The flight on Channel Islands Air was spectctular. We were on weather hold for a while, but we made it out. The pilot pointed out at least a dozen blue whales off the coast of Santa Cruz Island. A few minutes later he slowed the prop, turned the controls, we floated out of the sky and touched down on the dirt strip in one of the smoothest touchdowns I've ever experienced.
We operated from a hill that forms the northern half of the valley that the campground is in. For six meters we had a five element yagi at 15' at more or less a 60deg beam heading. The two meter antenna was also at 15' on it's own mast with the 432 bouncing between the two as we tried to figure out what to do with it.
I've already received one qsl card and I am working on the design for ours using pictures that Brian took during the weekend we were on Santa Rosa. We made sure to get a shot of the gps displaying CM93xx as we had a few incredulous callers that doubted that we could be in that grid.
We had fun, had a great contest and everyone came home safe. Now that we know more about what it takes to do a DXpedition, even a mini, we are thinking of ways to improve.
--- Bands QSOs Value QSOPts Mults 50 90 1 90 51 144 35 1 35 11 432 8 2 16 6 Grids activated: 1 Totals: 133 141 68 Claimed Score: 9588 ---
Band Power Mode Gear Antenna 6m 160w ssb Yaesu 857d #1/TE Systems amp 5el yagi 2m 200w ssb Yaesu 857d #2/TE Systems amp 11el yagi 70cm 20w ssb Yaesu 857d #1 15el yagiEric (KR0VER) and John (W6XM)
moments after we touched down
GPS showing CM93xx
Op Site
CM93xx inside the rectangle
Contacts
Last modified: (2015-08-12 13:04:16 PDT)