With our shack being QRT due to work being performed on the roof of Studentersamfundet, the motivation for portable operations has increased. Saturday, September 18 a few members of LA1K went to Munkholmen to set up a portable station. Munkholmen is a small island just outside of Trondheim which houses an old fortress. Located at JP53EK68, it has a beach with space for an antenna and clear line of sight in all directions except for the south-west, due to the fortress.
Photo: LB5DH
We brought LA2QUA’s inverted V-antenna for the 20m band. It was supported by a 6m high telescopic mast and proved very easy to handle. The supporting ropes turned out to be perfect trip-wires, but thankfully no island visitors were injured in the process. We used our FT-891 since it is lightweight and convenient for portable operations. We had several batteries with us, but the unregulated 20 Ah LiFePo4 battery lasted the whole day.
In the background are some visitors from the Munkholmen ferry.
Photo: LB5PI
The performance was alright, but difficult to assess since we could not compare it with any other antenna. We were able to make some QSOs, but many people did not hear us. Most of the completed QSOs were from Italy and Germany. We operated both with LA1K and our individual callsigns. The paper log from the trip was missing for a few hours before LA2QUA admitted to pocketing them, calming a semi-confused QSL-Manager.
From left: LB1DJ, Oddbjørn and LB5DH.
Photo: LB5PI
In addition to the HF-QSOs, we tried to make QSOs over the LEO (Low Earth Orbit) FM satellites. We were able to hear SO-50 and briefly heard ourselves on SO-50, but unfortunately not long enough to make any QSOs. We were also able to hear the beacon of RS-44, but with only FM radios on 2m/70cm we could not make QSOs with that.
Photo: LB5DH
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Photo: LB5DH
Since Munkholmen is an island we needed a boat to get there, so we used LA2QUA’s wooden boat named Rakel with 9.9 hp. We did two trips back and forth to get all 6 people over. LB9WI and LA2QUA also went fishing during the day, but were out of luck and returned empty handed.
Photo: LB5DH
We also met LB9BG and his family, who happened to be at Munkholmen that day. He is from LA2T, the other amateur radio group in Trondheim.
From left: LB5PI, LB9WI, LA2QUA, LB1DJ and Oddbjørn.
Photo: LB5DH
All in all we deem the trip a success despite returning to shore fishless. Looking forward to hearing you on the air next time.
Participants: LA2QUA, LB1DJ, LB5DH, LB5PI, LB9WI and Oddbjørn.
Hei! Veldig hyggelig å bli nevnt, det var hyggelig å treffe dere på Munkholmen – flott dag. Mange fine bilder!