The picturesque, pocket-sized, Pas-de-Calais department island of Dubois in northern France is our IWI dxstination for the 2017 World Islands Contest (WIC) on November 11, 2017.

After arriving on the miniature inland water island we installed the portable DX station and antenna, in good spirits and pleasant surrounds too, with a nice breeze whipping in from across the water and birds in the trees.

Once everything was in place, though, we took a deserved break to drip the rose wine that 14DA021 Eric had brought with him.  And yes we didn’t let a little go to waste!

So here we are, ‘hot’ to begin our activation, on the shores of the Lys & Oduel River!!!!!!!!!!

Following a CQ DX call on the world call frequency, 27.555 MHz USB, 14DA/62-011R started with a number of fellow Frenchmen worked.

First off, 14AT824 Philippe from the Alfa Tango club was pencilled in with a signal report of 4/1 at 13:37.

He was trailed in the log by DA-RC comrade 14DA024 Chris at 4/1 at 13:38 and then 14HR062 Roger at 5/1 at 13:38.

Unfortunately propagation was rather sleepy though and conditions dropped off.

Later, we had the welcomed visit of 14SR027 François from the Sugar Radio Club who hadn’t come alone.

In fact, he’d brought us a great bottle of LEFFE to relax the vocal cords as we’d been engaged in 11m band ops since the early hours of the morning and were becoming a little hoarse.

At this time, we could talk a long time with him — especially me (14DA028 Phil) — as Eric was working at the mic.

Thank you for the visit François!

In this season, night falls quickly.  It’s 15:00 GMT and, therefore, the time to dismantle the station has arrived.

We concluded the Dubois Island IWI dx adventure with 14AT143 Fabrice appearing on the band at 14h13 GMT with a 3/1 exchange.

He was the last of a total of 35 stations in our log on this day, a nice achievement considering propagation at this time.

Thank you and congratulations to everyone who was able to achieve the contact with our IWI.

To confirm the contact please send to:

Eric, 40 Route de Feuchy, 62223 St Laurent Blangy, FRANCE

Log Details

• DXCC: 14, 19, 26, 47

• DA ITL: 14DA024 Chris, 14DA049 Fred, 14DA068 Willy, 14DA817 Rod, 14DA033 Lawrence, 14DA021 Eric & 14DA028 Phil.