Hi Folks,
Off to TF land for a few weeks over the summer and though it’s not a radio expedition I will be taking HF kit and hope to activate a summit or two.
I’ll be sticking close to “route 1” and doing a full anti-clockwise lap.
If anyone has any tips, links to blog posts / articles or experience I’d be really interested to hear.
I won’t have 4wd and it’ll be day hikes rather than multi-day/overnighters.
Thanks a lot in advance,
73, Gareth G0MFR
I am still only an armchair TF activator, but I’d suggest spending some time with the VOACAP predictions to get an idea of what to expect as far as propagation goes. When I was still planning a trip there for this fall, it looked to me like it would be relatively challenging in low sunspot times if you were activating QRP.
Hello,
WX did not allow it when I was visiting Iceland but my plan was to activate
and just near Reykjavik
Both should be quite good accessible with path or gravel roads leading up.
But I’m sure more suggestions will come in.
73 Joe
Yep running VOACAP with 10w into a low dipole it looks a little bleak! The 20m daytime path back to Europe looks pretty reliable and I usually set off the TF3Y RBN node when I activate here with 10w so I have hope 
The afternoon path into the US also looks good for any reasonably equipped chasers!
Thanks for those! Both look very accessible - I’ll add them my list to check out!
Most activations in Iceland make use of 20m. In fact I do usuallay carry only an antenna for 20m ( end feed halfwave). There are many summits near road #1 where there is less than two hours hike from a road passable by all cars, to the summit. As an example, the following summits in region TF/SV are less than 2 hours walk from regular road (most paved): 1, 8, 9, 13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 21, 24, 27 as well as a majority of the one point summits. Many of the summits have tracks on wikiloc.com.
-Einar
Many thanks for the info Einar!
Checking out the wikiloc tracks now.
73
I went to TF in 2003, completed the brand new route 1 clockwise. Visited the club station in Reykjavik. No Sota, just 15W of CW on 40m from HB rig to vertical. Made a hand full of QSO’s into Europe.
The trip was at the end of May, I found the lack of darkness very tiring, on a couple of nights we did not pitch up until 0200. Also never warm, like camping in England in Feb. The local YHA’s were good on bad WX days. Beer was very expensive, we bought a bottle of gin duty free at Keflavik airport and strictly rationed it! Tonic was widely available. Could not find paraffin so lamp oil had to suffice.
Food, everything tasted of fish. Hot tubs and saunas were great. Control of path erosion and camp site grass was seen as very important to fragile ecology. Great experience though. Happy days
Regards
David
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