Thanks Ray and all of you guys for your support and atemps to contact me, much appreciated. I did make a few contacts. It will take some time to edit the video. Not as much radio as I hoped but you will see why... I am safe and sound at home, though exhausted. 40hrs at the helm in 7 Beaufort winds is something I did not think I could do. There was a few SAR operations those two nights, fortunately I wasn't the object of one. It is a constant psychological and physical battle to stay on the boat, not being thrown off and exert constant pressure and movement on the tiller. Legs, arms, core muscles, everything works constantly at max capacity. The boat was laid on its side twice and I was both times times thrown in the opposite stanchions, "launched" would be a better expression because I am pretty sure I was briefly airborne for an instant. Thanks to my safety harness! I could only use my electric auto-pilot for a few hours, as it could not cope with the conditions. But then, what other choice is there? To me staying home watching TV is more risky ;-) in the grand scheme of things...
Now I am catching up on sleep and recovering, which will take a couple days...
TTYL :-)

Gil.

Today and tomorrow 10123 CW. Last message before being out of cell service. Tomorrow night, Toulon VHF repeater.

Three MM contacts yesterday on 10123...

Thanks Yall ;-)

Listening to 10123 today EA3/F4WBY/MM.

Gil.

First MM Contact F4WBZ Jim on 10123.
Gil.

All 26wpm reports are fakes.

Gil.

Someone tried CW on 14300, heard. Try again.

EA3/F4WBY/MM all day 14300.

Hi guys! Safe and sound in Vilanova. 30m was closed when I called, bummer... BTW there are three high-db reports of me on 10118 on the 11th. Those are fake.

I will try 14300 during the at sea next, but no promises... Unfortunately it is always late when I'm ready to go on the air.. On top of that there is a contest going on!

TTYL! And thanks Ray!

Gil.

Thanks you, I certainly will!

Gil.

Hello.

I am leaving for Spain on July 7th in an attempt to bring my sailboat Ragnar back to France. Hopefully the boat will be put back in the water on the 9th and I should set sail on the 10th. The problem is getting to Spain with ever changing restrictions on travel due to Covid-19. If all goes well and I can get there and leave port, the trip should last about ten days. The boat is a Havsfidra 20 built in Sweden, a good ocean-going full-keel double-ender sailboat.

As far as radios I think I will bring my Minion SDR and MTR3b; subject to change... The antenna will be the Chameleon MPAS with the whip. I am also carrying an inReach satellite beacon. You will be able to follow me at: https://share.garmin.com/svragnar

I am not sure if I will be able to be on the air during the day but I plan on following the coast and stop at night, so most likely will be on the air in the evening, starting at around 19:00Z. Frequencies will probably be 14300, and I might browse around 20m, 14285 and around. I should be also on 10123 CW. I'll have probably only one antenna so it will be 20 or 30m. I might bring a random wire with a 9:1 UNUN hung from the mast spreader, but not sure about that.

For those who might be living in the south of France, I will also listen to HAM VHF on coastal repeaters, as well as 145.5MHz. So far I have programmed only Toulon, but I will add more to my VX6. For those who might also be maritime mobile in the area, I will of course monitor marine VHF channel 16 as required by law. My MMSI is 227245060. I have an AIS receiver but no transponder, so the Garmin map will be the only way to follow my progress, or lack thereof.

I was planning on using JS8Call but could not get the hardware on time and my laptop crapped out, so no computer aboard.

What I would like is that you guys report any contact with me here. I won't be able to update this thread starting on the 7th.

I will be using a very short antenna but the Mediterranean ground plane should help ;-) My starting point is smack between Barcelona and Valencia, destination is Antibes.

This is a very exciting but also stressful endeavour for me after losing my previous boat Dagny in the Bahamas at the end of 2015. I am also not in optimal physical shape after this long confinent and I know it will be a very physically demanding trip on an unknown boat. Wish me luck... I will update this thread until the 6th, then it will be radio only. Also watch Twitter as I should be within phone network at times and might be able to update Facebook as well. You are welcome to repost here for those who do not use these applications.

Gil.

Very interesting, I might as well test this...
I don't have any radio with VOX though...
My Minion SDR has line in/out but no VOX.
Thanks.
Gil.

I can't find it in Google Play. What does the logo look like? Do you have a link?

Thanks,
Gil.

Yes he is ;-)

Definitely, that is an interesting subject. I have only looked at the TYT MD-680, great handheld for prepping groups. The one-time-pad is a great, albeit slow option with Morse code; I have made a video on that..

Gil.

Let me know how it works!

Gil.

Hello,

Mine is starting to act up a bit, with a few-second delay befopre starting... Probably a capacitor going bad...

Gil.