21DX116/EU020 Gotland Isl & 21DX116/FI Faro Isl Story from 21DX116/EU020 Gotland Island and 21DX116/FI Faro Island activity held during August 2007. Hi DXers Gotland Island is the largest island in the Baltic Sea with an area of 3,140 square kilometres. The region of Gotland also includes the islands of Fårö and Gotska Sandön to the north, and the tiny Karlsö Islands to the west. Inhabitants number 57,600, with about 22,600 living in the primary city Visby. The main sources of income to the island are tourism and agriculture. The region is considered by some historians to be, or be part of, the original homeland of the Goths. This was my fifth trip to Gotland island bringing a radio, during my previous trips propagation was always a challenge so Gotland remains an interesting target for many IOTA hunters. The first day of activity I worked just a few stations during my trip from the harbour in Visby to my first QTH in the southern part of Gotland. The propagation improved just a little for Friday and a few more operators were logged. Saturday I spent most of the day sightseeing and in the evening I checked into to a Visby hotel and went partying in this beautiful old Hansa town. On Sunday, the last day of activity, I got a decent opening and almost 100 stations where worked from Gotland island. When the contact rate dropped off I decided to go to Fårö Island, located North/East of Gotland Island. The trip to Fårö including the ferry was about 2 hours and when I finally arrived I was able to work another 50+ stations using the call 21DX116/FI before the band closed. All together 205 stations where logged this time, not much but certainly not bad considering the slow propagation and my sporadic operating times. Most of the time when the band was open, the path was to the UK but also often to France. A fun moment was the quick opening of extremely short skip to Denmark that resulted in logging 47DX052 my QSL manager, the distance being only 400 kilometres. The equipment used on this trip was the FT-857 + Koss headset with Heil HC-4 mike and a mobile 1/4 helical antenna. QSL requests should be sent via DXRC QSL Buro and will be rewarded with the beautiful Delta Xray IOTA hunters 2007 QSL. Vy 73's Chris 21DX116 return