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Dominic Smith

This content is archived. It is kept for historical reference only. It was last modified in September 2008. It will not be updated.

Les Minquiers Islands (EU-099)

Mike G7VJR, Martin G3ZAY, Tim M0TDG and I operated from Maîtresse Island in the Les Minquiers islands, which count as EU-099 for IOTA from 3rd - 5th September 2007. The callsign was GH6UW (GH is the prefix for club stations in Jersey, G6UW is the Cambridge University club callsign). A full article about the trip, by G7VJR, is available on the club's site, and I gave a brief presentation about it at the RSGB's HF and IOTA Convention in Bedfordshire in October 2007.

Photographs and Video

My photographs from the trip are on Flickr.

(If you cannot see the embedded video above, it is also available from YouTube.)

Equipment

CW Station: Elecraft K2, 100W. SSB Station: Icom IC-706Mk2G, 300W. Both stations logged with Win-Test in DXpedition mode. Antennas: 40m dipole, 30m vertical, 20m ground-plane with elevated radials, 17m dipole.

Log-search

Log-search is now available from ClubLog by G7VJR. You can also browse the log.

QSL Information

QSL Information is via M0BLF (direct or bureau). Logs will also be on LoTW shortly. Please check my QSL Policy to ensure that you get your card. You can see when I last sent cards out on the QSL Status page.

QSO Statistics

We made a total of 3654 QSOs in just under 48 hours. This was split as shown in the table below:

Band:SSB:CW:Total QSOsAs %
40m951 (51.2%)906 (48.7%)185750.8%
30m0 (0%)693 (100%)69318.9%
20m800 (78.1%)224 (21.8%)102428.0%
17m0 (0%)80 (100%)800.02%
Totals:1751 (47.9%)1903 (52.1%)3654100%

There are 3083 unique callsigns in the log. 5 people contacted us on four bands, 51 on three bands.

Top five countries: USA (18.0%), Germany (15.0%), European Italy (7.6%), England (6.1%) and European Russia (5.6%). A total of 86 countries were contacted.

Breakdown by continent: EU (76.7%), NA (19.5%), AS (2.2%), AF (0.7%), SA (0.7%), OC (0.1%).

Best DX: ZL1BYZ (New Zealand)

About the Minquiers

The Minquiers are a reef located south of Jersey, towards the coast of Brittany. They are uninhabited but some buildings afford shelter for fishermen. Following a long-running (but friendly) dispute between Britain and France, the reef, along with the nearby Echréous, was awarded to Jersey by the International Court of Justice in 1953. They made the news headlines again in 1998 when there was a French 'invasion', which lasted one day. More on the history of the Minquiers is on Wikipedia.

Other Links

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