3.680Mhz plus or minus Qrm
7.068Mhz plus or minus Qrm
14.268Mhz plus or minus Qrm
145.350Mhz
The Geraghty's (Boat owners) rang me on Saturday evening at 21.30hrs to confirm that the forecast for the following morning was "Flat calm weather conditions". The final decision to go was not finally made until 22.30hrs Saturday night. Again, I thought it was going to fall through, this time the weather was not going to be the cancelling factor, it was going to be operator related as Enda (EI3IS) nor Dermot (EI6DZ) could not make it on this occasion. However Martin Conway (SWL) from Westport came along to help out with carrying some of the gear.
We arrived on Inishkea Island (South) at about 11.30hrs Sunday, and we setup station very close to the pier, from one of the ruined houses at 12.10hrs. The callsign used was EJ3IX as I was off shore. The Irish grid locator was F52, Maidenhead locator was IO44VC. Rig used was a Yaesu FT100, auto tuner was a Yaesu FC20, running 60W into a G5RV only 10ft above ground!.
The main purpose of the trip was to activate the two offshore Irish grid squares F51 & F52 on HF/VHF & UHF. As the Inishkea Islands are not inhabited, nor have any resident Amateurs grid activation could only be by means of an expedition. This trip would also be a good chance for any Amateurs chasing the WAI Island award to add a new Island to their log.
To power the equipment I brought along my compact Honda generator (1000W), which is the inverted type (Switch mode) , along with a sealed lead acid battery 17A/hr. The battery was to be used for the hike down to the south square (F51) as it was more portable, but the generator gave me a lot of grief with Qrn signal 7!, this of course wiped out all of the weak signal stations. With all my preparations I overlooked the potential HF/switch mode power generating device incompatibility!, so I was forced to use the sealed lead acid battery right from the start. As a result I decided to drop the rig power back to 60W from the original 100W to maximise the battery life.
A total of 17 stations were worked from F52 on 7.068Mhz. We were Qrx from F52 until 13.00hrs. At this point I disassembled the station and we travelled the 2Km by hoof! south to grid F51 using my Garmin XL45 GPS.
We arrived in F51 at 14.00hrs approx. A total of 21 stations were worked from F51 on 7.068Mhz which included stations from EI, MD, MI, M, MM & LA. HF conditions were not good from either square, originally I thought it was my station setup, most stations were weak enough, more peaked at 5/9 then dropped down to 5/1.
When all were worked on 7.068Mhz I tuned up on 21.265Mhz & 21.317Mhz as I thought I might work a few State Side stations. I called Cq a number of times but no stations were heard or worked.
Once all had been worked on HF, we hiked back to F52 to setup for VHF/UHF. We setup for 50Mhz, 70Mhz, 144Mhz & 430Mhz, unfortunatly nothing heard on any of the bands!!!. It was no doubt my location as I could not open any of the 2 meter repeaters Mayo, Galway or Limerick. Equipment used for 144Mhz & 430Mhz were Maspro yagi's, Vertical on 70Mhz, and my G5RV tuned (Just about) on 50Mhz, but nothing heard.
This was very disappointing because I had now activated 91 of the 93 Mayo WAI grid squares. Of these only F51 & F52 had not given me a VHF station in the log!.
There was little or no notice given on this occasion for the expedition as it was a last minute decision to go, due to weather conditions off the west coast. having said that I will return to Inishkea, hopefully next year.
Plans are at an advanced stage for Blackrock which is located a few miles off the Mayo coast, grid locator is F41. from research and local knowledge there is no easy way for a boat to dock on Blackrock, this is maily due to large sea swells around this area .... so, maybe a trip by helicopter before the end of the year is on the cards, but notice will be very short if all works out!!!. Stay tuned to 7.068Mhz.
Regards
Joe
EJ3IX