Visits to DX Lands

Musko Islands 2001

IOTA 2001 from EU-084 Muskö Islands July 28th 2001

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Article Summary

Muskö Island is located nearly 75 km South of Stockholm along the highway number 73. The local bus route is 847. Both these numbers are familiar to ham radio. The Island is connected to the main land by an underwater tunnel through the Baltic sea. 

Article Highlights

Kamal Edirisinghe
4S7AB / KA5MAL

Author Aug 2001

Having More than 35 years of experience in the Field of Amateur Radio, I have published many articles in prestigious international publications like, QST, CQ-DL, NCJ, Six-News etc.. Here in this web site, these write-ups are intended to give you knowledge about my designs and projects related to the hobby. The articles about foreign HAM activities are intended to share my experience.

SM0JHF Henryk and myself started around 1000z and came to the Island around 11.30z. Then we have put up the long wires to one tall tree in West direction using a Ford fuel cap as the mass to throw the wire. So we decided to call the antenna as’Ford’ antenna. Ground wire was thrown to the Baltic Sea. Everything happend in a flash since Henryk was an expert on this. Soon after plugging the ATU, IC 746 and the batteries, we started going on the air at 12.29 UTC doing the first QSO with 9A/S55A in EU-136.

Afterall we managed to complete 222 Qs within nearly 5 1/2 hours. Qs were on 7 Mhz and up both CW and SSB. The locals and visitors to the Island have seen this unusual work and they have learned about ham radio too. Interestingly, we found one fellow was listening to us on his pocket FM/AM radio before Henryk asked him to go underneath the longwire for better reception !!

All the food and beverages incl.RF was prepared by Henryk during the contest. I just had to sit down and heat up the rig. The performance of the long wire was excellent and was my first time to use such an antenna. This is an excellent one for this kind of quick Dxpeditions. After passing our target of 200 Qs, we just went on grabbing the odd 1s and 2s here and there which made the total of 222. It was fun all in all. Moreover, we took part in the IOTA from an Island. All credit to my good friend Henryk SM0JHF for making it possible.