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| Bob GU4YOX and Ian G3WVG leaving Guernsey for the short flight to Alderney on Aurigny Air Services' Dornier 228-212 G-OAUR | Arriving in Alderney which is just 5km long and 2.4km wide, with a population of about 2,400. |
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| The operators at MP5A during the 2021 RSGB IOTA Contest: Ian G3WVG and Bob GU4YOX. Only at the end of the IOTA contest did the MP5A team realise one of the operators had his t-shirt on back-to-front! | Severe thunder storms and gales soon after arriving on Alderney made setting up the antennas (and then keeping them up) difficult. The very useful “My Lightning Tracker” App was pinging all afternoon warning the MP5A team of the impending evening storm approaching. |
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| Bob GU4YOX with the clear take-off to the North-West. However the take-off to the South was blocked by a rising hill. | There were just three passengers on the flight from Guernsey to Alderney : Ian G3WVG, a Covid nurse and Bob GU4YOX. |
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| Ian G3WVG undertakes antenna work. A lightweight gardener's wheelbarrow is always a useful tool to have where there are long distances between antenna sites. | Setting up one of the two antenna supports. This Russian Aluminiumpole surprisingly managed to stay up during the Friday night storms. | Ian G3WVG surveys the damage after the storms. Fortunately the team van, which brought equipment over from Guernsey, escaped any damage from falling debris. |
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| Leaving Guernsey (GCI) on the way to Alderney (ACI) heading North West flying over St Peter Port for the nine minute flight. | 18m Spiderpole supports multi-band dipoles | Lightning and storms were ever present. On the Friday evening before the IOTA Contest, several properties took direct hits and electricity supplies were affected in Alderney. |
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| Bob GU4YOX operates Station 2 at MP5A, trying to keep warm with transit blankets from the team van. WX was a hot 30C when the team left Guernsey but it soon dipped to a chilly 15C on Alderney. | Ian G3WVG tries to keep warm and dry operating while MP5A Station 1. MP5A Station 1 was a Elecraft K3 and Acom 1000 amp and MP5A Station 2 was a Yaesu MP-MkV and a Quadra amplifier. |
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| Score Summary for MP5A in the 2021 IOTA Contest | QSO Rates/hr over the 24 hours : max was 212 QSOs in first hour |
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| Bob GU4YOX's broken-foot in heavy boot after breaking it a day before Ian G3WVG arrived. Foot X-rays available on request from GU4YOX! | Ian G3WVG serves up tea and biscuits. Regular supplies of refreshments are an important part of any contest, especially when cold and damp! | Local Alderney resident Chris GU3TUX visits MP5A. There are only a very small number of operators resident on Alderney. |
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| Ian G3WVG puts on more layers of clothing to try tp keep warm in the chilly and damp shack. | Working on setting up the lower antenna. The mult-band fanned wire dipoles were 100m apart. There was no inter-station interaction. | A van full of gear brought from Guernsey. The GU4YOX Fiat Doblo van was shipped across by Alderney Shipping, returning few days later. |
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| One of the two antennas at MP5A. Both antennas were multiband wire dipoles covering four bands (80m-40m-20m-15m), each with three element wires (40m/15m being on one dipole element) and one length of coax. There was also a separate vertical dipole for 10m which yielded only two QSOs : Oleg MU0MXF on Guernsey and Malcolm GU0UVH on Alderney for our EU-114 CW/SSB multipliers. |
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| MP5A leaves their mark on the beach in Alderney. | The weather on Alderney is not always cold, wet, windy and miserable. |