Commemorative Lighthouse Calendar

Dawn to Dusk Challenge Lighthouse Calendar (2011) available soon. Email to order now.

Features:

Thirteen stunning lighthouse photographs taken during the challenge.

LOTA Weekend, IOTA Contest & International Lighthouse/Lightship Weekend dated.

[Dimensions 28 x 22cm]

Some Stats & Photographs

Hamish & myself are busy writing up both the flight report & the radio report for the Dawn to Dusk challenge. These have to be collated & submitted within 21days of the challenge.

Here are some brief stats:

• 9 islands activated on HF radio (SSB/CW)
• 28 lighthouses photographed
• 8 Hours 36 minutes airborne
• 16 Hours 56 minutes in total
• 692.5 nautical miles covered
• 1 can of DEET spray used
• 10 cups of tea consumed

I plan to publish a comprehensive library of photographs but in the mean time please view these photographs for now.

73

Bob
DEQ

The Trophy.

Stuart (Orkney Crystal) presents Hamish with the GB4DTD "Dawn to Dusk" trophy at Kirkwall airport upon completing the challenge.

Sincere thanks to Orkney Crystal for providing the commissioned trophy & the personal crystal memento's.

The GB4DTD "Dawn to Dusk" trophy.

The winner of the trophy worked GB4DTD

on 5 different islands:

Islay, Jura, Colonsay, Papa Westray & Westray.

Congratulations - M0OVL/M

Jon, please get in touch: info@gdram.com

Back Safe & Sound

We eventually got back yesterday after having to leave the Orkney Islands a little earlier than planned due to wx. Sad to leave early but glad to be back home safe & sound.

The above was taken by a visitor to our operation at Barra which has a licenced beach as an airstrip. What a view....

Radio Beef ... ?

Budding radio beefs queue up to get on air for our final transmissions of the day ....

We have just landed on Westray (ATA20.29 and 20sec) after a gruelling long haul hop from Papa Westray (1min 10secs) .....

We've made up some time by doing two 40minute island stops, and we have now logged 8hrs 5min of airborne time .... All that remains is a 15 minute transit back to Kirkwall Airport to land on schedule at 2130 local .... and then a well earned pint !

Thanks for supporting us, making us coffee and following our adventure - it's been huge fun, a huge challenge and a huge success (we think) :)

Ham and Bob

Amber and Robyn hijack a plane ...

Fair Isle welcome party

Amber, Angela, Mark, Dave, Bunter and Robyn :)

Bob's talking to Italy ! And Amber and Robyn are thinking of having a shot too ...

Orkney Times

Diversions due to Danger Area activity at D802/803 and R610A .... Regained route at Kyle of Tongue. Decided to check original planned site at Hoy and found it suitable .... So down we went with the chance to was the Barra sand off the wheels. On the loch from 1611 til 1656
Recalculations show we have been airborne exactly
6h1m ..... Need 2hrs in the air., so off to Fair Isle ETA1758 .... Then will try and fit in a Sumburgh leg ... But this will mean a couple of quick 45 min turnarounds ....

Mystery island ATA1527

Name that island .....

Stornoway ATA1341

Skipped one lighthouse to catch up 10miles headwind, and rerouted via 2 more - Monach and Haskeir. Spotted St Kilda 35 miles to the west and got a superb ATC service from D watch at Scottish Centre.

John (ops 3 at Stornoway) lets us know his views on D2D.

BP might not be everyones friend these days but when Ian has fuel to give .... they're my best pals.

Fisheries Protection ReimsCessna F406 G-SMMA taxis in after another day at sea.

St Kilda

Taken from overhead Haskeir 1246 local time .. Heading for the Flannan Isles ...ETA1310

Barra

Life is grand ...... Land on the sand ! Wind 070/10kts so looks like headwinds all the way to Orkney and Fair Isle from here. Quite a crowd has come out to see us (and the Loganair Twin Otter schedule from Glasgow)

Bob is busy and has just got his first transatlantic contact (K1IK)

I'm heading to pay the landing fee and order 2 bacon+egg rolls!

First contact with Russia (RU3SE) !

Toodle pip !

Oigh skeir lighthouse ATA1052

As they say in "Chewing the Fat" ...... Gonnae no dae that.......

Barra

On air soon.

-- This was sent from my mobile phone during dawn to dusk challenge --

Jammy Dodgers

Quick refuel at Oban and some very generous avgas sponsorship by Paul at TLC - cheers Paul!

Strengthening 20kt headwind meant we had to up the power but still starting to run a couple of minutes late.

Decision taken to cut out Berneray lighthouse and regain 20 miles/15min. Save us chasing our tails after Stornoway.

Must dash - Barra next ...

Colonsay ATA0752

Caught up a few minutes on Jura with speedy aerial erection. Colonsay is bathed in sunshine and a 10kt northeasterly = no midges !!

The air is filled with the sound of skylarks, morse a.d HF chatter !

Next stop Oban for tea and jammy dodgers and avgas!

MIDGES !!!!

Arrived Finlaggan on Islay 3min late ATA0537 - stunning morning - midges (+deet) out in force. Transmitted from the 14th cent ancient seat of the Lord of the Isles - 2way with Netherlands, France, Slovakia and Kilmacolm! Now arrived at Loch Righ Mor on Jura ATA0648- 5min behind schedule. Photos of Finlaggan attached...... Must dash...

Mid channel

Airborne on time , passed ailsa craig 0445 :)

Ready for the off......

Sunday 2030. Aircraft fuelled, serviced and ready to go. Liferaft and radio gear loaded. Weather + notams checked. 30% chance of morning mist at 0430, good after 0630. D801/802/803 active, D701 cold. T minus 8 hrs and counting .....

Mobile phone blog Test

Ryryryryryryryryryryryry

-- This was sent from my mobile phone during dawn to dusk challenge --

Final Planning Stage

Most of the planning is now complete including accommodation booked on the Orkney Islands, Orkney Crystal finishing the engraving of the challenge trophy & BBC Scotland has been in touch to do a final piece on the challenge.

Still outstanding is the mobile phone blog facility which is not posting blogs 100%. As you can appreciate, this type of challenge will be difficult to inform you all of our exact wherabouts at specific times so it would be great for the mobile blog to work. With that said, below is the list of proposed islands that will be activated using the special callsign "GB4DTD" with approx times.

I will be operating on 40/20/15/10m SSB mainly with some CW on or around the IOTA frequencies - 7.055/14.260/21.260/28.560MHz SSB & 7.030/14.040/21.040/28.040 CW.


Approx Times (GMT) & Proposed Island List

(04:34Hrs) Islay - [NR388681] [NH22] [EU008]
(05:43Hrs) Jura - [NR540854 ] [NH21] [EU008]
(06:50Hrs) Colonsay - [NR358932] [NH19] [EU008]
(10:17Hrs) Barra - [NF694056] [OH11] [EU010]
(12:41Hrs) Lewis - [NB460331] [OH01] [EU010]
(15:25Hrs ) Stronsay - [HY634299] [OR08] [EU009]
(17:01Hrs) Fair Isle - [HZ211721] [SH09] [EU012]
(18:23Hrs) Papa Westray - [HY490519] [OR03] [EU009]
(19:19Hrs) Westray - [HY460519] [OR02] [EU009]
(20:30Hrs) Kirkwall - [HY481078] [OR01] [EU009]

73

DEQ

GB4DTD Final Route

Hamish has been very busy charting our final route. He has incorporated some detours overflying numerous lighthouses (which we will photograph en route) & some beach landings too. We are also particularly keen to see the Flannan Isles.

This map gives our final intended route indicating the islands that GB4DTD will be activating. Finally, I am delighted to report that I will be operating from Fair Isle. For more clarity, I will publish a full island list later.

DEQ


View GB4DTD - Final Scottish Islands Route in a larger map

O'date - 14th June 2010

That's the challenge date set: Monday 14th June 2010.

Earlier I mentioned power would be a problem, so I purchased a 65Ah Gel battery. At 24Kg's it's heavy. With weight in general being an issue with light aircraft, G-DRAM being a seaplane is a wee bit different. We will be landing heavy on fresh water lochs, not to mention trying to get back out of them again!

Pushing the weight issue to the back of my mind, I now have tested the recently repaired FT100, running 100watts & my vertical antenna in the garden. All appeared to work fine however..... Yes it's weight again, Hamish has now secured the loan of a life raft which we now have to factor in, my kit has come under strict scrutiny.



In order to deploy the kit quickly I have tried to be innovative using an electrical cable reel converted to deploy 20 metres of RG58 coax, three 5 metre metal retractable measuring tapes as ground planes & winders for guys which also use small lanyard spring clips.

Finally for those that have been following the story, I mentioned some friends that we met on our Dry-Run trip last month. They were Dave & Zan who came to visit us at Loch Righ Mor (Isle of Jura). Both professional photographers they shot some amazing pictures of us from on land & from their helicopter. Here are some examples of G-DRAM as a small speck on Loch Righ Mor, Hamish imitating a firestarter whilst making a brew of tea & finally an absolute cracker of G-DRAM, again on Loch Righ Mor.



Regards

DEQ

Dry Run Photographs

Please have a look at some photo's taken during our dry run trip here. Included are Pladda Island, Sanda Island, Staffa Island & Treshnish Islands.

Excellent day for photographing some beautiful islands.

Regards

DEQ

Post Dry Run Washup

After yesterday it has became obvious exactly how much of a challenge this is going to be. We put in about 6 hours flying covering a lot of the country, landing on Loch Finlaggan (Isle of Islay), Loch Righ Mor (Isle of Jura), Glenforsa airstrip (Isle of Mull), Oban airstrip (re-fuel) then back to Loch Righ Mor, (Isle of Jura).

En route to Mull we were buzzed by some Yaks & met the guys at Oban (also refuelling) who explained we were their target practice.. Once back at Loch Righ Mor, (Isle of Jura) we were joined by Dave, Zan & Peter in their helicopter who dropped by for a cup of tea.

While Hamish was entertaining our visitors I set up the kit to check out my ideas. An antenna problem gave me limited time but managed to operate 20m SSB successfully. So it can be done.

I now have a healthy list of issues to address including the need to re-think the time required to set up the kit. In addition, I have met some interesting & pleasant aviators.

DEQ

Landed.

Landed on jura, islay & now on mull.

-- I sent this from my 3 mobile --

Dry Run

Hamish plans to go out tomorrow morning which we will use as a dry run attempt.

We plan to visit Jura Island as landing on Loch Righ Mor needs to be checked if suitable.

Hopefully we will get in a few other islands too. I am busy collecting gear to operate so keep an ear open for me as GM0DEQ/p.

73

DEQ

Equipment Muster III

My good friend Robbie (GM0SEI) has loaned me an antenna & his recently repaired FT100. I have tested Robbie's multi antenna & my own vertical fishing pole antenna. Sorry Robbie but my antenna is looking better & potentially quicker to assemble. If I use the vertical fishing pole antenna I can operate 80 through to 10m with a good DX radiation angle. Mode will be restricted to SSB. I am however a CW man - apologies.

More testing of antenna's required plus a good shakedown of the FT100 to ensure it is up for the job.

I know by now that you have listened to Salsa Celtica & viewed/listened to Fiddlers DRAM below. If not have a listen here. I am in the crowd bouncing. Gaelic/Salsa awesome.

Now time to educate your pallete more. Go here to view/listen to the GOTAN Project. They are a techno latino tango group that hail from France. They have no association with Scotland but are never the less fantastic - enjoy!

Thankyou for your comments so far, please continue sending to us.

DEQ

Volcanic Ash & Amateur Radio?

You may have heard that volcanic ash has been causing chaos with the aviation industry recently in Europe. Being both involved in the aviation industry, myself & Hamish know exactly the potential damage of volcanic ash.

As our challenge will take us up to the Orkney Islands which have a latitude that has been particularly affected, there are a few factors to consider.

Due to the aircraft type (G-DRAM), height & navigating VFR (Visual Flight Rules) we should still be able to complete the challenge. With that said, we will be subject to conditions at the time. Only a few months ago I naively thought that weather conditions was all that we would have to consider..

If you are interested in the volcanic ash plume distribution go here.

Here is when it was particularly bad over Scotland.

Have you listened to Salsa Celtica yet or viewed Fiddlers DRAM?

Equipment Muster Part II

Power is starting to become an issue. It started off fairly simple but now becoming more complex as using an aeroplane. I will have to decide soon in order to progress.

Hope to play with a few antenna's soon in order to determine ease and speed of assembly/dis-assembly.

For those of you that have not visited Hamish's YouTube clip please go to: Fiddlers DRAM, the music is amazing - give it a minute to heat up... No apologies for the Scots slant.

My other favourites can be found here: Salsa Celtica Pipes, Fiddles and Salsa - it works.

Testing mobile blog.

Testing from isle of bute.

With adequate coverage you should get up to date reports of our island travels.

P.S Fantastic day on Bute..

DEQ

-- I sent this from my 3 mobile --

Equipment Muster Part I.

Still compiling equipment needed, taking weight restrictions into account. My intention is to operate HF from 40m thru to 10m - SSB only.

Fast antenna assembly is also required therefore antenna selection still to be decided.

GB4DTD - Dawn To Dusk.

Welcome to our Blog spot.

This Blog is for you to follow us and participate in our Dawn to Dusk - 24 Hour Scottish Islands Amateur Radio Challenge. You will be able to see our progress and hopefully we can share a few QSO's with you along the way.

QSL information is via GM0DEQ, QTHR.