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 that time, I'm not aware of the group doing an overseas activation, so Adam 26TE032 and I were thinking of what we could do, to celebrate this milestone.
Our friend Tom 310AT101 suggested we should visit him and it quickly turned into the Tango Echo DX groups 1st and 2nd activations, with visits to Lithuania and Latvia.
Trip to the airport was pretty uneventful, chucked cases in the car and off, thank you to Samantha TE012 for the lift to Stansted Airport, only minor delays getting through express security but once we were clear of that, we found our flight had been delayed for a short time, so rather than wait for the inflight food, a afternoon cheeky breakfast was in order. The place was absolutely heaving and we struggling to find an available table in the restaurants. By now, we were both getting really hungry, an expensive but I must admit tasty meal was on the table, closest thing to a full English, but they certainly know how to empty your wallet out for the privilege!
So, after a little food, we ended up settling down for about an hour or so on the most uncomfortable seats in the main terminal, I know this is get you wander around the duty free. Then suddenly the gate was announced, everyone started racing to the gate, followed by us LOL. Just to be kept waiting there for an eternity, with nowhere to sit... flying used to be exciting, but the experience is just ruined by the terrible Irish cattle service. Eventually they let us out to the plane, only to left standing at the aircraft steps for another 10 minutes in the cold. Thankfully its only a short flight
After landing in Latvia and navigating our way through passport control, where I lost Adam for ten minutes, thought he had been detained LOL, it was absolutely fantastic to meet up with our old friend Tom 310AT101 again, especially as we don’t see him so much nowadays, with his new job, but we try to keep in touch on the radio. It was then off to stay in a hotel, a couple hours drive away, before crossing over the Lithuanian border early 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.
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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.
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| 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
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| 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
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