Monthly Archives: July 2016

RSGB IOTA contest

Members of the SNB Contest Group came together to play some radio in the RSGB IOTA Contest. Some stations make the trek to far flung Islands in exotic parts of the world, we opted for the contest site close to Kelvedon Hatch in Essex.

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The SNB contest site has the added bonus of a 50m onsite mast, making an ideal platform to hang dipoles. George M1GEO and myself decided to operate or respective calls from the two radio setup, using 3.5, 14, 21 and 28 MHz. George also added his 50/70 MHz beam on the mast, and this provided some interesting contacts using MS and JT65.

With the able assistance of Dave G7UVW, Chris G8OCV, Peter G0IAP we soon had the antenna ready.

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Two pump up masts provided the following setup.

Clark 12m: Tri-band Beam A-3S covering 14, 21 and 28 MHz, with a 50/70 MHz beam.

Clark 10m : 15m 4e homebrew monobander.

Bunker: 3.5 MHz dipole at 30m centre

At various times we added some RF power from either the solid state Expert 1.3KFA or the HAL1200_Atlantic amplifier. We had some interaction between the close sited antennas, and at times this dictated the operating modes/times.

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Fred G3SVK provided joined us as our CW operator, Fred can often be found in the lower pasts of the bands chasing big DX.

No sign of the great man this weekend, but, we live in hope.

70 MHz Trophy Contest and CW QRP HF

George M1GEO and Dave M0TAZ took part in the RSGB 70 MHz trophy contest this weekend at the Kelvedon hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker contest site. The weather was ideal for alfresco operating, using the Icom IC-7100 and homebrew 6e beam at 10m on the Racal PU12 mast. Using 50W and a 85Ah leisure battery we operated from 11am till 4 am.

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Here you can see the PU12 and home-brew 6e 70 MHz beam. Operating from the base of the mast provided quick access to turn the beam. We managed to work 59 QSO with best DX into Scotland at 518 KM. The QSO map is shown here.

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Meanwhile Rob M0VFC was operating QRP HF on 3.5, 7 and 14 MHz using a range of dipoles. Unfortunately the HF bands have been a challenge at the best of times during the day, and QRP provided to be interesting. After a few hrs operating Rob had completed 30 QSO, and under the conditions that counts as a sterling effort! Here you can see Rob operating from the boot of his car. No appearance from the great man.

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Altogether another great weekend of alfresco operating in the sunshine.