As some you may have noticed, we didn’t make it to JW as planned. Kristoffer, LB0VG, and I were supposed to go to Longyearbyen in September, but didn’t.

I’m not in favour of pointing fingers, all I can say is that it wasn’t Kristoffer’s fault, so let’s leave it there. Okay?

Fine – it was my fault! Here’s the story.

In the planning phase I decided to bring my favourite radio, Yaesu FT-950, and still lacking PA options I had to go for the AL-80B. Yep, we’re counting two heavyweight champions here, not including myself.

Knowing the airline company had weight limits, I got in touch with customer service asking if this could be problematic. I told them I had a something within the size limits, but the weight would exceed the maximum of 23 kilos. They replied it would not be a problem, but I there would be extra fees for overweight. “Great”, I thought to myself. Consider this “foreshadowing”.

Fast forward, and we’re heading to the airport. We danced our way to the check-in machines and received our boarding passes, but for some reason I only received tag for the luggage even though I ordered two. We had to get in line for manual service, and they nearly fainted when they saw my “boat anchor crate” and informed me of a 32 kilogram upper limit! The customer service failed to mention this earlier, and now I had a 40 kilogram problem in my hands! I thought to myself “oh shit” and could feel the blood started rushing.

We were advised to ship it as “special luggage”, but I quickly reconsidered as I knew this would cost arms and legs. Instead, we decided to distribute the excess overweight across the remaining luggage. The AL-80B ended up being the problem again due to its weight and size, so I said “fuck it” and bubble wrapped the thing, hoping it would make it. At this point the clock was ticking very fast!

No dancing this time, we sprinted back to the manual check-in. To our horror the queue was now long, and there were only two employees at work. They weren’t in a rush, to put it mildly! Time was running out, and we both tried to keep our smiles up while quietly watching the time.

After what seemed like an eternity it finally it was our turn, but the guy behind the counter quickly dismissed us and told us we were too late. The plane had already been packed and ready to go.

And, that was it. End of story – we were too late! We had no other option but to return home.

Consider this a lesson learned. An expensive lesson too, I can’t remember the last time I blew $1000 in a whiff. But, the worst part to me, was that it was all my fault. I felt absolutely terrible for Kristoffer, who had been looking forward to this for a long time. Sorry, bud.

The spirit is not gone, and we will give it another try soon. We’re currently considering January 2025, and will try to nail the dates next month.

Stay tuned.