Story 47DX/SJ020 Story of 47DX/SJ020 (June 1st 2013). FACTS: From WikiPedia: Fejø is a Danish island north of Lolland island. It covers an area of 16 km2 (6.2 sq mi) and has around 600 permanent inhabitants. Its population expands in summer since many Danes have summerhouses and there is an influx of other tourists. Fejø has two villages: Vesterby and Østerby, connected by a single main road. Fejø has two main harbors, Vesterbyhavn and Dybvighavn. The island has shops, a retirement home, primary school and a resident doctor. The island has a microclimate with few late frosts, which makes it very well suited for growing apples and pears. It is known for its many apple plantations and has an annual festival 'Æblets Dag' (Day Of The Apple) which features a picture composed from local apples. Local products include apple juice, marmalade, cider and honey. Fejø has a perm culture group and transition town initiative. A subsidised ferry carries vehicles and foot passengers from Vesterbyhavn (Fejø) to Kragenæs (Lolland) in about 15 minutes and runs about 20 times daily. It is free for island residents. A subsidised bus provides free transport on the island. Story - 47DX/SJ020 Fejoe island: During spring 2013 Soren had some chats with Karsten 47DK137 and Tom 47RO109, asking them if they were interested in doing an activation. A good date to choose would be the first weekend in June - it would be at the middle of the e-skip season and the weekend of the Island Festival 2013. This would be the perfect weekend for Karsten and Tom to experience a Field Day Activation - none of them had ever before activated anything. Via Skype all planning was made, Fejø (Fejoe island) was chosen and a good site at the island was found via Google Earth. Fejoe island would be within reasonable range for all of us - and a good island to choose for a one-day activation, despite the club already had activated the island in 2005 and 2010, though with a very low number of stations logged. A couple of days before June 1st we were asked if a visit from 47DX132 Carsten and XYL Susanne was OK, and of course they would be very welcome. 43DA348 Peter was visiting Denmark prior to our activation. We had tried to set up a meeting with Peter during his stay in Copenhagen the week up to the Island Festival, it was not possible, so we were very happy that Peter accepted our invitation to meet us at Fejoe island, the day before he left Denmark. Now we were 3 operators and 3 guest operators, perfect. The day finally arrived, and Karsten, Tom and Soren met at Kragenæs harbour, bright and fresh. After a short ferry trip, and an even shorter drive at Fejoe island, we arrived at our chosen site, and found it very suited for our purpose. The generator was started, the Bamby11 went up and the radio turned on, and we were "on air" around 09:15 local time (07:15 GMT). The first station logged was our friend Jesper on his activation at Store Okseø (47DX/JY004 - Store Okseoe island) on 09:24 local time. After that the calls were quite scarce as the propagation was very low, but we still managed to log a couple of stations now and then. During the morning we had a few phone calls with Peter, helping him to find Fejoe island - Fejoe is indeed located in the outskirts of Denmark and more than 2 hours of driving from Copenhagen. Not the easiest place to find when you live 16.000 km. away... Around noon, Carsten called us at radio, he was in Kragenæs waiting for the Ferry, at the same time Peter called at phone saying: "I finally found Kragenæs harbour". Well, Kragenæs Harbour rarely holds more than 7-8 cars at the same time, so we asked Peter to look for "a CB'er with a Handheld" :-) 30 minutes later Carsten, Susanne and Peter arrived, and we spend some time to welcome our guests. Shortly after Susanne fixed 6 beautiful plates of delicious food, freshly made. VERY nice, thanks Susanne! As the day went by, we took turns at the radio and logged stations, often in bursts, as the prop was very sporadic. At the same time we put up an experimental antenna ("Saturn BiSquare") made by Karsten. This antenna proved to be very good in bringing in small signal, and the log grew a little faster. To secure proofs from the island, Tom and Soren took Peter on a combined proof and sightseeing trip around the island, we hope Peter likes South Denmark and Fejoe island… :-) At dinner time, Karsten fired up the barbeque and we enjoyed steaks with potato salad and nice sausages with bread and garnish. Around 18:54 something suddenly happened at the radio: Stations was calling on top of each other, and for 20 minutes we had a fine pile up. This was a very nice surprise on a sort of a slow day so far. Peter left us at 19:15 as he had an early flight the next day out of Copenhagen. And around 19:45 Carsten and Susanne left us - also looking forward to a 2 hour trip to get home. At 20:54 we managed to work 136FR/FM006 from Martinique Island, a nice surprise. The last station logged before we went QRT was our own Guest operator Carsten 132 at 21:55, as he had reached his home shortly before. On 22:10 we went QRT, after a long sunny day. We packed everything, and made sure we had cleaned up the erea - then we went to the harbour to catch the Ferry leaving the island at 22:55. In Kragenæs Harbour Soren, Karsten and Tom separated and we all headed home. Thanks for a fantastic day - and thank you to all that logged us, the QSO statistics can be found at DXRC website. Greetings from 47RO109 Tom 47DK137 Karsten 47DX002 Soren And our guests: 47DX132 Carsten and XYL Susanne 43DA148 Peter return