Story 26DX/L-001 Story from 26DX/L-001 activity. I had intentions of activating an iWi or two for quite a while but never got around to actually doing one, after exchanging a couple of eMails with Tom at the DXRC BUREAU, Tom of course gave me his full support, so it was just a matter of picking the right day when propagation would be favourable. Friday 9th July....we left home at 13:00utc and within 30 minutes I was driving along the A453, we first drove past the entrance to the island and carried on the picturesque village of Ratcliffe on Soar, we took a few pictures of some signposts, then doubled back and made our way onto the island. I did a reconnaissance trip a couple of days before, so I'd already chosen a suitable place, after arriving there we started to assemble the Bamby antenna and get the rest of the equipment in place. Even before turning on the radio, I'd already decided who's callsign was going to be the first in the 26DX/L-001 log, the first log entry was reserved for 47DX047 Mr. Leif, Leif had recently passed away due to cancer, rest in peace Leif. As expected, propagation wasn't ideal, it was still a little early, even though they were a few strong stations around the band, it started off slow, we took the quiet period to take a some photographs and had a detailed look around the area, it wasn't too long before we had a steady flow of people calling. I'd already mentioned to someone that I was confident that propagation would be in our favour, I knew this not because of my expert knowledge of propagation ( believe me I'm a novice when it comes to studying propagation ), I knew we'd have conditions because I was wearing my lucky iBIZA tea-shirt and England baseball cap, let me explain. I'd wore this tea shirt and baseball cap on all my 49 div island activations last year, they'd never let me down before, so I knew if I could find them, I'd be blessed with a healthy log :-). Anyway the lucky garments didn't let me down, after a slow start we ended with 149 log entries from 22 DXCC's. I'd just like to close by saying thanks to all that called in to say hello, Sean and I enjoyed our few hours by the river Soar, logging friends in 28+ degree heat, there's definitely worse ways to spend a few evening hours. My lucky tea-shirt and cap are already washed and ready for when we need them again, shouldn't be too long before another English iWi is on air, until then. 73 de..Darran 26DX047 & Sean. return