14DA028 Phil is one of the DA-RC’s leading DXpeditioners; a go-to man, prestiged authority on how and what and where the most sought after DXstinations will be.  What they are.  And where they will come from.

And Below you can see a sample of his adventures…

Leaving home at 04:30 towards Saint Coulomb (Dept. 35) in the company of good friends, 14FDX108 William and 14FDX017 Christopher from the FDX Group, we rented a mobile home for the weekend camping at Chevrets, extraordinarily excited about what the mid October weekend would bring…

We were heading towards the D.I.F.M. – Diplome des Iles de la France Metropolitaine (D.I.F.M.) referenced Chevreuil (Deer) Island (MA-114), and after a short wait to see the tricky tidal change, we transferred the equipment and antenna and headed on foot to beautiful MA-114.

It’s very windy this Friday and we take shelter too, then install the Yaesu FT-857D station (100W) powered by a battery of 130 A/H (900A). 

The antenna used is a light-weight ‘dx adventure’ perfect Skypper — just 4m from the ground — as it’s too windy to put it to its ultimate height, but we’re confident it will do the job.

Jumping out of our skins with excitement, we’re now ready to launch our first CQ DX call on the mic on 27.555 MHz USB, the International call frequency, and then QSY for some serious DX work…

14DA/MA-114 is ON THE AIR! 

First ITL for Chevreuil (Deer) Island is fellow Frenchman 14BZH001 Mr Gildas at 11:47 am (local) with a solid R/S of 5/8, followed by 14DX181 Marc at 11:48 at 5/9.

The pile-up has begun!

Still in western Europe and DX Adventure Radio Club (DA-RC) comrade 14DA049 Fred is next at 11:49 with our faithful friend from the Kingdom of Thailand, 153RS777 Jan, with a signal of 5-7 at 11:49, next in line.

The log is awesome for the first D.I.F.M. activity and a lot of people are on the eleven meter band for a Friday. 

This is great news for the Team.

Today, the QSOs kept coming fast enough (a fine little pile-up) and at 18:31 with 1RC119 Mauro in Italy at 4/1 we end this exciting D.I.F.M. island activation.

Results:

• Number of contacts: 144
• Divisions Worked: 24 [France (14), Thailand (153), Greece (18), England (26), Italy (1), Spain (30), Corsica (104), Denmark (47), United States of America (2), Brazil (3), Argentina (4), Guadeloupe (196), Ireland (29), Scotland (108), The Netherlands (19), Germany (13), Mexico (10), Poland (161), Jamaica (23), Canary Islands (34), Wales (163), India (56), Canada (9)  & Austria (35).
• DA members ITL: 14DA049 Fred, 26DA007 Mark, 104DA102 Sylviane, 3DA012 Roger,14DA911 Eric