The return to Market Reef was a success for the team, although we had some minor technical issues underway. Put your lifewest on, and join me on my trip to Market Reef with three other operators: Bjørn (LA1UW), Tor (LA3WAA), and Kristoffer (LB0VG).

We spent quite some time planning for this trip. How many stations should we operate, which antennas should we use, what do we need to purchase or borrow? Even though the DXpedition wasn’t expensive in itself, with a total cost for all operators around US $3000 (give or take), there were certain personal purchases in parallel that were necessary for the operation also. We had no direct financial support, everything was straight off our personal paychecks.

I believe that having been there once before was an advantage, like being able to mentally prepare the others for dry toilets, sanitary facilities, what to bring and what to leave home. With that said, not much was left home, you can never have enough redundancy when there are no shops or nearby shacks to borrow from.

We spent maybe six months planning the trip, on and off. Once the reservations was confirmed, the planning got serious. The last two months was probably where things started to happen for real – antennas were tested, coaxial cables acquired, filters borrowed from the local club, and so on. In the beginning the trip seemed a lifetime away, but during the last fourteen days ran by like a bullet and we had to speed things up.

As I have mentioned before, the weather could be a potential dealbreaker. Any more than 5-6 m/s wind, or remaining waves from the “old sea” before, and the trip could have been postponed, if not cancelled. Thankfully, the weather gods had mercy upon us, and the sea was pretty much as good as it could be! We were in frequent contact with the boat captain, and a few days before the mission he gave us the green light – we are good to go!

We packed the car to the brim, nothing was left behind. Antennas were placed on the roof, heavy PA’s at the bottom and the lighter stuff on top. For extra safety, a wall was mounted behind the back seats and the luggage compartment. Nobody wants a 30 kg amplifier come flying to the back of their head.

Late night, May 19th, we gathered the team and set course for Southern Sweden. We had a 10 hour drive ahead of us, and not everyone had the chance to rest after a long day at work. There was a mutual agreement that we should switch drivers frequently; but even if we all were tired, the atmosphere was jolly good!

We arrived in Singö early morning the 20th. We had reservations from Systembolaget we had to pick up, in addition to having to purchase snacks, soda, candy, and so on. The car was – if possible – even more packed than before, but luckily only for a kilometre or so. Once we arrived, we loaded everything onto the boat and set course for Market Reef. After 10 hours in the car seat, it was good to finally stretch out the legs and enjoy some refreshing sea air.

After about an hour we could see the lighthouse in the horizon, and I could see the excitement in everyone’s faces. This is it. We’re here! The adventure is about to begin!

Once we landed the boat, we were greeted by the lighthouse crew who kindly helped us with the luggage and gave us a warm welcome. We were served a delightful lunch, and coffee – which probably was a good idea, given that we all had been awake for probably 36 hours by now.

We immediately started unpacking our gear and personal belongings, and headed outside to erect our antennas. Long story short, we had two vertical HF antennas and one Windom, as well as a inv-v dipole, and two yagi antennas. We originally planned for two stations, but ended up with four. Nobody wanted to twiddle their thumbs on Market Reef!

Day one was short, propagation was so-so, and we probably had less than a hundred QSOs each. Day two we did some modifications to the antenna park, and the logs literally exploded. FT8 was howling along in Fox/Hound mode, SSB operators spoke while inhaling and exhaling. The pileups were endless.

We didn’t have any WARC filters, so if anyone worked 12/17/30/60m then the others had to do the same. Everyone had to TX on the same slot (thankfully not a problem with F/H), or we’d saturate each others waterfalls. The team worked flawlessly – like a dream team – where everyone cooperated and helping each other out.

Bjørn got his 6m/4m beam up, in addition to the 9el 2m I brought along. The Market Reef antenna rotor was out of order at the moment, luckily we brought a backup.

The next few days the propagation was great, and the team averaged 3,000 QSOs a day, if not more.

Thursday morning we got a message from the boat captain that the weather prognosis had changed, and we had to make a rush decision: leave today, or take a chance and hope Friday is good enough. Saturday was already out of the question. After a bit of discussion, the team agreed that it would be safest to leave today. I could see a hint of disappointment in everyone’s faces, but it was for the best – turns out, Friday was horrible, and we would have been forced to stay there way until next week. While it may sound like an advantage, it would require us to extend our vacations, job tasks building up, wives waiting, etc. It was a five or six hours notice until we had to leave, and we rushed to pack our stuff while simultaneously keeping two stations on 17m and 15m operative on FT8 for as long as we possibly could.

It’s also worth mentioning that this was also LA1UW Bjørn’s birthday, and we had secretly planned a little party for him that evening. We had plans for cake, Jägermeister, and quite possibly a late night with fewer QSOs than usual, if you know what I mean. The lighthouse staff made a cake for him anyways, which we had to eat in a hurry before marching out and loading the boat again.

And now, we had another 10 hour drive ahead of us. Not everyone looked forward to that, but it had to be done. Early next morning we all arrived safely at home, and caught some well-deserved sleep.

Later that day we met up to collect our equipment from the car and exchange a few impressions on how the experience was for everyone. Everyone said they’d do it again, so who knows.. maybe there will be a round three to OJ0 one day!

If this story didn’t have enough pictures, here are some more! In no particular order, please enjoy.

Kristoffer, LB0VG, did an amazing job taking pictures with a proper camera and a drone. Most pictures on this page were shot by him.

More than 12,000 QSOs in the log, four exhausted but very satisfied operators are now back home, longing to get back to operate from OJ0 again. Stay tuned…