The Alderney Lite Expedition team assemble on the island

Alderney Lite Expedition
12th - 19th October 2005

Grid Locator IN89VR
WAB WA50 ALD

Written by Tim M3SDE and Dave G1OCN.

The Team Manager for Alderney Expedition Lite was Dave G1OCN.

At the time this idea came about, Dave was the Chairman of the Portland Amateur Radio Club and HAD put the idea to the members at the AGM in April.

Russell G5XW (He's only 38) was first to join the team, along with Dave's wife Carol 2E1DQZ. Dave asked Russell if he knew 2 more people that would like to join them and this is where Anthony MW0JZE and myself Tim M3SDE stepped in.

Dave outlined the purpose of the trip, to activate Alderney Lighthouse, but despite reserving our dates we found that the lighthouse had been double booked and we had to rethink our accommodation on Alderney.

A friend of Dave's on Alderney Island had just built a new house and said that we could use his old farmhouse as our base for the duration of our expedition.

I have a fear of boats having suffered during several journeys to the Channel Islands by catamaran and had been quite ill. I was relieved to hear that we were due to fly with Rockhopper Airline direct to Alderney, although Russell has a fear of flying. Time to do some breathing exercises Russell!! The return flights are £104 per person from Bournemouth Airport, the Rockhopper plane is only very small, holding 8 passengers with a baggage allowance of just 15 Kgs. With such a small amount of luggage allowance the team had to
post all antennas, coax, masts and clothes a few weeks prior to departure. Parcel Force is the carrier the team used to safely carry our equipment there and back and we are grateful for their excellent cooperation and service.

The plan was to set up to four stations operating simultaneously all bands and as many modes as possible using the following stations:

Dave GU1OCN/P operated with:
Kenwood TS-480SAT 100w. A Heil Traveller microphone. A lightweight two element portable beam for VHF to 20 Metres. A 10-80 metre high vertical 10/12/15/17/20/40, 80 Metre Samlex EU SEC 1223 PSU. Kenwood THD7G dual band handy with Arrow Antenna for FM satellite working. VHF APRS (when no satellites) THD7G - IPAQ 5550 & APRS-CE. WiSP by Chris Jackson G7UPN, for satellite pass predictions. Winlog32 by Colin Morris G0CUZ.

Russell GU5XW/P operated with:
ALINCO DX70 Mk1 100w HF 10w 6m PSU, SEC 1223 ATU, LDG Z 100 Antenna, 1/2 size G5RV (naturally) & 40/80m vertical. Mic, Heil Traveller head set & Standard Alinco hand mic. and a very large bag of pre-arranged propagation :0)

Tim MU3SDE/P operated with:
Yaesu FT-920 - Palstar PSU. Heil HC4 Pro Set Quiet Phone headset/microphone Antenna - Comet H-422 V Dipole (Sponsored by http://www.nevadaradio.co.uk ) Laptop using Winlog 32 Logging software & DX Atlas mapping software.

Anthony MU0JZE/P operated with:
Yaesu FT-857 (D) 100w. LDG Z100 tuner. Maas SPS-4128A switch mode psu. Heil Pro4 Headset with foot PTT. Log 2000 contest/DX log along with DX Atlas. Spiderbeam 5 band version, 20, 17, 15, 12 & 10m on 22 foot push up mast. Carolina Windom and 40/80m Vertical from Sandpiper.
Other Sponsors http://www.kenwood-electronics.co.uk

The time soon came round for us all to meet up at G5XW Russell's home as we prepare for our trip to Alderney. An early start on 12th October, G1OCN Dave arrives at 06:00z with his wife Carol. We have a short drive to Bournemouth
International Airport where our adventure begins. A wet and windy autumn morning is not the start we hoped for, but a clearing in the weather allows our flight to leave on time. Jane from Rockhopper Airline ensures that all of our 130 Kgs of luggage are squeezed into what I can only describe as a
coffin with wings. An eight seat aircraft with no aisle is cramped and noisy and certainly not quite what some of us expected.

Peter our pilot gave us our safety brief and Dave was lucky enough to have a right hand seat for the uneventful flight.

We landed at Alderney Airport safely and we were met by Richard our host on the Island. We are to stay at Richards home, a farm on the highest part of Alderney at 288 feet above sea level. We started erecting the antennas almost straight away in the pouring rain and a howling wind that barely stopped all afternoon.

Soaking and quite tired we had to change out of our wet weather gear and set up the radio equipment in Richards lounge to get 4 stations active simultaneously. After about four hours of operating on the first day, we retreat to the local bar for some welcome food and beer. Conditions this evening are very poor although contacts to Thailand and Alberta Canada are in the log on 20m.

13th October 2005:
Once again today the rain continued while the wind just got stronger. Contacts were made on 20m and 40m to New Zealand, Thailand and North America. We continued to work on 4 stations for as many hours as possible with GU1OCN Dave concentrating on DATA modes and GU5XW on LF bands.
(Due to a software/hardware failure, there was only one full QSO on PSK31 made.)

With 5 acres of land to put up our antenna systems we can install all the wires well away from each other and keep cross station breakthrough to a minimum. On Friday one of our friends from Weymouth M3VWK Mike flew over for a visit with 15kg of food which was most welcome as the food on Alderney is expensive. Mike enjoyed his visit and also spent some time transmitting on the bands. Great to see you Mike!
Saturday morning arrived and a chance to log many of the weekend only operators. At last we have a short opening to Japan on 20m but we need better conditions to log the many IOTA hunters from JA.

Then the WAG contest started and no matter what frequency on every band we were active a German started calling without checking the frequency, virtually shutting down our IOTA as our logging rate slowed to 1 QSO every 5 minutes.
A break in the weather allowed for some antenna aintenance and a chance to take some photographs of our antenna farm.
It was brought to our attention that the last time Alderney was active with any substantial contacts was between 2 - 5 years ago. So this was a chance to really put Alderney Island back on the DX map.

Sunday 16th October:
The WAG contest thankfully finished at 1500z, our contact rate had reduced to a virtual stop but what a contrast after 1500z the bands exploded with very courteous operators awaiting a call into Alderney. Sunday was by far the best day for the Alderney DX Team with about 1,000 contacts logged and the operating in the pile ups was excellent.

Monday for part of the team was a day off radio transmissions and a time to take in the Alderney way of life and explore this beautiful Island and learn about its rich
history.

Derek Wintle GU4GG - click here for more on Derek

We had a visit from Derek GU4GG. Now this guy has some stories to tell, just look on his biography on QRZ.com and you will see what I mean. Ant and Russell took him to the local pub for an afternoon drink and a chance to chat about loop antennas and radio in general. The Islanders are very welcoming and friendly, a complete contrast to what I am used to back home in the city.

While Ant & Russell were out, gave me the chance to work on 20m and 40m for the day and another 550 QSO's were added to my log today with Australia logged on 40m and some short hop sporadic E getting Alderney Island into some difficult areas of France and UK.

If you visit Alderney Island the team can highly recommend The Belle Vue Hotel. Their home cooked food is superb and was our stop nearly every evening for a meal and a few beers.

Tuesday was our last full day of transmissions from Alderney with good pile ups both on 20m and 40m for much of the day. This gave us a team total of over 5,000 QSO's, all continents worked and 100 DXCC's working into Japan, New Zealand Australia, Taiwan, Thailand and the Philippines to name a few.

Stepping back in to the week briefly:

Dave enjoyed several satellite QSOs on AO-51, SO-50 and AO-27 using only very basic equipment. A THD7G and Arrow antenna. Activity on FO-29 was a little bit more difficult with no directional beams, using just a tri-band omni vertical and a Kenwood TS-2000X for those QSOs.

The W.A.B. and N.A.T.S. activity from Alderney Lighthouse on the Sunday was carried out successfully by Dave and Anthony, without whose help the activation would have been nearly impossible, and the pair enjoyed that part of the exped to the full. You have to see the photographs and the video to fully understand why.

Dave also made QSOs on VHF and UHF, simplex and Echo Link, with calls made on 6 and 4 Metres but, alas, with no contacts on those bands

Wednesday morning arrived far too quickly and it's time to pack all the gear away and take the parcels to the Post Office to be sent back home. 130 Kg's of equipment was sent this way and 130 KG's carried in the aircraft.
Job done and a final chance to drive around the Island so that Dave "Bailey" G1OCN could take some more photo's.
As we were due to leave Alderney a thunderstorm delayed our departure. Are we here for another night? Yes please!
The storm soon passed and we are in the air and on our way home.

A few words must be mentioned about our host Richard.
Five of use invaded his house for a week, three of whom he had never met before. Richard not only welcomed us in to his home but also allowed us to take over the house and grounds with all our communications equipment.

A mere thank you just does not reflect our gratitude for our intrusion into his life.

Grateful thanks and appreciation is also extended to Rob and his team at: http://www.shortwave.co.uk for their support throughout.

You can find more information about the Alderney DX Team at: http://www.pmt.inkinkink.net/alderney.htm

Last but not least, we are extremely grateful to all the radio amateurs who called us and were able to complete a QSO.

QSL cards are in the process of being produced using some photographs of Alderney and The Team.

Kind Regards from The Alderney DX Team

G1OCN Dave, 2E1DQZ Carol, MW0JZE Anthony, G5XW Russell & M3SDE Tim