Monday – April 20th 2009: 2225pm (By GM4HUN)

April 20th, 2009

We nearly had a Raynet exercise up here this evening. It was gone 8.00pm and Voi hadn’t shown up. We’d all had dinner and his mobile phone wasn’t responding (No real surprise, to be frank!). But in the end he finally pitched up around 9.00pm. Voi has had a busy day activating WAB squares – a couple of rare ones as well. He notched up NB40 (Not activated for two years); NB31 & NB21. These to be added to NG08 which he activated yesterday

.

(Voi activating WAB)

The good news this evening concerns the totals so far. Last year we had 1600 QSOs from the shack in the entire time we were there – today we passed that mark, after just two days on the air. MM1BXF and MM0VFC are running huge pileups on 40m and 80m, so goodness knows what the final tally for the day will be. Our QRZ.com entry has had more hits in two days than the whole of the trip last year, and so has the Camb-Hams website. We’re feeling really good – we’re having a good time and all the gear is working like a dream. Shurely shome mishtake??

So far we’ve worked the following locals: 2E0JYK (Loads of times!); 2E0LCM; G0HEM; M0VMC; M1MAJ; M3ZCB; G8UFR; 2E0MVB; G6FSU; G8IDL; G6YQJ; G4ERO; G0KRB. Those are all we can remember at the moment – sorry if there’s anyone we have missed; we’ve been a bit busy!! If we haven’t worked you yet – please check the online logbook, it will give you which frequencies we are on at the moment.

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Monday – April 20th 2009: 1630pm (By GM4HUN)

April 20th, 2009

As you may know – I lead a fairly stressful life running my own IT company. Every now and then you get given a day as a present; to make up for the hard work. Today has been one of those days! It started in a quite unpromising way. I awoke on the sofa in the lounge at around 8.40am (I’m sharing my room, and my co-habitee was a little noisy). We’d had a dribble of rain overnight, and the clouds were low over the tops of the hills – in fact Beinn Dhubh, which I climbed yesterday, was completely shrouded. I then had to drop Allan and his dad Jim round to the drop off point for their SOTA activities today. The drive back through the hills was pleasant enough, but the best was about to start.

I got back to the cottage to find Aldo and Neill cooking a full Scottish breakfast, which tasted absolutely wonderful. I then split the morning between relaxing in the cottage and running a pile-up on 20m.

By early in the afternoon the sun had come out, and so I decided to do a short local walk to test out some new software with my GPS. I walked about half a mile to the hamlet of Likisto, which lies by the side of the Loch. I sat on a boulder in the sun for about half an hour just looking down the Loch admiring the view, and watching the wildlife. Sheep mainly. Strolling back I passed a cottage where I was greeted by two dogs, followed swiftly by their owner – a chap called Harvey who moved to the Island from Leeds in 2007. Harvey and his partner run a salon in Tarbert, and are setting up their croft as a campsite. They also have a black house (Look it up on Wikipedia), which was originally a weaver’s cottage. This is being renovated with the help of Channel Five’s "Build a new life in the country". Harvey showed me the cottage, and we chatted at length about life on Harris, the locals, etc. Everything on the island is imported, so the cost of living is about fifty percent more expensive than at home – but Harvey bought his croft, the black house, a couple of other properties and 13 acres of tenanted land (Rent £11 per annum for the lot) for just over £100k. Worth a thought!

Harvey also pointed out "The Sleeping Woman" – if you look at the ridge line of the mountains opposite our cottage you can clearly see the shape of a woman lying down. Apparently a local artist has sculpted out her navel, and tiled it, etc. A few of us are going to seek this out in the next couple of days. Harvey also recommended a couple of restaurants we might like for our Thursday meal – so I’m off to try and make a reservation.

On the radio front, the stations continue to perform well, especially on 80m, 40m,  and 20m. Best DX so far is South Africa on 20m this morning. The QSO count has passed 1300 – so we might break last year’s overall figure of 1600 shack QSOs by the end of the day if we stick at it!

(Geoff, Andy, Rob and Gav operating)

Allan, MM1BJP has just staggered in from his day on the hills. He successfully activated GM/SI-117 and GM/SI-116 – knocking out around 18 contacts each into UK and Europe on 5MHz, 40m and 20m. After three summits in two days, he’s reserving judgment on tomorrow!

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Sunday – April 19th 2009: 2345pm (By MM1BXF)

April 19th, 2009

We have had a good run of contacts today, both on HF and VHF. As I write this we have broken the 750 contacts mark with 753 QSOs on all bands, all modes, see our logbook here for a breakdown. We moved over to Rob M0VFCs own logbook today (which he made in less than 12 hours, that included 9 hours sleep) and it has made computer logging so much easier for everyone. HF has been so good we have re-tasked the 6m station to HF so at one time we were on 20m data as well as 40m and 80m SSB, we are still on 80m but have pointed the spiderbeam to America on 20m and contacts are going into the log right now.

Talking of the spiderbeam here are some pictures from today to give you a flavour for it, and the general antenna setup around the cottage.

(The Camb-Hams spiderbeam – Look at the clear sky!)

(The antenna setup around the cottage, VHF on the left and spiderbeam on the right)

(Both HF SSB stations in action. Rob M0VFC left and Neil G4HUN right)

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Sunday – April 19th 2009: 1650pm (By GM4HUN)

April 19th, 2009

Today a team of us: Allan MM1BJP; Seamus 2M0OVV; Neil GM4HUN; Jim the chef and "Other Neill" started the week’s SOTA activities. In true "Allan" – style we started with the biggest hill on Harris, Beinn Dhubh- at 1661ft (Or half a Monro as Allan pointed out). The climb started from sea level – and took about an hour and a half to ascend. At the top the Trig point was surrounded on three sides by a low dry stone wall – which meant we could all hunker down and get some shelter from the wind. Allan hit 40m, Seamus took 2m FM and I tried out my 5MHz setup for the first time in anger. Although HF wasn’t in brilliant shape we all managed valid activations. We enjoyed a packed lunch admiring the stunning views of the north Harris shoreline, before heading back down. Once back at the car we spent another three quarters of an hour just sitting looking at the coastline, and basking in the warm spring sunshine. Thankfully (Like last year) we have come early enough to avoid the midges

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(Allan MM1BJP, Seamus 2M0OVV, Neil GM4HUN & Other Neil Climbing

Back at base the HF station now has the Spiderbeam available, and we have been busy notching up over 300 QSOs on 20m. This evening we’ll be back on 80m for another run – but only after roast turkey and trifle: thank goodness for Jim!

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Sunday – April 19th 2009: 0030am (By MM1BXF)

April 19th, 2009

Well, Neil G4HUN is still hammering away on 80m after Rob M0VFC did a good stint from around 18.05 till 20.55 UTC. As I write this we have managed QSOs totalling 173 on 80m, 1 on 6m and 5 on 2m. We have a realtime live logbook on our webpage here where you can see who has worked us and when and and what band and mode. You can also sort it by callsign, mode, band and operator – this was all written by Rob M0VFC who is, as I write this, coding a new logging interface as we have found our beta version of HRD ‘buggy’. The VHF setup seems to be working really well although there have not been much takers, hopefully that will change tomorrow.

Here are some pictures to give you a flavour of the setup here.

(The Camb-Hams trailer mast with the 2m and 4m/6m beams)

(Setting up the fullsize G5RV – across the sea loch!!!)

(Gavin M1BXF at the 4m/6m and 2m station)

(Neil G4HUN operation the HF station on 80m)

Time for bed! Some of us have been up since 2.30am yesterday…

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Saturday – April 18th 2009: 1745pm (By GM4HUN)

April 18th, 2009

Well this has to be a Camb-Hams first – what a brilliantly successful first day!! Albeit after a very short night with negligible sleep (As usual!). Bob, Geoff and I set off from Gavin’s mum’s at 0308am for the long drive to the port of Uig on the Isle of Skye. The road was absolutely clear – apart from the odd deer – and we made excellent time, arriving an hour early at Uig. The views as the sun rose over this magical isle made getting up so early seem very worthwhile.

The others duly pitched up, and we all enjoyed a good breakfast on the ferry crossing to Tarbert on the Isle of Harris. The sun shone and the sea was a mill pond. Things were going well. They went even better!

We arrived at Liceasto expecting to have to wait until 4pm before we could get into the cottage, but we got in straight away. So at the time of writing we’ve got the G5RV strung over the loch; the 6BTV vertical up for HF Data modes; the Tonna and 6/4m Yagi up on the mast, and we’re about to make a start on assembling the Spiderbeam.

We’ve good internet access and Rob, M0VFC has done a splendid job getting the online log system running. So you can work us, and pretty much see the entry in the online log straightaway.

We’re underway on 6m datamodes and 80m SSB at the moment – running full power throughout.

The others are planning their SOTA’s and we’ll let you know what’s planned ASAP; Voi has been out mobile – working HF and into this weekend’s GlobalSET exercise.

Jim – the team chef has made a great start in the kitchen, with some wonderful cooking smells wafting around the cottage already.

The only downside is that mobile phone coverage isn’t great. But, hey – can’t have everything.

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Friday – April 17th 2009: 2320pm (By GM4HUN/Portable: on a sofa – not SOTA)

April 17th, 2009

The English contingent arrived safely in Scotland, and we met at the Tullie Arms for a meal this evening. Alan, MM1BJP, his XYL Vicky MM3somethingorother, Jim – the Chef, Gav’s mum, were all there – and we had a great time.

We’re now hunkering down for a few hour’s kip before heading off for Skye in the morning. Gavin has just pumped up his bed with what looks like a used breast-pump. We’ll see how long that lasts! Night, night all – speak to you from Harris.

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Friday – April 17th, 2009 (by G1SAA)

April 17th, 2009

I have set up an online GPS tracker using a mobile phone that will be in my car for the trip north, this will give near real time tracking. You can see where we are here.

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Friday – April 17th, 2009 (by M1BXF/M)

April 17th, 2009

Well the dx’pedition has started. Bob G1SAA, Geoff G0DDX and Gavin M1BXF left Melbourn at 06.28 this morning only to promptly return an hour later to collect Gavins wallet which he left in his other pair of jeans! We are passing Peterborough as I write this on my netbook, an hour later than we hoped, not to worry as we won’t be late for anything at Helensburgh.

(Gavin M1BXF enjoying his traditional 06.30 am Camb-Hams beer)

Rob M0VFC and Neil G4HUN will be following on at around 12.30 from Cambridge and we will all meet up in Helensburgh later.

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Wednesday – April 15th, 2009 (by M1BXF)

April 15th, 2009

We all got together yesterday and done a final equipment check. We also made up a good run of cable for the VHF rotator as we thought it necessary to upgrade from the light duty one we used last year. We only got our hands on our new (literally new, it was still in the box when bought) Ham IV rotator last week.

(Gavin and Bob attaching the Ham IV rotator to the base made by Geoff G0DDX)

The trailer was also fully packed yesterday and all the antennas firmly cable-tied on. Bob G1SAA’s radio and amp are with Voi for transport. Gavin M1BXF’s radios and amp are now ready for collection by Voi tomorrow. I’m glad the radios were packed yesterday as last night a big thunderstorm came through Cambridgeshire at 3.30am! There is more lightning tonight but further to the north as a write this.

(All this needs to go onto or in the trailer)

(Amazingly all that did fit on or in the trailer)

Also, as promised I’ve done the plots for the bandpass filters;

(80m / 40m / 20m / 15m bandpass filter plots)

Only one more day to do till we leave!

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Easter Monday – April 13th, 2009 (by M1BXF)

April 13th, 2009

Today the Cambridge boys got together and started to sort out bits ready to pack up and load up the trailer and cars tomorrow. The spiderbeam came down and dismantled OK but we had to think about how best to keep the wire/string elements in an untangled and orderly state, step up food bags… The new for the dx’pedition 17 element 2m F9FT beam was still in its box so we had to open that to check all parts were there! There aren’t many hardware radio stores, never mind ham radio outlets on the island so we thought we best check before we left. We put the the elements onto the beam to help speed up assembly when we get to the island and checked we had all the brackets and fixings, check. The 4m/6m jaybeam is down and in bits ready to go, all the ropes, guy stakes, pegs, cable ties, duct tape (can’t forget the duct tape) and brackets are in one place ready to go into the trailer too.

(Voi next to the Camb-Hams trailer)

Rob M0VFC appeared after the hard labour of the afternoon but soon got his laptop out and made up for it by writing PHP/HTML code to allow us to display the dx’pedition HRD logbook ‘live’ on our webpage! This is a feature of the new HRD logbook which is still in alpha testing. We should manage to update the online log around every 15 minutes which will allow searches by callsign, date, band, mode and Camb-Hams operator.

Rob also handed over the bandpass filters for 80m, 40m, 20m and 15m. A quick check on the miniVNA shows them to be good for each band! Well done Rob (and your dad, G3VFC)! I’ll try and post the plots of them tomorrow if I have time after packing the trailer.

(The 80m bandpass filter)

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Easter Sunday – April 12th, 2009 (by G4HUN)

April 13th, 2009

The countdown has started! This week sees the group loading up ready for Friday’s start on the journey to Harris.

Several of the team members have been putting in huge amounts of preparatory work: Gavin M1BXF and Bob G1SAA have built and tested a Spiderbeam, which will be used on 20m, 15m and 10m. It has now been fine-tuned, and has an excellent SWR in each part of the three bands that we aim to be using. Robert M0VFC and Geoff G0DDX have been finishing the filters. The T-shirts have been printed. Here at HUN Towers the Hustler 6BTV six band vertical that is my main HF antenna has been labelled and dismantled ready for loading, and generally things are being pulled together in one place. But there seem to be boxes of stuff everywhere – I hope ‘VFC has a big enough car! I’ve been busy with the laminator – there are Great Circle DX maps centred on Harris; WAB maps of the island (Thanks to the sterling efforts of Dave M0VMC); and lists of frequencies used for IOTA and WAB. We seem to be a lot more organised than last year.

(Spiderbeam plots for 20m / 15m & 10m)

Tomorrow we’re getting together for a final run through – then on Tuesday we pack the trailer.

The plan is that Bob, Geoff and Gavin will head off with the trailer early on Friday morning, around 6am with myself and Robert following a little later in the day. First stop will be Gavin’s mum’s QTH at Helensburgh near Glasgow. We’ll be kipping there and meeting up with some of the Scottish contingent for dinner on the Friday. It will be an early start on Saturday – we plan to leave there at 3.00am; we have to get to the ferry terminal on Skye for a 9.40am sailing! Unfortunately we can’t get into the cottage until 4.00pm, so don’t expect to hear much from us on Saturday although some of the team will try and participate in GlobalSET. Once into the cottage it will be a race to get some aerials up, and hope to have some sort of operation going by the evening.

So the question is – “Will I need more than one pair of pants”?

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Mull DX-pedition ’08

April 27th, 2008

Keep watching this space for more info about the CAMB-HAMS DX-pedition to the Isle of Mull from April 26th to May 3rd 2008.

 

LATEST NEWS FROM THE ISLAND!!!

Sunday 27 April 2008

The Camb Hams Mull expedition have been active on almost all bands today (Sunday 27th) running pretty much all modes.  80, 40, 20 and 17m seem to have been most favoured HF bands on voice, cw and data.  They have also been active on VHF with 6m and 2m data and voice.  2m SSB seems to have been most successful with contacts into Devon and a spotter as far away as Hungary!  A promising start to the week.  Currently the most significant contacts have been with DG6JF/p @ 561 miles on 2m and OE5MPL @ 1007 miles on 6m.

Summits on the Air (SOTA) also saw a number of activations from the team.  Allan, MM1BJP, did a sterling job of activating three summits today.  These were Ben More, SI-003, the first time in nearly 2 years, Beinn a’Ghraig, SI-043, for the first activation of this summit and Beinn Fhada, SI-034, a summit last activated in Oct 2005!  Dave, MM0VMC, Neil, GM4HUN and Voi, GM0BOE were not to be outdone and activated Beinn Chreagach, SI-123 using 2m FM, another summit that has now had its first ever activation!  All in all, a great day for the SOTA teams.

The team is intending to carry out WAB mini-expeditions on Tuesday (obviously weather permitting!), hoping to cover as many of the squares as possible.  There is also the intention to activate the IO66 grid square using VHF on Tuesday.

Keep checking this page for more news from the island.  The team will be updating me as often as possible, apparently mobile phone signals can be described as intermittent at best!

Monday 28 April 2008

Having spoken to the team this morning, HF seems very quiet and VHF doesn’t appear to be much better.  They should be getting the 4m beam onto the mast today hopefully, so should be QRV on 4m from about 5pm (1700hrs) local time.

Quick update – the team are QRV on 4m now (1200hrs local time).

 

 

Overview

The Camb-Hams sat at one pie and pint in late 2007 and decided we had to do some IOTA, SOTA, WAB or VHF portable operation in 2008. Suggested locations were made for SOTA, others for WAB or VHF and many ideas were mentioned for which island(s) to activate for IOTA, most of which were tropical!  It was then realised that we can do it all on the Isle of Mull.  At this point the Camb-Hams DX-pedition to the Isle of Mull was born.

We plan to be predominantly operational on most HF bands (inc. 5Mhz), 6m and 2m. We will also have the capability for 4m and 70cm operation, but will only be QRV if there is enough demand. Please see the sections below for more information on each operating section. The G3PYE call sign which will be used from base camp belongs the CRG (Cambridgeshire Repeater Group) and as the activation is in Scotland the prefix becomes GM3PYE/P or GS3PYE/P, both of which will be used. SOTA, WAB and VHF operation from IO66 will be under the operators own call sign, they are listed below in the ‘Operators’ section.  Please see the QSL information at the bottom if you are interested in a QSL response.

Base camp is at Carsaig on the south coast of the island, OS ref NM545215, lat/long 56.19.31N 5.58.53W, IOTA group EU-008, WAB NM52 and maidenhead square IO76ah.  For more info on any aspect of the trip please email us at mull-info@camb-hams.com.  For skeds email us at mull-skeds@camb-hams.com.

(Isle of Mull)

Operators

Confirmed operators for Mull: Gavin, M1BXF. Bob, G1SAA. Neil, G4HUN. Daryl, G0ANV. Allan, MM1BJP. Dave, M0VMC. Voi, G0BOE. Geoff, G0DDX. Rob, M1XZG. Colin (BJP’s brother), tea boy.

NEWS!!

ICOM are in on the act! They are supporting us and have provided an IC-756pro3 + PSU + speaker, an IC-7000 and an IC-703 for the DX-pedition. Many thanks to Ian Lockyer and the team down in Herne Bay for this support!

On top of this we will have an a second IC-756proIII, an FT-847, an FT-897D, an IC-910H, a VHF amp, an HF amp plus a handful of FT-817D’s (for SOTA).

HF

We plan to run on 2 band simultaneously. The HF stations will consist of 2 x Icom IC-756proIII radios, one will be running into a Ranger amplifier. The antennas will be a full-sized G5RV, 20m 1/4wave vertical and a 40m 1/4wave vertical. Verticals are mainly being used due to the small area required to erect them. One station will be running CW and the other SSB, both will be used for datamodes at various times to give RTTY, PSK31 and SSTV operators a chance to work us – keep an eye on the DX clusters.

(80m Slinky Vertical)

WAB

We plan to work as many WAB squares as possible while on the island. There are 25 WAB squares available but we think 3 of them (NM23, NM33 & NM61) will be difficult to activate. Listen out for us on the rest, mainly under the operators own call sign /M. Base camp is in NM52. More details of the dates and times of operation will appear once we have a good idea of the weather.  If you have demand for a particular WAB square please send us an email at mull-skeds@camb-hams.com and we will endeavor to prioritise the most popular squares.

(WAB Squares)

IOTA

The Isle of Mull falls into the Inner Hebrides group in IOTA. It’s reference is EU-008. At the time of writing EU-008 has been worked by 36.1% of IOTA participants.

Also on the cards is a trip to Treshnish, IOTA reference EU-108. Only claimed by 19.8% of IOTA participants so this is going to be a welcomed activation by many. Unfortunately due to the logistics of the trip we will only be able to activate Treshnish for around 6 hours. It’s still weather dependant but we currently plan to activate it on Wednesday 30th April 2008 so listen out for us.  A more accurate activation schedule will appear a few days before going…

(Mull IOTA Groups)

VHF

We will be active on 6m and 2m for most of the time while on the island. We will be capable of 4m and 70cm activity but will only setup the 4m and 70cm stations if there is enough demand. Radios in use will be an FT-897D or FT-847 for 6m and 4m and an IC-910H for 2m and 70cm. Antennas will be a 5ele Tonna beam on 6m, 4ele Jaybeam on 4m, a 17ele Tonna beam on 2m and a 22ele Tonna beam on 70cm, all will be mounted on our 10m trailer mast but due to size restrictions only 2 antennas can be mounted at any time.

Base camp is just in the western edge of IO76 but we also plan to do some /P operation from IO66. SSB, JT6m and FSK441 will be the preferred modes on all VHF/UHF bands and skeds are welcome to mull-skeds@camb-hams.com. If we have internet access you will find us on ON4KST chat (GS3PYE/P) or MSN IM@Camb-Hams.Com. If there is no internet access then any requests for skeds during the trip will be forwarded onto us by other means such as directly over the radio!

(Maidenhead Grid Squares)

QSL information

- UK Stations should include a stamped addressed return envelope.
- Europe: 1x IRC
- RoW: 2x IRC.

Our QSL manager is Neil G4HUN.  QSL cards for GM3PYE/P & GS3PYE/P, and where possible any SOTA, WAB, Treshnish (IOTA EU-108) and VHF from IO66 cards (to operator’s own call) should be marked as QSL manager G4HUN and sent via the RSGB Bureau or direct to G4HUN:

Neil Whiteside, G4HUN
15 Strympole Way
Highfields Caldecote
CAMBRIDGE
CB23 7ZJ

Please do not enclose cash or loose stamps with your cards.  Those cards submitted without the appropriate return postage will receive their QSL card via the bureau.

All QSL enquiries should be directed to mull-qsl@camb-hams.com

LogBook

Logs will be uploaded to Logbook of the World, eQSL, IOTA and SOTA as quickly as possible after the trip.

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