So we had our first planning meeting last night (Feb 23rd) where 8 of us, not the full Arran lineup, got the first chance to run through the dx’pedition and some of the main points which came out were;
Bands of operating:
- 2 x HF voice
- 1 x HF data / HF CW
- 6m SSB and data (JT6m/ISCAT/FSK441)
- 4m SSB and data (JT6m/ISCAT/FSK441)
- 2m SSB
and data (FSK441)We will probably only be operating 2m /P using the call GS6PYE/P. - 2m/70cm satellites (with a working rotator this year)
Antennas will be:
- 160m – Inverter L
- 80m and 40m – 1/4 verticals
- 20m/15m/10m – Spiderbeam
- 6m – 6 element YU7EF
- 4m – 7 element YU7EF
- 2m – 17 element F9FT
- Sat antennas TBD but cross yagis
As the location of the cottage is not great for VHF to EU we propose to leave Flossie available for /P operation around the island. Worth mentioning we will use GS3PYE at the cottage and GS6PYE/P for portable operations.
We will also make a better effort to keep everyone updated with the radio aspect of the DX’pedition in the Arran Diary page including frequencies in use etc.
Colin G8TMV will be co-ordinating SOTA and is aiming to activate some of the hills never before been activated on the island.
More points to follow…