On Sunday May 22nd, Tony G4LDL, Andy G0UWS and Steve M0AKT, and later assisted by Phil M0PBZ and Graham M3XIR, set up the SDARC caravan on a windy hill near Liddington to run the 2m Contest. Using the club callsign, G8SRC/P, activity was brisk and at times, quite busy, rather like an 80m HF contest. No doubt the excellent location helped as we received favourable reports from all directions using just 100w and a rotatable 5-element Yagi antenna with gamma match. This was one of the first occasions that we used our own Kenwood TS2000S transceiver. After some initial challenges with the very high winds, we were away. The 25 foot winch-up tower was kindly provided by Andy G0UWS.
Operators on the day were contest stalwarts Tony G4LDL, Andy G0UWS and Steve M0AKT. Phil M0PBZ and Graham M3XIR assisted with the rigging and technical set-up. Band conditions were variable, with some occasional tropospheric propagation. We logged 84 QSOs in all, in 44 postcodes and 7 DXCC entities. With multipliers our score reached 613938.
So despite the windy conditions, all in all, we had a successful day and it provided some useful experience for the forthcoming VHF National Field Day event in July. For those interested in the contest side of Amateur Radio, the club has its own amply sized caravan, with awning, which allows us to operate in all weathers, in comfort. If you’re a lapsed Amateur thinking about returning to the hobby, or if you’re interested in finding out more about contesting or about Amateur Radio in general, please contact the Membership Secretary, Phil M0PBZ at m0pbz(at)sdarc.net.
Well done to all !
Claimed scores can be seen by visiting http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/claim.pl?Contest=144MHz%20May%20Contest&year=2011
The 144 MHZ trophy results are out and I have the greatest pleasure in telling you the club entry was 2nd out of 16 entries in our section.
