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.

This weekend Dave M0TAZ took part in the 144 MHz trophy contest as well as a few HF stations in the RSGB HF SSB Field day from the Bunker site. He kindly provided this report.

The contest attracts activity from all over Europe, and on Sunday it also coincides with the low power back packer series. The contest has a number of categories from 24 hours to 6 hours. Dave M0TAZ decided to opt for a casual entry on Saturday only, operating for just under 4 Hrs. The contest was very busy, with a lot of high power multi-antenna UK stations with exceptional signals.

Using a Icom IC-7100 with 50w and a 12m mast supporting a 9-element tonna, Dave was able to work 41 stations.

Some DX highlights for the day was

DL0GTH in JN50 @741 KM.
DA0FF in JN40 @ 688 KM
DL0GM in JO31 @520 KM

You can view the claimed scores here: http://www.rsgbcc.org/cgi-bin/claim.pl?Contest=144MHz%20Trophy&year=2014

On Sunday, Dave decided to work a few HF stations, the RSGB SSB Field day continued
until 2PM local, so set up a simple station using 100w from the Icom into a doublet antenna 20m per leg fed with 300 Ohm ribbon cable.

With the able assistance of Fred G3SVK we worked 35 stations quickly before getting sidetracked by some JA stations calling on 21 MHz.

After a few calls I was able to work:

JA7NVF
JA1OGI
JM1PLN

I also operated on 5 MHz and was able to work Mal G3KEV/p in Scarborough and Peter G4LNA in Hertfordshire.

A map showing the QSO completed on 144 MHz is available here:  https://maps.google.com/maps?q=http://www.rsgbcc.org/vhf/kml_files/2014/ONatUP7C7ck9GURxR8dAElXIfGezADV

Dave M0TAZ

Members of the contest group took to the air this weekend operating for the 2014 VHF national field day.  Members activated 4 bands, 6 metres, 4 metres, 2 metres and 70 centimetres.

Two masts were used.  Pictured below are the 6 metre and 2 metre antennas on the SCAM 12 metre mast.
During the 24 hours of activity, starting 2pm UTC on Saturday, we managed to rack up 20 QSOs on 50 MHz, 53 QSOs on 70 MHz, 76 QSOs on 144 MHz and 24 QSOs on 432 MHz (173 QSOs total). Maps of the QSOs made are shown below for the 4 bands.

50 MHz

70 MHz

144 MHz

432 MHz

Members of the contest group took to the air this weekend operating for the 2014 50 MHz Trophy Cup.  Equipment was an Icom IC-7700 transceiver, 6-element 6 metre beam and 12 metre SCAM pneumatic mast.

50 MHz 6-element beam

During the 24 hours of activity, starting 2pm UTC on Saturday, we managed to rack up around 150 QSOs in conditions which where a little above average.  Best DX was a tie between EA8 and IZ1 both very close to 3000 km.  Splashes of sporadic-E were noticed, but these patches where few and far between (hence sporadic!).

Map of QSOs: