on air on Farø

 

For many radio amateurs, a holiday is the ideal opportunity to try out other antennas and other bands. Whether at a campsite, holiday home or even in a hotel - the completely different space conditions offer other possibilities or challenges. Just the right thing for our experimental hobby! This was also the case for OM Bernd Reimer, DL9LBR from Hamburg, whom we would like to thank for his holiday report from 2019!

The journey beginns

 

Since my antenna possibilities at home are not optimal and I can "only" be QRV on 40/30/20/15 and 10 m, I am always happy when I go on holiday to our northern neighbours in OZ (Denmark). Because there I have the opportunity to play on 80 m as well. This time I was going for a week to the beautiful island of Fanø (IOTA EU-125).

The time had come at the beginning of May 2019. Our car was fully loaded with me, my wife, our youngest daughter and two dogs. Everything was carefully and well stowed and the journey started towards Jutland. More precisely, to Esbjerg on the Danish west coast. From there it is only a stone's throw by ferry to the island of Fanø.

The equipment

 

After the crossing, we headed for the holiday home in Rindby and unloaded the car. On board was my vintage transceiver, an Icom IC-725 with power supply, antenna tuner for all cases, my Samson ETM-1C Morse key and a Pico Paddle. For the antenna I used an Endfed for 10 to 80 m with a length of about 21 metres and for the logbook I used my well aged Linux notebook.

The flagpole is stuck

 

One end of the antenna was attached to a portable mast on the 1st floor of the house. The other end of the antenna was to be attached to a flagpole. Since the screws of the bracket at the base were totally rusted and would not loosen with the tools we had brought with us, we first had to visit a hardware store the following day.

A can of spray oil and a roller fork spanner solved the problem and the flagpole could be tiltedto install the antenna. Now I was able to make the first QSOs. The conditions were not so good, but I made 165 CW QSOs in 5 days. The action was mainly on 80/40 and 20m. And since it was not supposed to be a pure radio holiday, I am satisfied with the result ;-).

And the island of Fanø has everything you need to survive as a radio amateur: a DIY store, a supermarket and a brewery. Okay, the rest of my family and the two dogs might see it differently... ;-)

 

Thanks to OM Bernd for his story from his holiday. A small thank you will soon be on its way to him. If you have an exciting story from your holiday that you would like to share with the rest of the community, ALWAYS send it in. We look forward to receiving your submissions to [email protected]