SDARC participates in the major HF/VHF/UHF/SUHF annual competitions when
a trusty band of fellows gather together at Barbury Castle, Wiltshire, or a
nice damp field on the outskirts of Swindon, to erect a huge amount of aluminium
and wire, play with lethal DC and RF voltages, holler into a microphone, eat
dubious food, and often get very wet!
Oh, yes. And they all enjoy it. Many people say they don't like contests because it's all '59 - thanks'. Unfortunately they're missing out on the fact that partcipating in a national/international contest is a huge logistical and technological undertaking. Apart from the pre-contest detailed planning, here's some of the skills required for example for the VHF NFD:
Getting a huge amount of equipment to the site, including up to three 60' towers and large diesel generator
Correct and safe siting of above
Assembly of antennae, correct stacking on towers, correct connection of
rotators, RF cables and connectors and pre-amps, and testing everything:
twice
Winding the towers up (have you ever done that? phew!)
Erection of large ex-army tent and securing
Setting up safe electrical connections for rigs, lighting, computers etc.
Plus of course a robust connection to the genny
Setting up the rigs themselves and testing
Setting up and tuning linear amplifiers
Setting up the food area. Cooking, making drinks, cleaning (yuk...)
Erecting own tents for overnight stayers
Oh yes, and operating professionally of course - that's
all that 59 stuff. Handling pile-ups, keeping the frequency while scanning
round to 'pounce', keeping your patience, using your knowledge of propagation,
geography, the rig itself, weather. Should I go on?