Azores Island Hunt. Captioned pictures from CU2ARA

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The teams are arriving at the airport in Ponta Delgada at Sao Miguel island. A lot of luggage was brought in. Here the
Danish and German teams are waiting for their taxis. The DARC journalist is checking his photos on the digital camera as well to the left.
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A too small car for rigs, linears and antennas when 9  teams arrive at the same time…
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A team photo was taken in the backyard of the CU2ARA club station before teams were departing to their individual islands
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Antenna and rig discussions are taking place in the backyard. The short CU2ARA tower that we used can be seen in the middle of the picture
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Our guide Mr. Rui is also a pro photographer. Just look at all the cameras!
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Ghis ON5NT is busy adjusting the inverted vee antenna to resonance
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Marius, LB3HC is using his DG8SAQ Vector Network Analyzer to check the multiband antennas before the event.The CU2ARA members CU2IF and CU2CN and are helping out
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The organizing committee is formally opening the event!
IMG_1080 Since we had a city location with some noise, we wanted to do a remote hilltop station experiment to learn from that experience for future events. After first checking with the official organizers for  approval, we travelled to one of the points in the island where there is almost 360 degrees negative horizon and no broadcast installations.This would enable a good remote location. On the above picture you can see the takeoff towards Europe. Wow! We did have some technical challenges that were solved, but the main QSO amount by far was made with the main stations down at CU2ARA. The remote station was left operational so the CU2 ops could do more work on it after the event IMG_1127  Above:
CU2CN climbs the tower on the mountaintop to put up the highest point of our sloping antenna. The antenna was sloping towards west (US).
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Here is the house where the experimental remote station was mounted. We had a 100mbit/sec WLAN connection down to CU2ARA.
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Another picture of the takeoff to the east (against Europe). A pretty good QTH for the remote site.  (The Azores are full of beautiful views like this. Visit to see for youself!)
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Our remote station is located inside the hilltop house. A Yaesu FT857 and HRD was used. More dedicated remote systems should be used in a future event it was decided.
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Here is the HRD remote screen where we controlled the hilltop remote station. This was done down in the city where the CU2ARA shack is located. (As OH2BH encouraged, we did it the innovative Arcala way!). Notice the Norwegian flag by the way!
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ON5NT is working pileup
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LB3HC is working pileup
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The CU2ARA residents are working pileup
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Our antennas downtown at CU2ARA. We used a 3 el yagi for 20 meters and inverted vees for the other bands (17 and 40).

AÇORES PT

Approx 31000 QSOs made in 24h during the Azores Island Hunt

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We are back from the Azores Island Hunt expedition. Approx 31000 QSOs were made during 24 hours of operation from the 9 stations when a hardcore team of DX-ers and contesters visited the islands (unofficial ADIF numbers incl. eventual dupes). Nine stations running pileups on 40, 20 and 17m were on the air on CW/SSB simultaneously. The stations total run rate were in average approx 1300 QSOs / hour. Above I have posted some initial selected pictures from the event. We would like to thank OH2BH, OH8NC, CU2CE, CU2DX and all the local Azores hams that made this event possible. What a great memory for life we all got! What characterizes the Azores is great openings on HF. The reason the major contesters in the world choose to win from the Azores is the location almost in the middle between USA and South America. During daytime 10m, 12m, 15m and 20 meter openings are something else than experienced on more northerly latitudes (extremely good). Please check in later at http://azores-islands-hunt.com/ for official information. Below is the information about the teams and operators:

TEAM FINLAND, SANTA MARIA, CU1ARM

  • Juha Hulkko, OH8NC
  • Kimmo Rautio, OH9MDV
  • Sérgio Oliveira, CU1AAD
TEAM NORWAY, SAO MIGUEL, CU2ARA

  • Marius Hauki. LB3HC
  • Ghis Penny, ON5NT
  • Guilherme Frias, CU2IF
TEAM USA (1), TERCEIRA, CU3URA

  • George Tranos, N2GA
  • Diane Ortiz, K2DO (YL)
  • Domingos Cabral, CU3BS
TEAM GERMANY, GRACIOSA, CU4ARG

  • Franz Langner, DJ9ZB
  • Richard Gottlieb, DF9TF
  • Guilherme Bento Frias, CU4AB
TEAM CANADA, ST JORGE, CU5AM

  • Yuri Onipko, VE3DZ
  • Ed Kulchenko, VE3FWA
  • José Silveira, CU5AM
TEAM DENMARK, PICO, CU6GRP

  • Alex Hansen,OZ7AM
  • Kenneth Hemstedt, OZ1IKY
  • Jorge Dutra, CU6AB
TEAM USA (2), FAIAL, CU7CRA

  • Michael Corey, KI1U
  • Richard Boyd, KE3Q
  • Manuel Bettencourt, CU7CA
TEAM BELGIUM, FLORES, CU8AO

  • Carine Ramon, ON7LX (YL)
  • Claude van Pottelsberghe de la Potterie, ON7TK
  • Frederic Fournier, CU8AAE
TEAM UNITED KINGDOM, CORVO, CU9AC

  • Nigel Cawthorne, G3TXF
  • Michael Wells, G7VJR
  • João Camara, CU9AC
Azores 9 Islands Hunt Organizing Commitee

  • Fernando Tavares, CU2BV, Chairman
  • Francisco Gil, CU2DX, ATA Representative
  • Jose Melo, CU2CE, Islands coordination
  • Martti Laine, CU2KG, Radio operations