My accommodation, one of a number of specially converted ISO containers doubled up as my shack. Luckily, I had a room to myself, and there was ample desk space to set up the Rig and allow sufficient space for writing. I decided to start with what I new best. I did some quick calculations and raided the stores. I quickly found some 2-3 mm copper wire, some coax, some insulators, a chocolate box and some para-cord and lashed up a droopy 1/2 wave dipole between the corner of my container and an anchor point on a nearby rocky outcrop. Being so close to so much metal was not an ideal site by any stroke of imagination. There was also very little I could do about the orientation of the antenna and it was only about 8 ft above the ground at the centre.
Back in the shack, I had great expectations but no real idea what to expect. However, within a day of so I stumbled on a Radio Telephone patch through service being offered by Radio Amateurs for personnel at the US Base in Antarctica and got my first contact.
Monday 26 February 1996
Saturday 24 February 1996
Nov 95-Mar 96 - Operating on HF from the Falkland Islands
November 1996 saw me travelling down to the Falkland Islands for a 4 month 'detachment' with the Royal Air Force. For that period of time I was based on West Falkland at 751 Signals Unit otherwise known as Mount Alice.
While passing through RAF Mount Pleasant I enquired at the Post Office about getting an Amateur Radio Licence and in exchange for £10 I was issued a callsign VP8CSR - valid for life. My plan had been to beg borrow or acquire some kit once I had settled in but the postmaster, by the name of Les VP8CSA? immediately offered to sort me out some kit. I flew out to Mt Alice later the same day and began the process of taking over various duties from the outgoing incumbant.
The mountain sites as they were known were well served by a sometimes twice-daily helicopter service which was normally a Bristows. Their arrival and departure was a welcome reminder that one day it would be our turn to be going home to our families. Their arrival also brought the mail. Within a day of arival I received my first parcel, and probably one of the bigger parcels ever sent by Bristows. It was from Les. A suitcase containing an ICOM HF Tranceiver with 100W Linear Amp. What a star, and best of all, I was familiar with how it worked because it was exactly the same equipment that another unit I had worked with a few years previously had been equipped with.
So began my four month expedition as a Radio Amateur in the South Atlantic.
While passing through RAF Mount Pleasant I enquired at the Post Office about getting an Amateur Radio Licence and in exchange for £10 I was issued a callsign VP8CSR - valid for life. My plan had been to beg borrow or acquire some kit once I had settled in but the postmaster, by the name of Les VP8CSA? immediately offered to sort me out some kit. I flew out to Mt Alice later the same day and began the process of taking over various duties from the outgoing incumbant.
The mountain sites as they were known were well served by a sometimes twice-daily helicopter service which was normally a Bristows. Their arrival and departure was a welcome reminder that one day it would be our turn to be going home to our families. Their arrival also brought the mail. Within a day of arival I received my first parcel, and probably one of the bigger parcels ever sent by Bristows. It was from Les. A suitcase containing an ICOM HF Tranceiver with 100W Linear Amp. What a star, and best of all, I was familiar with how it worked because it was exactly the same equipment that another unit I had worked with a few years previously had been equipped with.
So began my four month expedition as a Radio Amateur in the South Atlantic.
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