This weekend saw an activation by the contest group for the RSGB IOTA Contest.  Members used the club callsign for the weekend event.

The Saturday was a good day, with a visit from RSGB Regional Rep Steve M1ACB, who declared our burgers and BBQ to be of suitable standard.

However, on the Sunday, following a day of heavy rain, the field was flooded and members were keen to head home for a rest!

Below, a map of the QSOs made. A full breakdown of the log can be seen here, for those interested.  476 QSOs were made as part of a casual entry.

On Sunday 5th October 2014 a few of us got together at the bunker for a bit of casual operating.  Several overlapping contests (Oceanic DX and RSGB 21/28 MHz) had lead to some activity on the higher bands, so we decided to see what was around, just collecting some DX. The standard invite went out to the local clubs and to usual individuals by text message.  Dave M0YOL, Chris G8OCV and George M1GEO formed the core of the ops, but given it was short notice we didn’t expect hoards.

Conditions on the lower bands seemed poor, with 40 meters being a real struggle to keep regular QSOs.  The IC7000 auto-caller was greatly appreciated.  We set up station inside the back of my car, since this gives some shelter from the wind (and generator noise) as well as the boot hood protecting from rain (we didn’t need it).  The picture below shows the setup, as well as the reflection of the mast in the laptop screen (and M1GEO).

During operation, we noticed that the antenna wasn’t performing as well as usual, and so we set off to investigate the problem.  We found a break in the home-brew 3-inch ladder line which runs from the balun on the compound wall to the centre at the top of the mast.  However, in the process of finding the problem, the amp had been powered into the unloaded balun and so the balun had become very hot dissipating the power from the amplifier – this in turn had melted the insulation on some wire (homebrew with plastic insulation and not PTFE or Teflon), and some shorts had arisen.  Fortunately we had a connector block and a spare balun in the kit box, so were able to quickly address the problems.  The QRO balun will be reinstalled once rebuilt (Chris G8OCV has ordered PTFE/Teflon wire at 12AWG, so 2.4mm diameter, 88A rated).

All in all, around 40 QSOs were made.

Dave M0TAZ expressed an interest in early September to take part in the 70 MHz Practical Wireless contest on the 28th of September.  A few emails here and there to rally the troops and come the 28th we had a ready gang of radio amateurs.

By the time George M1GEO and Chris G8OCV arrived, Arentas 2E0WUF, Peter G0IAP and Dave M0TAZ were in the process of setting up.

Here, Dave M0TAZ operates the 4 metres station using his homebrew 6 element Yagi and Icom IC7100.

While Dave M0TAZ was operating on 70 MHz, George M1GEO, Chris G8OCV and Peter G0IAP did some operating on 40 metres, and worked 81 stations during the operation on Sunday afternoon.  The station was pretty al fresco, with the radio stacked on some boxes and the operators chair being an old toolbox.