Although this was not planned as a DXpedition, I decided - at the last minute - to take the IC706 and 70MHz transverter along when I went to Guernsey to visit friends. The first period of activity, on 144MHz was on Sunday, 14th September, from Fort Le Marchant, on the island's north coast. This site, which I have used before, has a nice clear view all the way from west, through north, to east, and is within a few metres of the sea. At night it is awash with rabbits, and the moonrise over the sea can be quite a sight.
Fortunately this coincided with good tropo conditions, so I was able to give away some points in the WAB contest, and then turned the antenna to the north east. There was strong tropo ducting to northern Germany and Scandinavia, and with my 10W and 10 ele. Yagi I was able to work ON, PA, DL, OZ and SM. Best DX of the afternoon was SK7MW (JO65), at 1237km, and the three OZ stations were all over 1000km. OZ9PP (JO47) was also running 10w, and PA3C (JO33) was worked with his barefoot IC202 - only 3w! Overall I worked 9 x G, 9 x PA, 3 x DL, 3 x F, 3 x OZ, 1 x ON and 1 x SM.
The tropo wasn't quite so good the next two days, although a few more contacts were made, and the HB9HB beacon was audible, and GB3ANG was a reasonable signal on both 70 and 144MHz. In all, 7 countries and 18 locators were worked on 144MHz. A map of worked squares, and the full 2m log can be accessed by the link at the left.
On the Monday morning, I attempted a JT6m QSO with Bo, OZ2M, but we didn't manage to complete the QSO. Although I was receiving good pings and some long bursts from Bo, my station was a little too QRP for this mode, with just 10w into a 2 element Delta-loop quad. If only I'd had enough space in my suitcase for the 70MHz linear! The following day, JT6m mode came in very handy in working G4FUF (JO01), as my signal was too weak for SSB (and of course I had left my morse key at home!) It was Keith's first GU, so the effort was certainly justified. The 70MHz GU-OZ "first" is still up for grabs.
However, I did learn a few things about using the laptop for WSJT whilst running off its battery. First, its clock seems to go a bit vague, being nearly ten seconds out by the time the QSO started... Also, power management options caused WSJT to crash by locking out the disk drive. That is now disabled, as is the screen shutdown. To preserve battery life, the processor is now set to "slow" and the screen brightness to minimum. That way the battery will last 4 or 5 hours, but the screen is very difficult to see in daylight, and "losing" the cursor in the middle of a QSO is not ideal!
Finally, whilst on the ferry on the way back to England, I sailed past the site I had used, so was able to take this photo from the sea. Whilst crossing the channel to Poole, I could see a very distinct temperature inversion to the east, clearly the one responsible for the excellent conditions.
