Wednesday, 12th April
The skyline of Port Stanley in the Falklands
What would the day bring? I went up to
the shack at 07:30 and had one or two QSOs on 885 - my first being with Alan,
GW3LDH. At 09:30 I left the shack and went to the first of my business meetings
of the week (shame, but I had to do it). As soon as I could break free, I raced
back to Pioneer Row and arrived at about 12:00. I switched on the rig and tuned to
110 and was immediately shocked - there was actual activity - wow! Thank heavens we had
put the antenna up the previous day. I called CQ and was instantly overwhelmed!
Now I know what it is like to be a real DXstation. Over the next two hours I was deluged with a massive pileup from
southern Europe
with EVERYONE saying "thanks for a new country"! That was a real thrill.
Keith, VP8CMT's house
During my first opening I worked around
130 stations including a couple of stations in Miami, K4LQ and KP4EOR/W4. Well, to say that I was taken aback is
a bit of an understatement; it was marvelous After going QRT at 14:00 I got back to 6m at
17:00 local time. I called CQ and got an immediate pile-up of EA stations. The
band eventually went dead about an hour later. What a great way to start my
week's visit to the Falklands. Unfortunately, no northern Europe stations - yet! What will Thursday bring? I think I
will have another glass of wine
and wonder!
9H5EE,
IK6TIJ
and CT1DXQ. And, here is me as recorded by
Costas, SV1DH and Sergio,
IK0FTA
(as he heard me!).
Everybody was end-stop!
The 5-ele Tonna under the
tri-bander
Later on in the evening I spent a very happy evening in the Stanley Arms in the west-end of Stanley nattering to the locals about everything you could think of from the war to radio to fishing and to web sites! The countries worked today included 5B, EA, EA9, IT9, I, IS0, JY, SV, LZ, 9H, PY, 5B, 9A, YO, CT and W4.
