South Bristol Amateur Radio Club

SBARC Lundy Group – GB2BLE

The shipping forecast issued by the Met Office, on behalf of the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, on…

There are warnings of gales in Viking, North Utsire, South Utsire, Forties, Cromarty, Forth, Tyne, Dogger, Fisher, German Bight, Humber, Thames, Dover, Wight, Portland, Plymouth, Biscay, South FitzRoy, Trafalgar, North FitzRoy, Sole, Lundy, Fastnet, Irish Sea, Shannon, Rockall, Malin, Hebrides, Bailey, Fair Isle, Faeroes, South-east Iceland.

If you mention "Lundy" most peoples thoughts extend to the shipping forecast. The sea area covered by "Lundy" in the shipping forecast represents a triangular expanse of ocean bounded by Lands End, Rosslare in Eire and Minehead on the north Devon coast. Lundy Island which gives its name to that expanse of ocean is, in fact, a granite outcrop, three and a half miles long and half a mile wide some 12 miles off the coast of North Devon, where the Atlantic Ocean meets the Bristol Channel with nothing between it and America. In the hubbub of the modern world it is a place apart, peaceful and unspoilt.

From a radio perspective Lundy is of considerable interest. Its location makes it more or less unaffected by much of the QRM (man made interference) that plagues our individual day to day activities. Also the use of a special event callsign gives us greater value when calling on the bands. However, one of the greatest assets is the location itself. Lundy is situated at the intersection of 4 Maidenhead Locator Squares: IO71pe, IO71qe, IO71pd and IO71qd. Based on the map, we usually operate from IO71qd although occasional forays to the top of the 'Old Light' allow us to operate from IO71pe.

Lundy is part of the IOTA Group EU120 (English Coastal Islands) which includes: Coquet, Hilbre Islands, Holy (aka Lindisfarne), Isle of Wight, Looe, Lundy, Steep Holm and The Brisons.

For WAB (Worked all Britain) Lundy is the only piece of land to be situated in SS14 England making it quite valuable for those chasing this particular square.

For the past 20 years a group from SBARC has travelled to Lundy Island and established an Amateur Radio Station for a week. We take over equipment to operate on air from Top Band to 70cm's. Throughout our stay we experiment with a variety of antenna arrangements, we have had very good results operating with simple long wires.

During our our stay we operate the special event station GB2BLE (Bristol Lundy Expedition). These pages detail some of our exploits and is dedicated to those who have tirelessly organised the occasion over the years. More recently we even have video footage of our time. Head over to You Tube and the South Bristol ARC Channel for more footage.

GB2BLE Through the Ages

Please see the subsidiary pages for more information on each year