49/26DX047 iBIZA island Story from 49/26DX047 activity. This was the second time we'd holidayed in the resort of Portinatx, this family orientated resort is located on the northern coast of iBIZA. We had booked the same hotel / apartments and requested a top floor apartment ( for antenna installation ), a couple of weeks previous I'd phoned the hotel from England and reminded them that we wanted a top floor apartment. On arrival I was given keys to a middle floor apartment, I strongly but politely insisted on a top floor apartment, after looking at the bookings, the manager apologized and said it was impossible to be allocated a different apartment due to it being fully booked. I'd have settled on a ground floor apartment, at least I'd have a bit of land to erect the antenna, being stuck on the middle floor was a nightmare due to the terrace / balcony above ours. Not being able to be active from the apartment wasn't a major issue, but it would have been handy to have short monitoring sessions to study the propagation pattern which could help our planned island activations. Not been put off, on the second day I visited the hotel reception again, once again I was told that it wasn't possible to change apartments, it wasn't until I mentioned that I'd be willing to donate something to help reimburse financially any inconvenience caused by moving rooms, just like magic suddenly there was in fact a top floor apartment free the following day, plus it was free for the full duration of our holiday, so all was good, even though my wallet was a little lighter, I was more than happy. On the 3rd of July, we moved apartments, while my XYL unpacked our belongings in the new apartment, I unpacked the antenna, and within a few minutes Sean had helped to tape the 1/2 vertical to the railings of our balcony, switch mode psu was connected and the little 706 was powered up. The band seemed quite busy, after a quick CQ on 555 and qsy to 570, I was greeted with a mini pileup, first in the log was 26DA019 Nigel. I never spent a great deal of time on the radio from the apartment, the weather was too nice to be cooped up in a hot apartment room, I got in a regular habit of having a bit of radio time when we returned from the beach late afternoons, I'd have 30 minutes or so on radio until it was my turn for the shower. There always seemed to be a bit of a pileup which was great fun, and after a few days, regular stations / friends would call in for a quick chat and ask how the holiday was going, plus I could pass on any info regarding our iota plans which we had for the up and coming weekends. Nothing much more to report, the little 706MK2G, samlex switch mode psu and GPA 1/2 vertical worked a treat, having the radio at my disposal in the apartment definitely helped with our other island activities, monitoring from the apartment clearly showed the band was in decent shape in the mornings until about 12:00z, then there was the usual mid-afternoon blackout, then really good openings in the evenings, so our other island activities were planned accordingly. Ok that's about all for now, thanks to those who called in for a chat. 73 de Darran 49/26DX047 QTH : Portinatx, iBIZA island return