80, and you need to allow at least two months lead time.

LICENSES

Each operator will need to have a VP5 ham license. Jody has been very kind in taking care of this paperwork for us. As of 1 January, 1998, all licenses have been obtained except for K8RF's.

CUSTOMS

I need serial numbers for all equipment, as indicated in the "Master Equipment List." This is so we can send Jody a complete list of equipment we will be taking into the country. Clearing customs is much easier with that list available up front. SEND ME YOUR SERIAL NUMBERS!