310TE/DX & 311TE/DX Report & Photos 2024

310TE/DX & 311TE/DX Photos & Report

 Full report coming soon, just difficult to fit in at the moment with work etc.

This year (2024) is the Tango Echo (Thames Estuary) DX Group 45th Anniversary 

And in all that time, I wasn’t aware of the group ever doing an overseas activation, so Adam 26TE032 and I started wondering how we could mark such a milestone properly. Our friend Tom 310AT101 threw out a simple suggestion — “Come visit me” — and that innocent idea snowballed almost instantly into the Tango Echo DX Group’s first and second international activations, with back‑to‑back trips to Lithuania and Latvia.

The trip to the airport was blissfully uneventful. We chucked the cases in the car, buckled up, and off we went. Big thanks to Samantha TE012 for the lift to Stansted — absolute star.

Express security lived up to its name… mostly. Only a minor delay getting through, but once we were finally spat out the other side, we discovered our flight had been delayed anyway. Typical. With no desire to wait for the dubious delights of inflight cuisine, we declared it the perfect moment for a cheeky afternoon breakfast.

The terminal was absolutely heaving. Every restaurant looked like it was hosting a family reunion, and we spent a good while circling like vultures in search of an empty table. Hunger levels were rising rapidly by this point, so when we finally sat down, the relief was real.

The meal was expensive — Stansted never misses an opportunity to lighten your wallet — but I have to admit, it was tasty. Closest thing to a full English we were going to get, and worth every overpriced bite.

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After grabbing a bit of food, we tried to settle for an hour in the main terminal — on what must be the most uncomfortable seats ever engineered by humankind. You’re meant to wander around duty free, of course, not actually sit.

Then, out of nowhere, the gate was announced. Instant chaos. Everyone leapt up and sprinted like there was a prize at the end, and naturally we joined the stampede, LOL. Only to arrive at the gate and… wait. And wait. And wait. No seats, nowhere to lean, just the privilege of standing in a cramped queue for an eternity.

Flying used to feel exciting. Now it’s just the full Irish cattle‑herding experience from start to finish.

Eventually they released us toward the aircraft — a moment of hope — only to leave us standing again, this time at the bottom of the steps, in the cold, for another ten minutes. At that point you just have to laugh.

Thankfully, it’s only a short flight.

After touching down in Latvia and weaving our way through passport control, I somehow managed to lose Adam for a full ten minutes — long enough to convince myself he’d been detained, which in hindsight is hilarious but at the time felt entirely plausible. Once reunited, it was absolutely fantastic to meet up with our old friend Tom, 310AT101. We don’t get to see him much these days with his new job keeping him busy, so catching up in person felt like a real treat after mostly keeping in touch over the airwaves. From there it was straight into expedition mode: a couple of hours’ drive to our hotel for the night, ready for an early start and a smooth crossing into Lithuania the next morning.

Arriving in Lithuania

 

Arriving in Lithuania 

Early start and a few hours drive down to the coastal town of Palanga in the northern part of Lithuania, but we had to stop at the border to get a couple of photos of the crossing point and to add one of our group stickers to the Lithuanian border sign, along with all the others that had been left, from various visitors.

Alan 26TE011 and Adam 26TE032 at the Lithuanian border.

Tango Echo DX Group sticker added

Besides the photo opportunity at the crossing point, Tom our sherpa, had to get the relevant vehicle permit and it was at this point we got stopped by the Police... I know, we look that suspicions, just a general check, to pass his time away, but we were soon on our way.

Day 1, transmitting from just outside the town of Palanga

After spend some time trying to find a suitable location, which was impossible to do with a vehicle on the coast of Palanga, we settled on a nice open spot on the edge of town. We quickly set up a single element delta Loop and a 5/8 wave coaxial dipole antenna, on the mobile footplates and we were quickly on air. 

A slow start to the logbook, propagation is a little hit and miss, but at least we're starting add a few, which was starting to show on the 11m DX Clusters, which helped to increase our traffic under really intermittent conditions and a nice gradual learning curve for our first time operating as an activation.

Adam 26TE032 and our host Tom 310AT101

Day 2 TX'ing from between Palanga and Sventoji

Not knowing the area, we tried to get down to the Baltic sea, which proved to be very difficult with all the vehicle restrictions, around Palanga and didn't discover a little seaside village of Sventoji until our last day, just a few miles up the coast. On our second day, we were set up in a little country lane, after a almost a day transmitting the Police arrived and questioned these crazy Brits and a Paddy, with a mast up and Lithuanian flag. Passport checks and a bit explanation on what we were doing, they were happy and we were fit to go back on air again

  

Alan 26TE011 on the key

Day 3, Finally, a great spot to park up and DX.

So it's our last day in Lithuania and propagation is a little sporadic, but this is a nice parking area near Sventoji, with visitors from various countries parked up over night. Some of which looked at us with some trepidation, especially now we had the delta loop antenna up as well. Thankfully, some people's curiosity gets the better of them and they come over to investigate and we can explain our radio station to them and give away a few Thames Estuary DX Group stickers. 

Propagation to the UK was hotting up and it was fantastic to catch friends logging in from around the Essex, Kent and London area. We tried to catch as many as possible, including a few of the supporters who helped us get here. Another brief visit by the Police, but now they knew who we are

Then suddenly we were off air! 

Low battery warnings. Tom had gone hunting for some lunch, so Adam and I tried to diagnose the fault, with limited tools, the auxiliary batteries were not charging anymore and we didnt have a meter to test voltages. Tom returned and he set about by-passing the main supply from the van to the auxiliary batteries, which turned out to be the split charge sensor relay. So we managed to bolt the two cables together and by-pass the split charge relay and we were back on air, after allowing a short while to charge batteries up a little. Lesson learnt, take some basic tools next year 😁

It had to end somewhere

It had been a very long day and darkness fell and the contacts dried up, all in all, a successful day of radio, even with the power failure and spells of no skip. We managed to get down the the beach to looked out over the Baltic sea, a local family helped take a photo of us, then back to the van to pack everything down and back to the guest house. I was a bit disappointed that we couldn't do another day, but on to the next country in the morning to do our second activation.

Arriving back at the Latvian boarder

An early start back to Tom's home in Latvia for our 2nd leg of our trip, which over the next 3 days would turnout to be, absolutely stunning weather in the upper 20s. 

First thing on arrival at Tom's would to help out doing a few bits of maintenance to one of his beams, ready for us to use later that day.

After a couple of hours of maintenance/adjustment to the various antennas, Tom has at his disposal, we (Adam and I) started transmitting as 310TE/DX

Sunrise from the hotel window in Talsi Latvia.

Conditions were pretty sporadic over the few days we had at Tom's home, even with Tom incredible radio station, propagation just eluded us for hours, with sudden bursts that lasted a few seconds or a few minutes.

 With only 8 contacts in total, on the second day, but there were some stunning QSO at other times.

We did have spells of incredible pile-ups with European countries and it was fantastic to catch some of our friends back in England at one point contacts into Middle East, the Far East, Australia, South America, Caribbean and of course Europe, before the radio just dropped silent