Today was a normal weekday. So after our 8.00AM breakfast we drove to the station with a short stop for shopping on the way in. The idea was to run a few more calls before the 1st stage of the dismantling of the station.
The start was no good. The 20m receiver was blocked with every signal which cam on on any other band. It costs us 2 hours of searching and frustration before we solved the problem. And as we are used to it was a minor issue putting the correct cable at the correct connector….
After we solved the problem Alex PA1AW took down the 6m yagi. Despite we only made 6 qso’s with it it was worthwhile putting it up to be ready for early ES openings on the magic band. Unfortunately there were no openings but probably will be there tomorow now our antenna is down.
After lunch we decided to do antennawork first. Where Jo and Alex went to the roof to take down the 2m yagi, the 60m dipole and the 12m vertical, Roberto and Ronald went to the garden to takedown the 40m vertical and 40 radials. It took us 1,5 hours to finish these task and to get back on the radio.
Just an hour before we had to go to prepare us for diner to meet up with the local contestteam GJ2A and spent the evening with a nice meal and a beer, one of the amplifier died. A strange smell followed by a total black-out does not realy promise good things. When opened no scarfs were noticable and the smell was there, but no marks helping us to find the cause. Another amplifier went Silent Key.
Our first and only night not in the radioshack was a nice one. We met up and talked about radio, antennas etc etc. Before we new it the light was dimmed and we were ask to leave. Around midnight we hit the bed for a 7 hour night of sleep, what a luxury situation.
We will QRT tomorrow around 1200z so expect activity in the morning. After that the wait is anoter few years for us to return there.
73 Alex MJ/PA1AW
