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Here’s a picture of Barra ferry terminal without a ferry – which is exactly what it will look like tomorrow! The Sunday ferry has been cancelled as a result of the horrendous weather. At close of play today we’ve logged 5929 contacts as we couldn’t put any kind of aerial up due to the 70mph winds so we had to rely on a mobile whip (thanks Peter). We will get out tomorrow at some point and crack the 6000 barrier as the Vatersay Boys are playing and we might be a little worse for wear!

73 Paul M1PAF

We took some time out today to visit Eriskay, Benbecular and South Uist and to get out of the house. Not much radio today but still broke the 4500 contacts barrier (our last total when we visited). Looks like the Jura total is safe unless we have a real run on Friday and Saturday.

73 Paul M1PAF

Pictures of the aerial farm – in order 20m vertical Moxon, 17m 5/8 wave vertical, 40m phased verticals and 40/80m dipoles. The directional antennas all beam east as there is a large hill behind us. Eastern propagation is greatly enhanced by our proximity to the sea.

73 Paul M1PAF

After another busy day we have uploaded the logs to the log search page. The current running total is 3102 QSO’s with some excellent 40m DX tonight to VK and JA. 20m took a bit of a dive for part of the day so we took a break for a few hours and Mark and Glyn took the opportunity to take a drive around the island. Glyn is currently on 80m having a natter inter G.

73 Paul M1PAF

Steve logging the 2000th contact. Very busy day having worked over 1300 contacts with some good DX to Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Indonesia, Thailand and India to pick a few highlights. 17m has had flurries of activity as has 40m and 80m. Logs will be uploaded this evening.

73 Paul M1PAF

Morning all – despite the early hour conditions seem pretty good with good signal reports from Japan and Asiatic Russia.

Steve G0MTD joined us yesterday having returned from the US and thanks to Barry for acting as taxi.

Logs will be uploaded later this morning so you will be able to check that you are in our log.

73 Paul M1PAF

PS previous post didn’t appear correctly

After horrendous weather we are finally on the air. We had to wait until this morning to begin putting aerials up due to high winds last night. Currently QRV on 14.263 and 7.063

73 Paul

Well we are well and truly on our way. WX not fantastic but sea calm.

Will post more later.

73 Paul

Quick photo of Mark and Glyn while we wait for the ferry at Oban. We didn’t get to work many stations on the way up due to having to concentrate on directions (sat nav user error!)

73 Paul

Norman G7MRL has been good enough to provide the following write up of his recent trip to Islay with Nick G0HIK and Ivan G3IZD. There will be a presentation at the club covering this visit and the visit to Barra some time after the Barra trip. Pictures later as Norman had camera problems and Nick won’t be able to provide them for a few weeks.

73 Paul M1PAF

Norman writes:

Why Islay? Because G0HIK, Nick, and myself wanted to try VHF and UHF and Islay is the most southerly island in the Inner Hebrides. Also from the south of the island much of the mainland of England is accessed by a sea path. The third member of the party Ivan, G3IZD, had indicated he would be using CW on HF as the CW fraternity were not usually catered for.

On 11^th September we met at Gretna services for the first leg of the journey to Tarbert which is a couple of miles from the ferry terminal ready for an early start the following morning. A fine morning and a flat calm sea was a good start and we arrived at the QTH in the early afternoon. The garden of the cottage was not as big as we thought and it was at the bottom of a headland not part way up as we had been told. For VHF/UHF being at just above sea level is not the place to be. /P was used when we had the batteries charged. We managed to squeeze a 4.5m mast and rotator for 2m vertical and 6m, a 9m mast and rotator for 2m horizontal, 4m and 23cm, a doublet that tuned on 80m to 10m, and a HF 5 band vertical.

Nick took part in the RSGB 4m contest /P and was lying second with most of the logs submitted. I was impressed with 23cm and I hope to give it a go in the future. 2m SSB reached PA, DL, ON and F but the best contact has to be M0WCR. You see 2m SSB is worth a try with a vertical, well done Mark. Ivan had such a good response that he set himself a target of 50 countries. In fact he got 56 but admits one was on SSB not CW. We operated under our own call signs. I managed to activate 6 rare WAB squares before I had problems with my /M equipment. I activated the nearby lighthouse but there was little interest. Nick and Ivan activated a couple of rare summits for SOTA. I went on the third proposed SOTA activation as there was a track up to it and Nick was taking us up in his Suzuki. After travelling around the island we found that the MoD had installed equipment on the summit and closed the track. We activated another couple of WAB squares instead

Friday came too quick and break down was completed before dark. Our return ferry was altered to leave from the North of the island which meant an 8.00am start on a wet morning. This was the only day’s bad weather and we were leaving it behind. I must mention the islanders who are amongst the friendliest people that I have met. I should not mention the distilleries but their nectar is tops.

Ivan’s culinary skills were, dare I say it, the best I have enjoyed on a radio event. Sorry Mark but I am sure yours improves every year.

One thing that I realised was that West Cumbria is NOT remote.