VP8FLY: what a massive signal!

There is something special about VP8FLY showing up on the waterfall. Yes, almost always, VP8 is a signal coming from Falkland Islands, but one can always live in hope, that the next VP8 will be a super rare South Sandwich, South Georgia, South Orkney or South Shetland Islands. “Work first, worry later” is the old chasers motto, so without hesitation FT8 was fired up. VP8FLY was a new callsign, not worked previously, so FT8 was deployed with no delay.

Lucky! VP8FLY got back straight away. The magic of 20m band at local sunset.

Turns out that VP8FLY is a special callsign for the Falkland Islands Government Aviation Service celebrating 75 years! Nice.

Thanks to QRZ, here are a couple of photos showing VP8FLY temporary location, the North East corner of Stanley airport.

“Left to right – portable toilet, box trailer with tower and SteppIR antenna, Green trailer with portable diesel generator, Black trailer with Ubiquiti antenna pointing back to home for WIFI connection – 6.5km.  Good quiet site to operate from, but very difficult to walk about with very stony and sandy uneven ground, with bits of old building remains sticking up. One has to be very careful not to break an ankle.”

Obviously, the reason for a massive signal is that three element SteppIR. While it only sits a few metres over the ground, that 5dB gain and over-the-salt-water path all the way to Australia makes all the difference.

Of course, a massive congrats to Falkland Islands aviation. One can only imagine how much effort it would take to establish a service on such a remote place, while serving the community for seventy five years.