Inish Bofin, with the Gaelic name 'Inis Bo Finne' or Island of the withe cow ( 53.37 North - 10.14 West) lies together with Inish Turk en Inish Sark around 9 km off the Connemara coast in County Galway. The island is about 6km long and 3km wide. The

The mean goal of this expedition was to activate the fourth and last reference of the Irish islands list counting for the IOTA award.

Like we had been doing it for the first three expeditions the intention of the hamcrew was come together in Coolbown in North-Tipperay, the home from EI5EP/ON4JL our friend Luc. This is also our storage place for materials like masts, coaxcables, antennas and camping gear.The first part off our team, ON4QP, Pam, ON5KL, Mat, and EI5EP, Luc, arrived on the evening of 17 October in Coolbawn, County North Tipperary by car, after assisted first the three-day's IOTA 30-year anniversary convention meeting in Old Windsor near London.

After a good nights sleep and breakfast of beacon and eggs, time had come to arrange everything for our trip to Bofin. EI5EP, Luc's local friend, who had nearly every year gone to the island for fishing had given us a telephone number from a person on the island ho rented cottages for tourist. After making a dozen phonecalls to the island during the day finally around 8 PM we were lucky, The person was willing to rent us two cottage for four days and expected us weather permitted, with the 'mailboo't on Thursday 20 October. At the beginning we were all very frustrating, not been able to arrange our accommodation on the island but once that was solved all stress was going away hi. We contacted immediately our second team in Belgium to which was ready to come over. This was Tuesday 18 October 1994. Next day we started to pack all our material in the car, from transceiver to antenna, We have been lucky that EI5EP's car is a Mercedes with a big booth, so after some trying we ware able to put everything in it, the back seats where not the best place to sit, but that is dx-pedition. In the late afternoon ON1ATY, Yvan, ON1MT, Will, and ON6NW, Walt, joined the team via a Airlingus flight from Brussels to Dublin and a three hours car trip Dublin Coolbawn county North-Tipperay. By taking some local strong refreshments we discussed our next day trip to Inishbofin. This was Wednesday 19 October (EI5EP birthday !).

At 5 am the alarm clock indicated that it was time to start our fourth island dx-pedition. Pam ON4QP had prepared already our breakfast, we eating everything, in the knowledge that it would become a long day and next mael was only planned for very late that day. At 6 am we started the two cars and there we go, the distance till Cleggan was about 180km, but due the fact that we were not driving on motorways and also because there were no street lights (like we have in Belgium) the estimated time for this distance was 3 hours, this left us one hour time in case something was to go wrong, normal departure from the mailboot was foreseen for10:30 am. EI5EP is leaving on the east shore of Lough Derg, so we take the scenic route around Lough Derg, direction north to Portuma to pass the Shannon River. Portumma is also the harbour to rent boats for a cruise on the the Shannon.
Via the N65 we arrive in Loughrea and here we have the N6 direction Galway. Via the new bypass its easier to go around the city these days, we have not to drive trough the city anymore to go to the Connemara region. Once taking the many roundabouts, even twice hi, we were on the N59 in direction Cliffden, passing the beautiful landscape of the Connemara with all the small lakes and quarts mountains, sheep and horses who are living and walking freely all over the Connemara, so driving a car must be done carefully because finding a sheep in the middle of the road, after next corner is not an exception, this is the charm off Ireland.
After a good three hours of driving we arrived at Cleggan harbour, at the same moment the rain was also present to welcome us hi. We found the 'mailboot' at the end of the pier, very lonely, no skipper, our sailors around and also the ticket selling place was closed, the time was around 10:30 am, so what's happening here! The best place to ask for information was the local pub, and yes that was indeed the place. The skipper was in and explained us that between 11 and 12 he will take out for the island, we were allowed to bring already all our material on board. After taking a warm tea together with some local sweeties we aimed to the ship to load all our luggage on board, meanwhile was the ticket selling cabin also open and everything was ready to sail, we were just waiting for the captain. The rain stopped shortly after the ship was loaded, and after a 30 minutes waiting we left the harbour around 11:45 am in direction Inishbofin. With the exception off two tourist that went for a one day trip to the island we, our six, were the only persons for a long weekend an board of 'Dun Aengus' the mailboot. The sea was not to bad and with the beautiful view of the Connemara Mountains after us and with Bofin in front, the crossing was very pleasant. At Bofin harbour our landlord was waiting us in his landrover, unloading was very quickly done and the first part of the team started in direction cottages.
The second team was collected at the harbour and after inspected our accommodations, we decided that the house on the hill should be the operator room and the lower house our sleeping quarters. After making arrangements with the landlord to pick us up next Monday for transportation to the harbour, we started to set up the station. No rain, so we started to put the R7 vertical together, the weather gods ware mild to us, the sun was beginning to shine and this facilitated the assembling and mounting of the antennas very much, working in the sun instead of in the rain is quite a difference.

The R7 vertical was on top of a 10m high tube as mast, witch was secured against the fence of our qth with some ropes, a second window antenna for 80 m was fixed by throwing a rope over the top of the house and fixed at a big rock, the other end was fixed to a 6m high pole. Our qth was on the south slope of the highest hill of Inishbofin, and we had free sight nearly in all direction. The set-up was finnished around 15:00 GMT, During the set-up from the antennas and station by ON5KL and ON6NW the rest of the team was preparing the two qth for the rest of our staying. Pam, ON4QP, was putting all the kitchen stuff at their place, at the same time ON1ATY, Yvan, and Will, ON1MT, ware taking care off the sleeping places. Luc, EI5EP, was making a trip on the island a was coming back with good news, The hotel normally closed around this time of the year was willing to make food for us in the evening, Pam, ON4QP, was very happy with that anouncement, hi. After a 'good luck' drink we ware ready to go.The first station in the log was HA8ZB at 15:40 GMT on 21.260 SSB. After a good pileup in ssb we switched to 20 cw and the pile up was fantastic. Our operating sketdule was from around 05:30 GMT till 08:00 GMT, then all the menbers of the crew were awake, we took the breakfast prepared by Pam all together, and then went out to explore the Island, at least two persons together in case something shoul, happen, you never now, we had also our two meter, handheld tranceivers with us so we had a good communication link, in time of any distress. After a couple of expeditions on rocky lonely islands we had a pretty good idea what we can do and what we have to leave for safety. Returning back in our shack qth was around 1 PM. Pam prepared the lunch at the same time we operated the station and were putting more calls in the log. After our lunch when the weather was good we were out again, by rain we operated the station, We, was ON5KL and ON6NW as operators the rest of the crew was more of technical support. After our daily evening meal at 'Day hotel' in Bofin harbour we ware back qrv till 22:00 GMT and then we went to bed. The result of our operation was 1778 qso's on all band in CW and SSB. This was not to bad since we were not qrv so many hours a day, we spent more time in visiting the island also on fishing and making friendship with the locals in Bofin's only pub. For those who missed us on EU-121 no panic, there are many Irish coastal islands counting for that iota number, and each year an island, counting for EU-121 group, is at least once activated. We put an end making qso's at 22:26 GMT on 23 October with 9A2TL on 40 meter.The two following hours we ware very occupied to dismantle the station and put everything back in the waterproof boxes.

In the night weather had changed, it was raining constantly and the wind was blowing very hard. By first light in the morning we dismantled the R7, was a very nasty job due the high wind on our hilltop. We had just in time fineshed with cleaning our houses when our transportation for our luggage was arriving. The man was not very optimistic about the weather and he was not sure that the mailboot would be sailing that day. The only thing we could do was walking to the harbour and see wat would happen. So off we go for our 30 minutes trip in the rain in direction of the harbour, only ON4QP, Pam, was allowed to go inside the car with our luggage. I believe that it was, because it was a Monday morning and a lot of Island people were also waiting to go to the mainland for various reason, that the skipper after a couple hours of waiting decided to make the trip. But this time we must load everything below deck. Seeing the waves hitting the rocks at the entrance off the harbour gave us not a very pretty feeling. At 11 am everything was secured and the skipper decided to go ahead, inside the harbour waters there were no problems bud when we rounded the first rock to open sea, it was just as if the hell broke lose. The skip was going up en down, left to right and with the rain streaming in our faces, this was really the worst trip we ever made on a ship. Finally after more than 3 hours, instead the normal 45 minutes, we were safely in Cleggan harbour. After loading the cars and with a last stop in the local souvenir shop and pub we heading direction of Coolbawn again.

The mean goal of this expedition was to activate the fourth reference of the Irish islands counting for the IOTA award, so we did, we were on each off the four Irish IOTA numbers, the second aim was to bring the team that was in 1985 on the Blasket Mor island once more together in Ireland. We enjoined every moment we spent together, was it hamradio, fishing, walking or drinking in the pub, hi.