MMØLON
DF1LON

EU-012 Shetland

This was our main destination, especially for the IOTA Contest. I made a lot of QSOs again from Shetland Mainland, but also tried to activate some IOSA Islands and Lighthouses.

We arrived on the 27th July 2005 around 06:30 UTC at Lerwick. We had a sked with MM5PSL on 20m to make an appointment where and when we can meet that day. This sked was at 08:00 UTC. What shall we do in the meantime? We decided to drive south along the coast and at a nice looking parking place we stopped and had our breakfast. It was really nice weather: sun and nearly no wind. The ocean was like a mirror and we were about 75m above sealevel with a perfect takeoff to europe. Sabine allowed me to do some QSOs. And I really expected only some QSOs. I called at 07:15 UTC CQ and in 45min I had 107 QSOs in my log. Just with Outbacker Perth and TS-480.

After the meeting with Peter (MM5PSL) we visited the historic site Jarlshof. From this side it is possible to see the lighthouse. It is situated at the southest point of Shetland. So we drove there by car and had a look at this nice bird reservat. After making the necessary photos I made some QSOs from SCO-232. After about two hours we left the lighthouse and continued our tour arround Shetland.

MM0LON/m: my first QSOs on EU-012

Historic Site Jarlshof

At the 28th July we woke up and had plenty of time until we should be at our contest location at 15UTC. We knew that I takes at least 1hour from Lerwick to the Lighthouse. Sabine made a very strange suggestion: why should we not activate some other Shetland Islands? First I thought it might be a joke, but then we really made a tour to SH-21, SH-22 and SH-23. All these islands were connected through bridges to the Mainland. So it was again very easy to drive there by car. After about 3hours of activiation we went back to Lerwick to buy food for the contest weekend and continued our tour to the contest location.

About 3miles before we reached the contest location we passed by a building where a man was pulling up something like a portable tower. We parked at the street for about 5min and watched him going in and out pulling coax through a window. I looked at Sabine and said: No, I can’t be possible that someone else is here next to our location. I was not right. Steward GM4AFF came on Friday to our location because he saw my car. The Outbacker Perth was to big that it might have been a CB radion station so he was curios if there might be someone at the lighthouse. But there was no QRM between both station during the Contest even though we were pretty close to each other located.