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March 15. 2010 11:48:45

IOTA

One of my favorite places to travel to is the small island of Helgoland in the North Sea. I will not try to give a detailed description of the island here, there are other sites which do that much more thoroughly than I could ever do it. There is a good link to most of them on the bottom of this page.

I first came to Helgoland in 1992 for a meeting of radio amateurs, when DK7ZH asked me to accompany him. I enjoyed the island, the people, and of course many contacts on the air that I could make thanks to the IOTA (Islands on the Air) program by the RSGB. I came back many times, and operated the RSGB IOTA contest from EU-127 (Helgoland's reference number in the IOTA Directory) in 1994, 1995, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, and 2008.

I consider the IOTA Contest one of the premier operating events of the year, and I only miss it for very good reasons! The results vary depending on station setup and conditions (referring to the ionosphere and the operator). This is what I have achieved so far.

Year Call Sign IOTA Category and Section QSOs Mult. Score Rank
1994 DL8OBC/p EU-127 Single OP 24h Mixed Island 1,093 100 430,106 2.
1995 DL8OBC/p EU-127 Single OP 24h Mixed Island 1,570 157 1,607,052 2.
1996 9H3UD EU-023 Multi OP Island (with DL4OCL) 1,574 160 1,780,000 15.
1997 DL8OBC/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,307 146 1,387,876 1.
1998 DL8OBC/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,068 138 1,040,658 5. (3. DXped.)
1999 DL8OBC/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,271 132 926,244 3. (1. DXped.)
2000 DL5XL/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,327 187 1,406,427 5. (2. DXped.)
2001 DL5XL/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,598 178 1,735,500 6. (2. DXped.)
2002 DL5XL/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island 1,145 202 1,418,646 3.
2003 DP1POL AN-016 Single OP 12h CW Island 31 6 990 19.
2004

participation had to be cancelled, as I was working at sea at that time

2005

participation had to be cancelled, as I was working at sea at that time

2006

participation had to be cancelled, as I was working at sea at that time

2007

My daughter was born on the contest weekend!

2008 DL5XL/p EU-127 Single OP 24h CW Island (High Power) 1553 171 1,455,381 4. (1. DXped.)
2009

absolutely no propagation in Antarctica:
a few stations heard in the noise, none contacted




The final scores are not directly comparable, as the point value for certain QSO's was changed between 1998 and 1999: stations without IOTA reference now count only three points instead of five, but this now applies to own-country QSOs, as well.

There is a dedicated mailing list for the IOTA Contest at Yahoogroups. This list is the place for radio amateurs and SWLs to discuss topics related to the IOTA (Islands on the Air) Contests, held every last full weekend in July, organized by the Radio Society of Great Britain (RSGB). List members are encouraged to post news about planned activations, contest reports and claimed scores, QSL routes and QSL route requests, rule questions and discussions, as long as they refer to the RSGB IOTA Contest. Messages should preferably be in English. It is a privately organized mailing list that is in no way affiliated to or endorsed by the RSGB or any other ham radio organization. To subscribe, simply enter your email address in the form below and click on the "Join now!" button.

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The FB-33 beam on top of the tower. The Windom Antenna was mounted directly under the beam and installed in the "inverted V" shape. You can see a tiny part of Helgoland's "upland" on the left side, and the tower of the new hotel "Atoll" on the right hand side, just next to the green building.

This is the 1999 setup of my station: the amplifier stands right next to the window. I used a K9CW contest keyer with Bencher paddles. The laptop on the very right was used for logging only. I can recommend EI5DI's SDIOTA software to every IOTA contest participant!

The setup one year later: the same room, but this time using a Kenwood TS-850SAT, and the laptop has been replaced by a desktop PC.

Here you can see the reason why I did not compete in the 100 Watts class of the contest: modest power from DL5FAXs old Yaesu FL-2100B amplifier, in 2001 replaced by DL5OBs Ameritron AL-80B, until I finally got a Kenwood TL-922 of my own in 2002.

After the contest: queuing up for customs with two boxes full of radio equipment. The island of Helgoland is a tax-free zone: cigarettes and liquors are cheap, but anything you carry off the island must be checked by customs. Note the "Helgoland style cars" (hand wagons) – this one belongs to DF6QC.

A good score makes one happy operator, although leaving this beautiful island is always a sad moment. By the way, all of the pictures on this page were taken by Peter, DF6QC, who is an expert in digital photography and web design.

Thank you very much to everyone who supported me, I would not be able to do it without so many helping hands! It is almost like running the contest as a Single OP with a Multi OP team in the background for setting up and dismantling the station.

Click for Helgoland Forecast

 Felix Riess

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