GJ/JE-001 Les Platons (Jersey)

After five nights in Guernsey, including a day on Sark, when I activated Le Moulin GU/GU-001, we were on the move to Jersey for another four nights in a hotel on the western side of the island. I drove my Ford Kuga on to the Condor Liberation - the same vessel we used to travel from Poole to Guernsey.  Liberation is a powerful trimaran and can carry up to 245 cars and 880 passengers. 

Liberation - photo by Condor Ferries

The journey from St. Peter Port to St. Helier takes one hour. As we were not permitted to take our hotel room until late afternoon, arrival day presented me with a good opportunity to activate GJ/JE-001 Les Platons (143m ASL), which is located near St. John, on the northern coast of the island. 

We found Jersey to be more commercialised and "touristy" than Guernsey - less rural with wider roads. The island is around 9 miles across and 5 miles wide.  We found a local cafe in St. John's for lunch and then made our way to Les Platons GJ/JE-001, which is a drive on summit if you want it to be. 

I turned off the Rue de Platons into a small parking bay at N 49.246 W 2.103, and carried my picnic table and chair about 75m up the road where I set up my station on the grass verge surrounded by bracken:

HF Conditions were very poor on 21/06/23, even 40m CW only produced ten CW contacts before my CQ calls produced a blank. Moves to SSB, then 30m and 20m accrued me 37 contacts in 50 minutes at which point I packed up the station and we made out way to our hotel. 

Trying to keep the KX3 cool shielding it from the sun with my bag

DX? No - only contacts with Europe were possible in my 50 minute session - and no S2S either

We spent the rest of time in Jersey doing touristy stuff - the radio never came out of the rucksack again...

GU/GU-001 Le Moulin (Sark)

Part way through our holiday on Guernsey and before we moved to Jersey, we took the day boat from St Peter Port to Sark.  The service, run by the Sark Shipping Company, leaves Guernsey at 10:15am and returns from Sark at 4.00pm.  It was an interesting day out. There was time to walk to the summit for an activation, visit Le Signeurie House and Gardens and grab a late lunch before returning for the boat.  

Leaving the small harbour on foot with the other tourists, you pass through a tunnel before ascending on a footpath in trees up Harbour Hill onto the very large activation zone:

This map of Sark shows the route to the summit in blue and the activation zone in black. As you can see, most of the island, including several self catering cottages, B&Bs, a pub and hotels are within the activation zone:

Most of the tourists arriving on the day-boat, travel on the tractor trailer transport that trundle along the (mostly) unmetalled roads around the island. We opted to walk to the summit of GU-001 (Le Moulin) which took us 50 minutes. Le Moulin translates in English to The Windmill, and the first thing I noticed when we saw it, was that there was an end fed wire terminating on the windmill itself! The QTH of Victoria Stamps, GU0BEZ, is right on the summit. If you look at Victoria's QRZ page, there is a good picture of the windmill and the wire from her OCFD Windom terminating at the upper window on the mill. 

Judy - G(U)4OBK XYL on Le Moulin - GU0BEZ QTH behind

Just to the side and behind the windmill, was an overgrown vineyard. The fence protecting the vines was used to support my 5m fishing pole and inverted vee. 

Working an average of one QSO a minute on 20, 30 and 40 metres using CW/SSB, I worked 55 stations before my allotted time ran out. This was surprisingly, a "run of the mill" QSO rate for me - considering I was operating from a relatively rare DXCC Country, I would have expected to work more stations than I did.  All contacts were with stations in Europe and included six S2S QSOs. 

We made our way across the island to the gardens we wanted to see, passing the Sark Constable's Office, where I noticed this sign detailing the cost of various licences available on Sark which proved interesting - for example Bicycle Licences - £14 a year! 

After visiting the Seigneur's gardens we finished off with some lunch outside, in the garden of a very nice cafe, before heading back down Harbour Hill with an ice cream in time for the boat back to Guernsey at 4.00pm, passing this small quarry on the way:

Our boat, the Sark Venture, arrived soon after we reached the harbour, the journey back to Guernsey taking around 50 minutes...

We both want to return to Sark and stay for longer next time. It truly is a unique place.

GU/GU-002 Guernsey Airport GU4OBK/P

My first visit to the Channel Islands of Guernsey, Sark and Jersey was for a holiday with my XYL Judy in June 2023. We drove the 315 miles to Poole in Dorset and after an overnight stay in a Premier Inn there, travelled over to Guernsey by boat, a three hour journey on Condor Ferries. This trip was a holiday, with three activations planned. Guernsey Island is 9 miles long and 3 miles wide, small than Jersey and not as commercialised. 

On board Liberation - the faster of the boats used to get from England and France to the Channel Islands

The next day after arriving, there was time for an activation of Guernsey Airport GU/GU-002. This is a drive on summit. My activation took place around 400m from the airport perimeter fence at the side of a field on Rue de l'eglise at 49.429N 2.595W (Point 1 on map below).  The nearby German Occupation WW II Museum closes at 1.00pm each day, so in an afternoon the place is deserted and is fine for parking. The museum itself is also within the activation zone. I would recommend a visit to the museum, if only to view the vast array of German communication equipment on display there. We spent a few hours there on another day:

I have to thank Mike GU4EON for surveying the summit prior to me arriving on Guernsey and finding a suitable place for my activation.  Mike is the owner of Guernsey car registration 5973 - a number he chose when he got his driving licence several decades ago. In Guernsey the car registrations are numbers only. 

Point 1 is where I set up my station - 400m from the airport car park

After receiving no callers on 2m FM using my handheld and whip, I started up at 1245z on 40m SSB and worked a couple of S2S stations - HB9/DL6GCA/P Armin (HB/NW-017) and 2E0BIA/P Martin (G/SP-004).  After a handful of contacts I went temporarily QRT as Mike GU4EON joined me, bringing with him a piece of amateur radio equipment, and we did a deal on the summit - was this the first time on a summit that money had changed hands for a piece of radio equipment I wondered?

I had placed an advert on a website wanting to buy a secondhand microKEYER, a now obsolete accessory that utilises the K1EL systems WinKeyer. Mike GU4EON happened to have one that was not being used and by chance the holiday in Guernsey gave me an chance to collect the unit while I was there, right in the middle of my activation!  

The microKEYER I bought from GU4EON on GU/GU-002 now in use at G4OBK

Operation position - Rue de l'eglise is the other side of the hedge

My usual station - KX3, link inverted vee dipole 5m AGL

Having said goodbye to Mike the activation continued after an hiatus of 20 minutes. After around an hours operating time I went QRT having completed 52 contacts all within Europe. It had been well worth carrying the picnic table and two folding chairs into the field - a comfortable activation with my XYL sat reading her book some 50m away from me, using a golf umbrella as a shelter from the sun. 

Mike told me that  the actual summit, a few metres higher than were I operated from, was a man-made mound of earth adjacent to the airport car park, so after the activation and before we went to look at a WW II German Observation Tower to the west side of the island, I went over to the airport to photograph the highest point of GU/GU-002:

We stayed in Guernsey for five nights, but visited Sark and Le Moulin GU/GU-001 a few days into our stay.  I will report on that activation next - LINK HERE NOW