Rain, wind and mixed propagation. Oh, and antenna damage!

It's Monday morning and overnight we've had some very strong wind. As a result, there was some slight damage to the antenna system. The Sota pole holding up our 20/15m wire vertical broke in the wind and needed to be repaired, while the 30m wire vertical came loose from its pole. However, a short time later we were up and running again.

Sunday night was good on the bands, with decent action on 40, 30 and 20. Most of the activity has been on CW, but Liam EI7DSB is quite active on SSB, especially on 20 metres. We passed the 2,000 QSO mark last night. There was some action too on 6 metres. We made 11 QSOs, some with EI stations and there were some Europeans who made it into the log, including several from Croatia and Italy, and one each from Poland and Slovenia. We will keep a listening watch on 50 Mhz during our stay using a dedicated FT897 and a two-element beam.

Band conditions this morning are not that good. After a promising start with a good rate on 20 cw, the action died off. 30m has been OK, and 40m has been very hit and miss.

I've received information from Peter EI7CC that Gola Island was in fact activated before, by Paddy EJ7GK, in 1997. So we're not the first!!! Thanks for the information Peter. At least we know now!

The food has been excellent, thanks to our chef, Tony EI3HA, who has been looking after us very well. We will surely put on a few pounds while we're here, sitting around working radio and eating all the time!

I took a walk to the western end of the island with Declan EI6FR yesterday. There are fantastic views from the top of the cliffs out into the Atlantic Ocean.

A splint is added to support the broken Sota pole.

Roast beef for Sunday dinner. Yum.

A card EJ7GK to EI7CC from his Gola activation in 1997.

Anthony EI2KC at the edge of the cliffs on Gola.