Englisch - 27-31.10.2025 - Royal Bavarian Ham Radio Chile and Falkland Island Tour 2025

At the beginning of 2025, the idea of ​​choosing a very remote location for our vacation trip was born.

After a trip to Tristan da Cunha was a bit too far from my VL, I chose the Falkland Islands.

This is how the planning of the project began, with all its difficulties.

Since a separate call sign is required for radio activities on the islands, this was also requested and assigned. So that I can then operate on site with the call sign VP8THW.

Since there are no direct flight connections from Germany to the Falkland Islands, a detour to Chile is necessary. The southernmost major city in Chile, Punta Arenas, is our stopover, from where flights to the Falkland Islands usually leave on Saturdays.

The plan is that we will land there on November 1st, 2025 and spend the first week in the capital, Stanley.

Afterwards a trip to Saunders Island is planned. After returning to East Falkland, the island should be explored by car. That would be the rough plan.

The return journey is scheduled for November 22nd, 2025 and will again go via Punta Arenas.

Travel report:

October 25, 2025

The day was used again to fill the individual pieces of luggage according to requirements. 23kg of checked baggage was allowed, but we wanted to stay under 20kg.

Radios, batteries, modems, antenna analyzers went into hand luggage, antennas, masts, cables and other accessories went into checked baggage.

Redundancy was important so that a functional unit is retained if the case is lost. Accordingly, the equipment was divided equally so that everyone had a radio with a corresponding battery.

A sleeping bag, sleeping mat, tarp, stove and hiking sticks and some clothing were also included. (So you can see that about 80% of the luggage weight comes from equipment and not clothing.)

Of course the whole thing took longer than expected, as always!!!

October 26, 2025

Last errands at home before departure.

In the afternoon we went to Munich with luggage and dog.

Bruno stays with Riana's parents for the time being because he has a few medical construction sites and the care is better guaranteed there.

Online check-in was activated from 7:30 a.m. Theoretically.

What crap! Despite multiple attempts via browser and Iberia Airlines app - no chance. There was always some document that couldn't be read or some date that was supposedly invalid.

Unfortunately, even an unspecified number of curses and hateful tirades against all the digital shit didn't bring any improvement.

Check-in and thus also the coordination of seats had to be postponed to the next day directly at the airport.

The transport to the airport by taxi had already been organized, so that the last night in Bavaria arrived.

October 27, 2025

4:00 a.m. - unchristian time - the alarm clock ended the quiet phase that hadn't really wanted to come before. Short breakfast with coffee and kiwi, for health and such. Everything was somehow tense

The taxi arrived at 4:45 a.m. and the declared destination was Terminal 1D at Munich Airport. Due to the lack of traffic, the taxi ride only took about 30 minutes.

When we arrived at the terminal, we went as quickly as possible to Iberia Airlines so that we could perhaps make some adjustments during check-in. Unfortunately in vain, it would be a very quiet trip as our seats were distributed on the plane. It's completely understandable that two people who book together want to sit as far apart as possible on the plane. New modern AI supported computer shit. (Memo to myself that next time maybe book directly with the airlines, then you might be able to avoid such a problem.)

I) Flight 1 from Munich to Madrid with a Bombadier CRJ-1000 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombardier_CRJ700_serie)

Initially laughed at as a toy plane, he taught us otherwise.

I was also lucky enough to be sitting at the emergency exit on the left wing and couldn't complain about the legroom. Riana was at the rear right, level with the engine.

When we arrived in Madrid we had a stay of just over 2 hours. The food is very international - Burger King.

We then went looking for our next terminal. Madrid airport is also quite large, so the train ride to the terminal took a good 10 minutes.

We were a little surprised to see how many people wanted to get on this plane. They'll never fit in there, we thought. Yes, they do.

2) Flight 2 from Madrid to Santiago de Chile.

Our aircraft was, so to speak, the latest thing Airbus has in hand for long-haul flights, the Airbus A350-900 (https://aircraft.airbus.com/en/aircraft/a350/a350-900). Inside with three rows of 3 seats, nice with screen, blanket and pillows for every seat! The Airbus has 346 seats, two of which we would call our own for the next 13 hours and 20 minutes!!! At least this time we sat directly behind each other.

The choice of film and food were very good, but the space was still cramped despite the size of the plane. I only noticed that the lights turned off when I suddenly woke up in the middle of the film or right at the end!😉 But that had nothing to do with sleeping.

We landed in Santiago de Chile at around 10:15 p.m. local time (2:15 a.m. German time). When leaving the plane, the person sitting next to you found and saved the lost wedding ring - collect karma points.

In Santiago de Chile we had the longest stay until 4:40 a.m. local time. However, we needed a little time to move from the international part of the airport to the national part.

October 28, 2025

Then there was a break until we set off for the last leg of the flight to Punta Arenas. Boarding began and groups 1 - 3 were already on board, of course we weren't there, but group 5, it was clear!!! There was apparently a problem with the plane, so boarding was interrupted. After about 20 minutes of waiting, we boarded the plane.

3) Flight 3 from Santiago de Chile to Punta Arenas

This time an Airbus A320. 2x rows of 3. Our seats are again widely scattered throughout the plane.

I would say normal flight without ups and downs. At the start of the new day we went south for another 3 hours and 25 minutes. Chile is already a damn long country!!

With the delay from boarding, we arrived at the airport in Punta Arenas at around 8:30 a.m. Collect your luggage and get Chilean pesos from the machine. Then find a trustworthy taxi driver. There are so-called official taxis and independent taxi operators here. Safety First, that's why we chose Fabiola Slazar Herrera Tel.: +56990632027. A good choice. The drive to our accommodation took about 20 minutes.

When I left the airport, I informed our host, Monica, that we would soon be at the door.

Punta Arenas is the southernmost major city in South America and has around 115,000 inhabitants. But the whole thing is spread over a fairly large area. Tall buildings are the exception rather than the rule.

At around 9:30 a.m. we arrived at our accommodation – Departmento Carrera Pinto, Capitan Ignacio Carrera Pinto 1228, 6200000 Punta Arenas.

The holiday apartment can accommodate four people, is spacious and in a reasonably quiet location. After we had dressed up a bit after the whole trip, we still had to get some food.

We also followed a recommendation and went to Cafe Inmigrante. There was coffee and cake there. What can I say, I can normally tolerate good portions, but here I had to pull the ripcord because my blood sugar level reached unexpected heights. So in my piece of cake there was an approx. 1cm layer of Nutella - just talking about sugar!! Not to mention that one piece was over 1/8 of the cake.

Back at the accommodation the oven was finally turned off and after more than 36 hours it was time to get some rest. It was around 4 p.m. local time when we went to rest.

October 29, 2025

New day, new happiness!!

Not quite - I felt like the bed was trying to assimilate me (similar to the BORG in Star Treck!)

So I sat down at the computer for the next three hours to get everything up to speed. But then the tiredness came back and I went back into the “BORG cube”.

Regarding the climate, we had about 13 degrees and wind. Lots of wind... If you're planning a visit here, you should pack good, windproof clothing!

We first explored the city, up to a viewpoint and then back via the center and harbor. The people are very friendly and will also greet you on the street.

I don't know the last time this happened to me at home. I don't know what the penalties are for not letting someone cross the zebra crossing, but they must be draconian. Really EVERYONE brakes, puts the warning lights on and lets you cross the road – great!!!

Punta Arenas is an amateur radio mecca. There are a lot of people here who do the hobby. However, it feels like every second house has a smaller or larger antenna system on the roof, so it is difficult to identify the real “radio operators”. That's why I wrote to the OMs here to get some insider information.