Radio on Sardinia - or: Cast Away

Summer vacation with funk, climbing, sun and sea - that's how its supposed to be.

The Italian island of Sardinia it should be. Corona numbers and entry conditions were very good so airline tickets and rental car were booked quickly!
I meticulously assembled the radio equipment and packed everything perfectly as always. An IC-7300, 5m portable mast, a G5RV 40-10M, notebook with Win10 and N1MM+ for logging, 10Ah, mast base portable for the car, the associated cables, headphones, everything you need for an adventure wild camping and IOTA activations.
Since I still had a little space in the second hand luggage, I thought to myself, pack the SOTA KX2 setup, you never know, just in case. No sooner said than done...

14.07.2021 the alarm clock has thrown us out of bed at 2 am and we got ready. Since we often fly with Ryanair, we knew that 90 minutes was enough time for the 140km to the airport. At 6 am we should already sit in the plane. We put the luggage by the door to load it into the car, then we drove off.
Nice and relaxed we arrived at the airport, exactly on time for our flight.
Luggage unloaded, we were about to head to the terminal when I noticed a bag was missing...The car was already empty though.
Checked twice, three times...nothing! Regrettably, of all things, the bag with the IC-7300 along with accessories was forgotten in the corridor at home. I was at a loss. There was not enough time to go back.
The EU-165 Maddalena di Alghero Island activation was already planned for the next day, and the boat was rented...Arriving at the terminal we went through all the security checks and went to our gate.

At about 5 o'clock I tried to get the radiofriends from my OV on the phone. The idea was for someone to drive to our home, pick up the bag and speed post it to me in Sardinia.
Fortunately I was able to reach Carsten, DG6NFG and Klaus, DG4FBC and since Klaus was on the road, Carsten was ready to organize everything immediately! HAM Spirit is alive.

Arriving in Sardinia we tried to organize a delivery address directly at the airport. Kindly we were allowed to use the address of the car rental company. But then Carsten contacted us with bad news. The fastest delivery to Sardinia takes 4-5 working days. With 10 days vacation it is unfortunately not worth it. Blessing in disguise was however, that I had decided to pack my KX2 and the small RIG!
There were still some parts missing - such as the connection cables, the battery, the power supply for the notebook, various cables, headphones, etc,. but that should be feasible in the 24 hours until activation!
Right after we got the rental car, we drove to Alghero to work off the list: In a Chinese store I found headphones, USB cable to charge the smartphone, car adapter, etc.. A battery I got at a car dealer and after about 3 hours everything was done and adjusted.
With 10 watts everything should work. I was very excited! After that, we were able to do the inspection for the boat all relaxed. As usual we spent the first evening in the car and I could be on air as IS0/DL8JJ/M. With 10 W and G5RV it went very well and the whole technique worked great.

Punctually the next morning we took the boat and made our way to the island.
For the docking, tact was needed, because there was only a narrow corridor with deep enough water to the small harbor. To the left and right, the seabed was full of rocks that could damage the motor propeller. When entering the harbor, the propeller has to be raised, this is done by an electric button. After docking, you have to lift the engine block out of the water - I did all that.
The weather was not optimal. Strong wind and higher waves made it a bit difficult for us. After the successful activation we packed everything up and transported it back to the boat, got the boat ready to go, started the engine and pressed the button to let it into the water - nothing... the engine stayed where it was. Also a new attempt did not change anything. In the meantime the boat was already about 20m away from the island, so we didn't have the chance to reach the shore and wait there safely or to check what was going on.

After several attempts I gave up. The boat was already about 100m from the island and we were floating free in the water. The wind and the waves moved us without us being able to do anything about it. I was relaxed, somehow I found the situation funny and had to laugh. Finally, I was happy that the activation was a complete success and over 300 CW QSOIs went into the log. My wife, on the other hand, was not so amused. She was pale and thought a thousand thoughts. I finally called the boat rental company. We luckily had cell phone reception since the island is not far from the Alghero coast. How Italians are, it was "No problem my friend no problem... we will come and pick you up".
It should take about 10 minutes, but after what felt like 2 min my wife got restless. For her it felt like an eternity. Our situation reminded me of the movie "Richie Rich", so I wanted to make the best of it, just like the couple in the movie. So, trying to calm my wife down and lighten the mood, I asked her, "what should we do while we're sitting here... do you want to kiss?"

Unfortunately she did not find it funny, but at least one of us had a laugh..hihi. After about 30 min the guys from the boat rental came and brought us back to shore.

All's well that ends well! It remains a great and interesting memory of an island activation after the Motto: Cast Away...

The IC-7300 from ICOM in a bundle. Your ideal travel companion at an exclusive special price!

The bundle consists of the IC-7300 SDR receiver from ICOM, a small G5RV dipole from EAntenna and a rugged portal mast.
Best of all, you can save 5% when you buy the complete bundle over the individual prices! And even 10% if you buy the EAntenna G5RV accessory and the HD fiber glass mastm together. The discount will be displayed and deducted in your shopping cart and checkout.

Click here for the product bundle, recommended by Emil, DL8JJ

And now we need you!
Send us your vacation reports with the subject: "Funken im Urlaub" to [email protected] We look forward to many submissions!