Ham Friendly Hotel on Guadalcanal - Lelei Resort.
Report filed by David Stanley in December, 2002: The Lelei Resort was closed when I was there. I understand that the Development Bank has foreclosed on their loan and is now trying to sell the property.
Small resort with only 6 rooms.
Note from K1XM on 20 July 2000: Lelei Resort,
where we operated from last year is probably closed
at the moment. There is no commercial air service to Guadalcanal and you
wouldn't want to be there anyways. Hopefully they will solve their problems
soon.
Update from K1XM on 28 Dec, 2000: Air service has been restored. The
Lelei resort is probably open. Be aware that there may be scheduled or
unscheduled power outages.
Ham Friendly Location: South Sea
Evangelical Church (SSEC) Transit House. DL7IO says it's the best location (for
radioing!) in Honiara, Guadalcanal, hill top location overlooking all
directions, very familiar, cheap, basic, five self-contained rooms, two with
shower/toilet, and combined kitchen/dinning room
SSEC Transit House
PO Box 16, Honiara, tel: +677 22800
email: Eternity@solomon.com.sb
(Church telephone: +677 22388)
Some additional notes on the SSEC Transit House
by Bernhard, DL2GAC (27 March 01)
I have operated as H44MS and H40MS from various places including most IOTA locations since 1989. I have visited the Solomon Islands since 1989 every single year, except 1998. My last visit was from 11.Febr.-27.March 2001. SSEC transit house is the best radio location in Honiara, I stay there whenever I am in Honiara. The SSEC was renovated during my last stay there in March 2001. Price is now 50 Sol-$ which is equal to 10 US-$ per head/day. At the moment there is water rationing in Honiara, but SSEC transit has its own private rainwater collecting water tank, 24 hours public electricity is restored in Honiara.
Since March 2001 there is a
young lady by the name: SALLY caretaker.
The lady lives private straight over the road from the Transit
House. In the houses over the road
lives a number of South Sea Evangilist Church (SSEC) members, they should be
able to direct you.
Location of Transit House is on Vavaya Ridge that is ,if you go up the hill
from Holy Cross Catholic Cathedral towards National Parliament Building.
Transit House is soon after the road levels off on top of the hill.
Unfortunately there is no sign outside, but look for the house with a light
blue water tank clearly visible from the road on the right side. It is a two story building, lower part is
Transit accommodation, upper part is at the same level like the road and is a
flat where the SSEC Church President used to live with his family. In March
2001 upper part was empty and under renovation.
Telephone in the upper part
is: 22800, but line was disconnected in March 2001,probabely because the flat
was vacant. There is an old-styled disk-turning telephone in the lower story Transit
accommodation number: 20327. It is good for incoming calls, but the disk
is so worn out I tried unsuccessfully to dial out locally. Apart from the above mentioned lady: SALLY,
you can contact SSEC Church
head office down the hill on the main road of Honiara nearby the public market.
Telephones there are: 22388,22398,fax: 25813.
SSEC Transit is intended as accommodation for church workers, who are on visit
in Honiara from Solomon Provinces, so it is good place to meet locals from the
province. Church members and workers have preference, but if there is vacancy
outsiders can stay there. In 9 out of 10 cases when I tried to get in, there
was vacancy, a number of days I was alone there. Out of the windows of SSEC
Transit you can look down to the Honiara town center and Honiara harbor, there
is a clear horizon over the sea (Iron- bottom-Sound) between west and east,
which covers the main ham populations in Europe, Japan and North America. On the horizon on a clear day you can see
the Florida Islands (OC 158). In March
2001 I used as an antenna a 40m long windom. One end was hooked to the upper
story of the Transit House, the other end was sloping down the hill and hooked
to a tree nearby a house below there. When I talked to the head of the family
living in that house and ask for permission to hook my aerial to one of his
trees, it turned out he had been previously working for Solomon Telecom and
knew about Ham Radio. With the antenna
arrangement and 100W I worked on 3.799 MHz with 2 OE’s back home and a number
of other well-equipped USA east coast stations sideband on 15. March 2001.
73 de bernard,dl2gac,h44ms,h40ms
Background Information: Guadalcanal / Honiara
Submitted by David Burger, VK2CZ, who visited in 1993
QTH Name->International School / Panatina Village. It's historic, but the husband of the Principal of the Internation School there was a radio ham (Colin H44CR & Rona), and I operated from their house in Panatina village - a fenced estate. Beautiful northern outlook.
The other place worthy of a look is the hoiday resort with cabins at the westerly most point accessible by road in Guadalcanal. They do have local generator power, but not sure if it is on 24h. We stayed for one night, and its literally on the water. I'd be nervous about leaving anything attractive lying around unattended like cables and antennas. Getting HF radio equipnment into Honiara required some explaination to local customs, but that probably has changed recently. There is a total ban on the removal of WW2 artifacts which are lying around everywhere still.
Cheers, David H44/VK3HZ back in 1993.. now VK2CZ
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