I was QRV from
Gavdos
Is. in August 2002 as SV9/SV1QN
wkd 5940 QSOs and 107
DXCC Countries.
Gavdos Is. is a small
island south of Crete Is. and is the
southernmost point
of Europe.
Gavdos is known since
the ancient times with the name Ogygia by
the text of Odyssey.
The waves brought Odysseus in Ogygia, the
island of goddes -
nymph Calypso wich kept him for many years.
During August 2002
I
had the pleasure to activate Gavdos Is. (in the Cretian
coastal islands) Iota
EU-187. By the way this island is the only inhabited Is. of
this group. The
residens
are 45 people spreaded in many places on the island.
According to the
official
Iota Directory the number EU-187 this time has the third
place in the most
wanted
Iota groups in Europe.
There is no public
electricity in this island exept for two small settlement suplyed
from a public solar
farm. All other houses have their own generators or solar panels.
The receiption for
this reason was perfect with the noise level always to zero.
In the summertime
there
is everyday a small boat to cary people from Crete to
Gavdos but only once
a week to cary cars.
My working conditions
was an old Icom IC-730 and a home made elevated vertical
antenna 11,5 m long
(5/8L for 20 meters band) with 24 radials 15 meters each.
The last 9 meters of
the antenna was a fishing rod. In the base of the vertical
element was an
automatic
antenna tuner (Made in Greece by SV1NL) capable to
withstant almost a
KW. I was running barefoot with abt 110 watts.
I stayed in a rental
room and the owner of the rooms (Mr Bikogiannakis) has his
own generator (it
must
be 3 or 4 KVA) running most of the day and until mindnight.
For the rest time I
had a deep cycle 110 Ah batery.
Tnx the hams all over
the world for working me and I hope to work you again
next year maby from
another island.
The shack
My
XYL as a second operator
(working
JA s)
The
cape "TRIPITI" in the south end of the island
and
the southernmost point of Europe
The
old Lighthouse in the south part of the island.
It
was the second one in visibility after that of the Tierra
del
Fuego. It was bombed and destroyed by the Germans
in
the WWII
The public solar farm
The end of the story