November is not the best time to holiday on an island in the Bristol Channel, but the deciding factors were because it was off-season, availability of accommodation and cost. We agreed that the best way to approach it from the equipment angle was 'belt-and-braces' as there are no radio spares shops on the 3.5 by 0.5 miles island. We were therefore taking two of everything, rigs, PSUs, antennas, lap-tops, etc.
As the date of departure got nearer, we viewed with dismay the weather
forecasts for the Bristol Channel - and what was heading that way from the
Atlantic, Transport to Lundy is a two-and-half-hours sea trip from Bideford
in North Devon by the MS Oldenburg. When reserving accommodation on the
island, there is an insurance surcharge of thirteen pounds - this is to cover
the emergency transport arrangements. The operators of Lundy Island, the
Landmark Trust, obviously don't want to be stuck with a crowd of holiday
visitors who cannot return home because of bad weather.
The 38 metres long MS Oldenburg (aka the Rollin' Burg) does not operate if
the sea is too rough and helicopter transport is used. The weather forecasts
for Lundy gave us cause for concern, so we drew up two Plans.
Plan A, we went by sea and took all our equipment; Plan B, we went by
helicopter and - because of luggage restrictions - we took the bare
essentials to set up a station. We packed everything so that the basic
equipment was all in four suitcases - the surplus was packed separate.
On November 1st. the seventy miles road journey from Taunton to Bideford was in wind and rain, and on arriving at the Oldenburg for the 10.45 a.m. crossing, we were told we would be going to the island by helicopter. We had made arrangements to leave our cars at the garage of Jeff Blight /G4SOF who lives on the outskirts of Bideford, and he very kindly stored our excess baggage in a secure room. Jeff's wife then drove us back to the Oldenburg, where we waited to be called for our flight. Because of the weather, the flight was delayed several times, but there were fifty people on Lundy desperate to get home, so there was a good chance that flights would take place that day. At 3.00 p.m. we were called and bussed to the local heliport. There we boarded the twin-engined helicopter which carries seven passengers. I was the only one who would volunteer to sit next to the pilot, so I had a marvelous view of our take-off. On rising vertically to 30 metres, I could see Lundy in front of me about eleven miles away. At a speed of 135 knots, the journey took a mere eleven minutes and soon we were walking, struggling against the wind, over the very exposed fields of Lundy to our QTH. This, as on our previous visit, was one of the old Light House Keepers cottages which are attached to the Old Light, the 30 metres high disused light house.
In 1820, the Light House now known as 'Old Light' was built at the highest point of the island, 122 metres above sea-level. Unfortunately, at that altitude, the light house was often in cloud and ships could not see the warning light. Replacement light houses were built at the north and south ends of the island and in 1897, the Old Light was abandoned. The building is made of local granite and Landmark Trust have ensured it does not deteriorate into a ruin.
We set up our radio station in the lower of the two flats in the light house
keepers' cottages and then set about erecting a Long Wire antenna attached to
a halyard from the platform of the tower down to the apartment. Although I
managed to run a halyard from the tower platform, the wind was so strong
that it defeated all our efforts to erect a Long Wire with outdoor ATU -
the SGC-230 SmartTuner. We had a telescopic fibre-glass pole with us which
extends from 1.2 to 10 metres, so we thought we would try this as a vertical
whip inside the light house tower. As the telescope was extended, we wound
twin-core bell wire around it as a helix and when fully extended, the top
did not reach the first floor ceiling inside the tower. There is a spiral
stair-case inside the tower, and nylon lines from the handrail were used to
keep the antenna 'dead centre'. Crossing the floor of the tower was a large
gauge earthing strip, so we connected the SmartTuner to the bell wire and
earthed it to the earthing strip. We stood back to admire our work, looked
at the granite walls of the tower which are over one metre thick and, as we
had no other options, decided to give it a try.
During the next couple of days, we were amazed at the complimentary signal
reports we received for our 100 watts signal using an indoor antenna, and
had QSOs as far as VK3, JA, LU, PY and V5. We received many comments of
appreciation from EUs and NAs for activating the island and giving them
a 'new one'. The proximity of the sea, our height above sea level and the
very good earth strip must all have been contributing factors - plus our
callsign GB0LI. The result of it all was that we worked another twenty
countries we had not QSOd before and so accomplished our mission of 100 DXCC.
Mains electricity to the accommodation and the light houses on Lundy is provided by two diesel generators. To conserve fuel, the generator which supplies power to the accommodation is switched off from midnight until 6.00 a.m., so no 24 hour QSOing is possible.
Some memorable QSOs were with PJ/PA0VDV - our 100th country - skeds with GU4WRO and GD0HWA which gave us two new countries and a QSO with John/G4DUW in Southampton who said my SSB signal was only 5 and 3 because, according to his antenna beam, my signal was coming to him over the North Pole!
I had intended to operate some RTTY, but the PK232 and second lap-top were items which had to be considered as surplus to the basic station.
Everything we took worked without misshap and, as stated, we achieved our
objective. We have also joined the exhaulted ranks of those who have
activated an island by having to get ashore by helicopter.
On our day of departure from Lundy, the weather had moderated slightly, so
we never had the pleasure of another helicopter flight and had to endure
an uncomfortable journey on the Oldenburg. I prepared for this with the
prescribed dosage of Stugeron travel sickness pills and was pleased not to
join the less fortunate passengers hanging over the ship's rail making
offerings of their breakfasts to the sea gods.
Acknowledgements are made to the following, which all worked perfectly:
Icom IC-725 transceiver - the rig we used.
SGC-230 SmartTuner Auto ATU.
Daiwa PS30XM2 PSU - for supplying DC to the IC-725 and SGC-230.
Turbolog 3.17 for logging, rig control and QSL label production.
DK9SQ's fibre-glass antenna pole which supported our indoor antenna.
Lomas Helicopters - for a trouble free flight.
Blights Motors, Bideford - for transport and secure storage.
Stugeron - which conquered the Oldenburg and the Bristol Channel.