Our DXpedition to Seskar Island (IOTA EU-133, RR-01-10) was initially
planned to take place at the beginning of September 2000, for about 10 days.
However, due to problems regarding permisson for landing on the island and
the difficulty with finding a ship, our plans were delayed. It was only at
the end of the month that an opportunity occurred, at last, to travel to the
island for only a couple of days stay.
The team consisted of four people, but only Sergey, UA1ANA was a HAM. The others just wanted to take advantage of the good hunting that can be found on the island.
Seskar Island is situated in the Gulf of Finland about 130 km west of St. Petersburg. The island has an elongated shape, of about 4 km by 1.5 km. There is an old lighthouse on the island, that was built some 200 years ago. When the weather is clear, it can be seen from both sides of the gulf. The lighthouse is operated by a few keepers who reside on the island with their families. These people, however, are not alone on the island, there is a Frontier Guard base on it.
The time spent on the air was very limited, a little over 10 hours, period in which 530 QSOs were made using the callsign UA1ANA/1, rather evenly split between CW and SSB. The usual ICOM-706MKII was used with a GP for 20 meters and an inverted V for the low bands. There is power on the island which helped immensly. Unfortunately, the photos taken there didn't come out well enough to include here.
We do realize that the QSO score is rather low and many hams were unable to contact us so we are planning to make another trip to Seskar Island, hopefully sometimes next year.
See you again from Seskar!
The team consisted of four people, but only Sergey, UA1ANA was a HAM. The others just wanted to take advantage of the good hunting that can be found on the island.
Seskar Island is situated in the Gulf of Finland about 130 km west of St. Petersburg. The island has an elongated shape, of about 4 km by 1.5 km. There is an old lighthouse on the island, that was built some 200 years ago. When the weather is clear, it can be seen from both sides of the gulf. The lighthouse is operated by a few keepers who reside on the island with their families. These people, however, are not alone on the island, there is a Frontier Guard base on it.
The time spent on the air was very limited, a little over 10 hours, period in which 530 QSOs were made using the callsign UA1ANA/1, rather evenly split between CW and SSB. The usual ICOM-706MKII was used with a GP for 20 meters and an inverted V for the low bands. There is power on the island which helped immensly. Unfortunately, the photos taken there didn't come out well enough to include here.
We do realize that the QSO score is rather low and many hams were unable to contact us so we are planning to make another trip to Seskar Island, hopefully sometimes next year.
See you again from Seskar!
