Barra 2007
Having visited islands relatively close to the mainland we decided in 2007 to go further afield. None of our island dxpeditioners had visited the Outer Hebrides and we liked the idea very much. After a lot of Googling and pondering over Google Earth we found an ideal location. A cottage literally surrounded by sea water on the east coast of the Isle of Barra almost at the southern tip of the crescent formed by the islands. It looked absolutely ideal and was available so we took the plunge and booked it.
This year we were accompanied by Jim G7GAG an old friend of Steve G0MTD. Mark now M0WCR and Paul M1PAF made up the crew of 4. Sadly, since our visit Jim passed away but he will remain firmly in our memories.
Incidentally, we have always asked if it’s OK for us to put up antennas and so far we have had no objections. A little bewilderment perhaps but nothing more. We have been made very welcome on all of our visits.
The ferry to Barra leaves from Oban and it’s about a 5 hour crossing. This is actually quite nice as the first part of the crossing takes you between a number of the Inner Hebridean Islands so it’s a bit like a mini cruise.
We arrived at the cottage in the dark after nearly driving straight onto the beach (the track past the cottage is a means of access) and quickly set about putting up the dipoles for 80m and 40m. Considering the pitch blackness the mast was actually quite straight when we woke the following morning. After making a number of contacts on 80m we were fed and watered by Mark and generally collapsed to bed.
The following day we put up the vertical Moxon for 20m in a prime location close to the shoreline and established the second station. We also put up the 17m delta beam on a Clarke mast (post trip note – won’t be using the Clarke mast again, great kit but way too heavy and bulky) and began making contacts in earnest. We now had the best of both worlds – working conditions like our portable operations but in the warmth with a limitless supply of tea, toast etc.
At the end of the first full day we had over 1000 contacts in the log and it looked like our very optimistic target of 5000 for the week was on the cards. Subsequent days were slower and we ended up with 4502 for the week – massively our highest ever total and all without the benefit of any linears.
We also put up a 40m vertical right on the sea shore and that resulted in the “40m cold sweat” in the evening. None of us are truly experienced contesters and the cacophony calling us was very difficult to deal with. I’m sure we frustrated some stations who were trying to get through but we did the best that we could, reverting to working by numbers. At that time the top of 40m was 7.1MHz so we didn’t think it appropriate to work split and take up more of the band. After all, we weren’t really rare DX.
Towards the middle of the week we set up a third station on 40m and 17m so we could cover three bands simultaneously and this resulted in our only real problem. For some reason the 17m station was wiping out the 20m station big time. We had no other interaction problems whatsoever. The 17m station was using a Yaesu FT897 and it’s possible that we were hearing synthesiser noise. The 20m station was running a Kenwood TS-570.
Please use the menu links to view the pictures from Barra – some of the scenery and sunsets are simply spectacular.
