Portable operations from Madeira Island 3rd/5th Oct 2022
1 min read
On holiday in Funchal, Madeira (CT3) so operating from near to the sea in a morning over the long path, just using a Yaesu FT818 with 5 Watts a whizz whip tuner with either the supplied one metre long telescopic whip or a short wire.
Long path propagation is a little later from Madeira Island than it is from the UK 🇬🇧 due to it being a little further west and so the peak was around 07:40 UTC (08:40 BST)
What surprised me was that the simple antenna set up worked better without any counterpoise or ground, I’m presuming there was sufficient ground coupling to provide a ground return from the sea from that location.
Results over the last few days have been excellent as I’ve been able to work Ernie, VK3DET on two occasions and Paul, VK5PAS yesterday.
The proximity to the sea and a great take off to the southwest direction over the sea made for successful contacts, in addition the excellent stations and operating skills of Ernie, VK3DET and Paul, VK5PAS made these contacts possible, so many thanks to them.
Can I also thank my wife, Tracy for joining me and recording some of the contacts made.
Dave, G4AKC
