EXTENSION TO THE PORT OF VALENCIA

As part of the ongoing expansion of the port of Valencia, one of the biggest in the Mediterranean, a new plan was approved several years ago to make a major new expansion to the north. During last year, the basic work to make the new harbour walls was finished, and the aerial view of the port now looks like this:

The snaking L to the top right of the photo, plus the smaller wall that sticks into the middle of it, are the main parts of the extension.

I went to visit last summer, with the hope of being able to drive along the new north wall and try out this almost unique salt water location with my mobile. My current location, in the Marina Juan Carlos 1, is good, but a bit close to the coast for anything west. This is especially true for the low bands, where the "far field" needed to obtain a low pseudo-brewster angle should be ideally 100 wavelengths. At the marina, I only get close to this on 10 metres.

However, it wasn't to be. The area was still under construction and under no circumstance would they let me in. It's understandable, although I was a bit disappointed.

Fast forward 9 months to today, when I decided to go and have a look and see how things were progressing.

It was obvious, driving along past the TCV container terminal, that I was still not going to be able to go along the north part. It seems that somehow, and in spite of the economic gloom, there is money to build the new cruise terminal, a rapidly booming business here. Lots of heavy works machinery and lots of security in what is already a restricted area. So I headed along to the south part to see what was what. And lo and behold the gate was open! I drove in up to the end where a workman was getting ready for lunch. I parked up and stuck the antenna on:

This is looking over to the north wall. Conditions weren't great, but I managed to rustle up a few europeans and a stateside station on 15. And after chatting to a local, got a call right back from a JA0 near Tokyo, giving me a 59 signal report.

Here you can see the earthworks in the cruise terminal, and the city and mountains in the background:

Unfortunately I didn't have much time but before leaving, I took this shot which shows the narrow strip that basically means the car was in the middle of the sea!:

Maybe time to petition the Port Authority for a key to the gate? Watch this space!