Story 47DX/EU029 Tour Story from 47DX/EU029 Tour activity held during July 2009. Hello DXers During summer 2009 we learned that we had a never ever before activated island close by - and easy to access via a bridge. Sunday (July 19th) we came up the idea of making an "Island Tour" - activating 7 island during one evening. We could do the tour a few days later, if propagation was OK. Monday (July 20th) evening the propagation was good. Tuesday (July 21st) morning propagation was fair - so around Tuesday midday we decided to go for the trip the same day: "7 islands in 5 hours" with most time at the "new one", the small island "Bogø Fæste" (47DX/SJ023/BF) Except for Bogø Fæste all islands has been activated in the past - with the first two islands (Lolland island and Falster island) regularly "on air". We started at Lolland at around 15:30 (local time) making our first QSO - and then finding that we had no propagation. 20 minutes later we looked behind the car (towards the antenna) and understood why we heard nothing: The antenna was tilted, now lying on the ground. Its normally good to use horizontally polarised antennas - but not horizontally polarised antenna mast!! Well, we learned from this and raised the mast again!! We did expect low propagation from the two first islands since we would be here between 16.00 and 17.45 local time. Most often these times doesn't give us the most propagation; this often starts around 18.00 for the rest of the evening. 10 contacts from 3 DXCC's for both Lolland and Falster was however less than expected, so we held a dinner break at Falster Island - hoping for better propagations soon. At around 19:00 we were ready at Farø Island. Continuous calling did not give us much - and again only around 10 stations logged, among them 161EX015, 35AT160 and 26DX047 as non-danish stations. We left for Bogø Island that also was activated in 2005 and 2008 - so we didn't want to spend to much time there. The only non Danish stations logged were: 35AT160, 161EX015, 26DX047 and 26DX044 - in total 9 in log in around 30 minutes. Then we carried on to the highlight of the Tour: The new one "never ever before activated on radio": Bogø Fæste island. Well, there were more cows on the island than stations logged - and not to forget the mosquitoes. In total we logged 11 stations from Denmark, Sweden (21TM055), England (26DX047), France (14SD049) and Austria (35AT160). We stayed for 45 minutes and then decided to leave the island - and stop the tour for the day in order to repeat the tour soon when there are stronger openings. Packing the antenna gave us around 22 mosquito bites - This is 2 bites for each station logged from Bogø Fæste. Hmmmm The tour was fun, even though we experienced almost no propagation. We learned a lot and we can for sure use this experience in the future. Propagation was more or less non-existing; however some few stations came into the log. Short QSO's are a must (10-12 seconds each) with few overs - containing only the most needed info: Callsign and Report. Most strange experience was when Darran 26DX047 came through 5/9 for 5 seconds, more or less the strongest signal the whole evening, inclusive Danish stations. Thanks to all listening and calling us. We hope soon to try again. Greetings Vy 73 Soren 47DX002 Tom 47DX052 return