After the 2007 trip and having had a great time on Gozo in 2006 we decided to go somewhere easy this year and try the Preluna Hotel on Malta.
This site has been used by a number of people over the years including G3TXF/G3SXW/G4IRN etc. and seems to be a ham friendly location.
We had room 1209 on the 12th floor which is in the centre of the topmost floor in the picture. The 13th floor is a patio and guest lounge.
This hotel is outside Valetta in Sliema with a clear takeoff in most directions being one of the tallest buildings around. You can put an antenna on the patio on the 13th floor which I estimated as being around 40M above ground level.
For this trip I made up a fan dipole for 40-10m and a random length of wire for 80m. For equipment I took the trusty K2/100 + PSU + ATU and for a bit of smash my new lightweight FET amp and PSU. Taken with some coax and wires and the fishing pole I just got under the Air Malta weight allowance. (Its worth knowing that Air Malta allow you to buy vouchers for excess weight on-line).
Here is a picture of the pole secured to the patio rail - quite tricky to attach single handed. For security I guyed the pole to a couple of pillars as you can see and I removed the top 3 sections as I wasn't short of height! However once up it was pretty well impossible to tune the elements so the SWR was bit high on a couple of the bands.
About 20m of coax from the base of the fishing pole easily reached the room.
Following the adage that you always start on the highest open band I opened on 15 - last time I operated from 9H there was no real G opening on 15 so this was a good omen. Clive GM3POI was first in the log. Things then ran along nicely, ZS1/ZS3/9M6/9M2/ZS6/GMs and GIs, followed by a run of Gs as the skip shifted.This run put 100 Qs in the log. Then a bit of band hopping around 20 15 and 10 snagged 9J/7Q/3B8/5X. Semmed to be plenty of activity. then 9V on 20 interspersed with Gs and a few of the bigger VEs. Later VP8NO on 15 but missed Mike everywhere else. Back to 15 for some VEs but it didn't seem that there was a good opening very far to the west - mostly eastern provinces only. GB5CC was everywhere and so strong. As sunset got closer I made some visits to 40 and picked up 9M6/ZL1/2/ and VK4. Back to 15 for V4/VEs/ZB2 and later on 20 4S7 and back on 40 for VKs. From this time onwards 40 seemed to be open everywhere at once to the east. But still you have to keep band hopping on these trips as the three bands 40-15 were all open to some where at the same time.
Later in the evening I changed to 80m and found that the antenna didn't seem to be working. I had had problems tuning it up. But it was hopless in the dark to find out what was wrong.
So I had to stay on 40 and work everthing I could find! 3 VK6s in a row - followed by VEs and VQ5, and numbers of Gs, 5X/J8
A quick look at 80 finally scraped Qs with GM4FAM and P3J - but with a lot of difficulty. So I gave up and went to bed for a 5 hour snooze. When I started up again the PC misbehaved and didn't change bands corectly with the result that the amp went bang and so from that point I ran the K2 barefoot. Still 20 yielded 3B8/9J/ZS1/5B and 15 VK6/9J/VK2 and back on 20 I found ZC4VJ who evidently had just started. And so on through to the end hopping around the bands with some CQing as well. I didn't have any really good 10m opening. Tough when Don G3BJ asked for a QSY to 10 I couldn't hear him but VU2PTT called for a bonus! In the end I operated for about 19 hours.
G, ZB
J8, V4, VE1,VE2, VE3,VE7,VO1,VY2, VP5,VP8
3B8, 5X, 7Q, 9J, VQ9, ZS1, ZS3, ZS6
4S, 5B, 9M2,9V, VU, ZC4
9M6, VK2, VK3, VK6, VK7, ZL1, ZL2, ZL3, ZL4
HQ stations GB5CC, VA3RAC,VA2RAC, VO1RAC,VK4WIA, VU2UR
Band 80 40 20 15 10 Total Score
Qs 4 191 205 146 4 550 5690
Who was 3B8/M1KTA ? Endless long very slow CQs on 21025 but if you called he didn't come back.
Not so much problems with unwanted callers this time - but the Russians and the JAs are very strong in 9H - the latter especially on 40m.
March 8th was election day in Malta - there were very noisy celebrations all night. Mobile discos - take a 10-15kw genny on the back of a lorry with a sound wall and make some very loud dance music. Hence the noise cancelling headphones.
I have measured up the patio for anyone who feels like operating from there. Key contacts are Amanda Preca who handled the permission and the room booking and Ivan 9H1TA who works there at night.
I had no TVI problems. However you can only book the 12 floor rooms for low season due to package tours in the high season. This is a bit limiting. Also Ivan told me that they have BBQs on the patio so it is not really usuable for antennas. In any case the patio is rather small for 80m - as I found.Ivan's home operating has been almost completely ruined by the construction of large hotels and appartments round his antenna. Rather than attach the fishing pole to the patio rail it would be better/safer to use a pair of chimney lashings with ratchet tie downs and use one of the pillars.
Also Nina's at the Preluna was very good
BUT also the worst restaurant is just opposite - Fridays - poor quality and expensive.
