I was in New Caledonia recently (what a place !). I went to the Noumea Radio Association club meeting to meet-up with the friendly OMs. They have expressed their interest in creating a SOTA association for New Caledonia. I think that would be pretty cool to have a new association over there. I guess the SOTA management committee has to entrust some key people there with coming up with the various summits following the prominence rules and adding them to the database.
If somebody from the SOTA team overlooking the addition of new association could send me a PM I will put you in touch directly with the president of the club in Noumea.
New Caledonia is a place that most people will have heard of and know it’s in the Pacific somewhere. Certainly that’s my knowledge and if you’d have pushed me really hard then I’d have guessed Capt. Cook had something to do with it and maybe they sell they’re domain name on like Tuvalu & Niue did in exchange for free telecoms etc.
So I had a look on Wikipedia, which is always good for a 1st look, but of course needs verifying.
Holy Moly! Get the place sorted as I need to go there! (Photos stolen from Wikipedia!)
Yeah, the place is simply stunning. You should see the nearby loyalty islands too… I was there a few weeks ago, including the 2nd pic in your list (la piscine naturelle). I was surprised too as the place is huuuuuuge (well compared to other more famous nearby islands). I think Cook did stop by. They have tons of mountains too. Getting from sea level to 1,600 m in tropical heat must be quite a challenge!
I am sure our VK brethen would be delighted to have NC added as a nearby association!
I looked at it when I did my first Oceania scan - basic problem is a lack of decent mapping. Fiji is another one I want to get up and running, if any local still has an antenna up and functioning.
Hope you don’t mind a few Aussies - it’s a holiday destination for many from the Southern continent. The locals speak French and sometimes can be unfriendly, even to those who speak French perfectly (I know my wife went for a week holiday there). The amateur radio population however is very friendly. One of my longest 6m contacts was from VK2 to New Caledonia (the longest was the following day into Japan).
Your 12m CW The Cloud to New Caledonia is 200km less than my 20m SSB Lanzarote to South Cook Islands. Sadly you were on a summit and I was on the beach and the beach gives a huge boost to the antenna. So I think yours is still the better contact!
To be honest, the only rude behaviors I have seen while on my trip to NC were from tourists. I was there for 2 weeks and the locals, be they caldoche or kanak were all very friendly. Obviously french is my native language so it does help. I have heard that in some areas of Grande Terre there are still some Caldoche/Kanak tensions but I have not witnessed that myself. The local hams were super super friendly, what a great crowd. As for the general population, people in the outlying islands are supposed to be the friendliest and my trips to Ile des Pins and Ouvea do seem to confirm this. This is obviously only my 2-week experience and hard to draw a general conclusion based on this but it was a very positive one.
I suspect the problem was one that occurs in tourist areas around the world a lot. A hatred for the foreigners that actually bring money to their nation (that they need) but the “natives” would prefer not to share the beauty of their land with “outsiders”. The un-plesantness came from those working in the tourist industry on New Caledonia - go figure?
Confirming, like everywhere else in the world the amateur radio community is welcoming and friendly.
