Story 49DX/E093 El Caragolet isl.




So it was 18:19 on the 5th of July 2009, Sean and I had just entered the last contact in the log of 49DX/E-468 illa Grossa island, we started to dismantle the antenna and packed the rest of the equipment away, it was quite late, but all was good, all was going to plan, let me explain, I'll rewind 24 hours.

We'd activated Botafoch E-088, illa Grossa E-468 and E-448 Des Bosc the day before, the propagation was so good on Des Bosc we'd delayed departure for 45 mins or so which left it very tight to activate the 4th island. We'd planned to activate El Caragolet Island but by the time we had packed away and drove from Des Bosc to El Caragolet isl it was obviously too late, we were parked in a wooded area close to the Beach near Cala Pada, we could see E-093 ,but the sun had set a while ago and we were losing light quickly, to put this one on air we'd have to remove the car battery from the hire car, then walk about 10 to 15mins to the beach close to E-093, get on the island and set everything up, this would have been possible, but by the time we'd worked the pileup, we'd have been packing away in near darkness, the nightmare scenario would have been getting back to the tree covered car park in the dark and finding the battery couldn't start the car !

We knew we'd stopped on E-448 too long and not left enough time to put E-093 on the air, one conciliation was I didn't have the feeling that we'd let anyone down, no-one was expecting this one to be active that evening, this one was supposed to be a little surprise, so Sean and I decided there and then that we'd try to do 49DX/E093 the following day ( Sunday ).

Due to the regular mid afternoon propagation blackout, we decided to re-active E-468 illa Grossa around early afternoon, work through the mid-afternoon blackout, then once the band started to open up we'd pack up and travel again to Cala Pada to active E093, this plan worked a treat.

Now we fast-forward back to 18:19 Sunday 5th July.

Band was wide open, we worked the last station from E-468 at 18:19, we packed away in super fast time and made our way down the rough track which lead us off illa Grossa island, it wasn't long before we were on the twisty and winding roads heading North East towards and following the signs for the picturesque resort of Es Cana.

A few Km's before Es Cana is a small resort called Cala Pada, only a few hotels make up this quiet resort, a couple of years before we'd holidayed at the neighbouring resort of S'Argamassa, this is when we'd first set our sights on El Caragolet island. Away it wasn't long before we pulled up into the wooden car park close to the beach, there were a few cars using the car park and some music coming from the beach, we proceeded to remove the battery from the car, Sean was getting good at this now and it wasn't long before Sean was carrying the said battery towards the beach, and I was carrying a massive bright blue suit-case with far too much stuff in it, plus the antenna, about 10 minutes later we made it to the entrance to the island.

Access to the island is by a man-made jetty, as we approached the island we noticed the small rock / island was already occupied by a local family sunbathing / swimming, I must admit I didn't feel guilty one bit interrupting their quiet evening, we quickly started to assemble the antenna and get the other things ready. After a few minutes we had an audience, the family gathered around and watched us finishing off the antenna and connecting up the radio.

Everything was ready, before we turned on the 706, we took a few photo's, got our hand-held GPS fired up which pin-pointed our location perfectly, finally it was time to fire up the radio, what a relief it is to hear a busy .555, I was just about to call CQ when I was interrupted by a strong station on .555 " 47DX101 listening .540, .540 ", I quickly QSY'd to .540 and there was John already CQing, I quickly keyed up to check the SWR and once John released the mic I surprised him by returning back to his call " 47 Delta Xray 101 this is 49DX/E-093 you are 5/9.. fifty nine..over " John replied with laughter and after exchanging reports quickly instructed me to get up on .570 where people were waiting, who was I to argue :-).

The following couple of hours went so fast, it was a perfect evening, the evening weather was lovely, propagation was great, Sean had returned to the beach and brought me a pint glass of ice cold Coke, I was in Heaven, sat on a small rock, working a pileup with an iced drink, doesn't get much better than that !

A total of 135 contacts were made, first in log was John, the last in the log was my good friend Oliver 13AT242, I'd already made my last calls, the log book was closed, I was instructing Sean to start dismantling the antenna and I'd start putting away the radio, I'd just put my finger on the on/off button on the iCOM 706MKIIG when out of nowhere Oliver called, 1 second longer Oliver and the radio would have been off ! :-)

Once again everything was packed away without drama and it wasn't long before we made it back to the car, Sean refitted the car battery and we proceeded to make the journey back to our hotel in Portinatx on the other side of the island.

Thanks to all those that waited around for us, much appreciated.


73’s from Team:

26DX047 Darran
& Sean

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