Skye Activations? Remember the 7 Ps!

As the military adage goes "Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents P*** Poor Performance" well I have fallen foul of this in getting ready for my imminent holiday to the Isle of Skye.

Last year we went back to the Isle of Skye after our first visit over a decade ago.  We rented a self catering cottage near Dunvegan and a great time. The scenery (and the whisky) is spectacular and the dogs loved it, so we decided to go back this year. 

The cottage

The view from the cottage

The tasting experience at the Talisker Whisky Distillery

The cottage is no longer available for holiday lets, but we have found another which promises even better facilities. Last year I wasn't licensed, so this time I planned to take the rig and operate from the island.
  
The holiday coincides with the 50MHz/6 Meter UKAC contest and the opportunity to operate from the rare IO67 locator square was something I was looking forward to, I was totally realistic as to my chances given my set up, the terrain and power restrictions.

IO67 Locator Square

I planned to build a quad beam, there are plenty of designs on the web and ordered some fibreglass pole to make the spreaders but over the past few weeks have got sidetracked and left the construction till the last minute and it has turned into a disaster!

I abandoning the idea of a multi-element quad beam once I realised the sheer size it would be and the lack of space in the car and so opted to make a manageable two element quad.

I modelled up the antenna in MMANA-GAL to check the dimensions, made a nice short wooden boom, and cut the fibreglass pole for the spreaders, initially cutting them all to the wrong length! Cue expletives!

So I cut another set to the correct length and made the wire loop elements and tried to put it all together. Unfortunately the fibreglass spreaders are far too thin and bend and sag under the weight of the wire! Cue even more colourful expletives!

Plan-B is now just a simple tuned dipole and all I can hope for is some Sporadic-E on Tuesday evening!

I am packing the HF antennas a Magitenna and the HW-20HP from Nigel at M0CVO Antennas. I haven't done a great deal on HF finding the operating a little intimidating however I will endeavour to be on air during the week having realised in the last couple of days that I can 'activate' the island and some 'rare-ish' grid squares for the Worked All Britain (W.A.B) scheme, as well as 'activating' for the Island On The Air (IOTA) scheme. I might convince the wife to let me take the rig portable on a planned trip across to the Isle of Raasay for another activation.

With just 48 hours left I am rapidly reading up on what I need to do... as my wife pointed out I have had weeks/months to prepare for this... the 7Ps indeed!

If I do get on the air as 2M0NRD/A or 2M0NRD/P during the week please be patient and treat me gently! I will be on voice and maybe JT65 and PSK. The cottage has wi-fi so will post updates on my twitter feed @nerdsville.