M5C & M1CRO/P ::
RSGB
144/432, March 2007
Why do we do it ? A contest, under canvas, in March!
This is the first contest of 2007 that the CCG take part in.
Last year, in this contest, operating from Walton on the Naze
we won both bands so we have a tradition to upkeep.
...more
144/432, 2007 - continued
On the Friday night before the contest, it rained from dusk till dawn,
which ensured that the field would be particularly wet. This
was an important factor later.
During construction of the masts, aerials and tent, the
weather was kind and actually, for March, it really was rather
pleasant. We spent the time between 9am and 2pm on Saturday
assembling two 30ft towers, four 2m beams and four 70cms beams,
erecting the tent and cabling the system together.
At 14.00, it was time for the first qso but we weren’t really ready.
The 2m station started a few minutes late and 70cms was somewhat later.
After the two primary stations were put on the air, a secondary
array was assembled for 2m, giving us the option for quick
switching between the UK and the Continent. This is a valuable
time-saver for those who call off our backside.
The new short club callsign of M5C was given a thorough airing
on the 2m station. A few of our qso partners tried very hard
indeed to extract another letter (or two), having failed to
get to grips with the novelty of just three characters.
M1CRO/P was aired on 70cms, because time had not permitted
the earlier recording of CQ calls with the short call. We
rely quite heavily on a contest 'Voice Keyer' for endless calls
during quiet periods.
Saturday evening was livened up by a thunderstorm passing a
mile away over the town. Call me a coward if you like, but
sitting in a field wearing headphones, next to a metal mast,
in a thunderstorm, does not seem sensible. The storm passed
away in time for an unimpeded view of the lunar eclipse.
Sunday passed a little slower, with the qso rate dropping
(we’d worked all the loud ones), and a light breeze developed
into a stronger wind. Just before the contest finished, it
began to rain, lightly at first but later on it became less
light. All the equipment, ourselves and the field got saturated.
It took four hours to pack all the gear away and another
hour to drive a few hundred netres off the field, because
someone got stuck on the greasy grass and had to be towed
out by Tower Security's 4x4 .
What did we achieve? The preliminary statistics show some
340 qso’s on 2m, and about 160 on 70cms. These are a little
down on last years numbers, but not worryingly so. For readers
familiar with the Locator Square system, we had contacts on
2m in 55 squares and the Country tally included Sweden and
Czechoslovakia. A Polish station was also heard but too weak
to work. German contacts outnumbered G stations by a ratio
of almost 3 to 1. On 70cms the best DX was also into Sweden
and the top ten qso’s were all over 650km. Who says VHF is
“line of sight”?
Nothing broke, exploded, caught fire or expired during the
24 hours of operation. The generator, a 10kVA silenced diesel
unit hired from HSS was faultless, which was in stark contrast
to a total heap which we hired from Speedy late last year.
Many thanks to all those who took part and provided support
for the contest team.
CCG 16 Mar 2007
