Activity Night 2 of 4 – Barbury Castle 2016

Activity Night 2 of 4 – Barbury Castle 2016

80m doubletAnother activity night spent at Barbury Castle led to a number of contacts on various bands.

About eleven members attended week two of our Barbury Castle gatherings:-

Andrew M1CJE; Paul M0PMV; Mike G4HGV; Mike M5CBS; Jonathan M0ZGB; Mark M0MTA; Tony G4LDL; Ken G1NCG; Roy G4VWG; Phil M6FVJ; Phil M0PBZ

Stations active were :-

  • Roy G4VWG, on 40m running the Icom 7300 into a long wire
  • Mark M0MTA on 20m running the FT991 into the ATAS 120a
  • Johnathan M0ZGB on 17m running the FT 817 into an inverted-V dipole
  • Phil M0PBZ on 80m running the FT 897 into an 127 foot long inverted-V doublet – centre at 26 feet, fed with 16m of 300 window ladder.

17 metres was open and Johnathan M0ZGB was able to work Israel – the best DX of the night, but others were less successful.

Roy G4VWG found 40m noisy was busy with a German contest and there was very little inter-G activity.

Phil M0PBZ, using SSB for a change, was calling exhaustively on 80m to no avail despite hearing several UK nets and rag chews. This was rather disappointing considering the size of the antenna, which took the assistance of Mike G4HGV, Mike M5CBS and Roy G4VWG to erect on account of the stays blowing about. Eventually club chairman James M1DST operating /P, responded from high on the Mendip Hills. With flagging batteries, Phil turned to the key and worked John G3NCN over in Bracknell who reported his signal as 599 plus.

Tony brought along the Electraft KX3, and despite having virtually no antenna, was receiving CW quite happily !! Excellent Rig with excellent filters for CW work.

James, M1DST was away on holiday on the Mendip Hills (IO81PH) near Cheddar Gorge and was using a KX3 and a LiPo battery with 10w RF into a dipole at 8m using a small fibreglass pole.