M6HLR, Lauren operating whilst dad G0PEK, Kevin logs.
G3WM/P at Hopehill Scout Campsite. 4x3Ele, fixed array in foreground, behind operating tent 2x9Ele LFA Yagi.
I arrived a the campsite car park to see Ian, 2E0IJH, unpacking his car & in the distance the trailer tent adorned with poles & antennas slowly making its way across the field being towed by a mini tractor. Hopehill had suffered a major thunderstorm & massive rainfall overnight making conditions underfoot very damp, not at all suitable for cars to drive across the camping field. It is amazing that so high on a hill that some of the ground can still become so sodden. That said our pitch was firm, puddle free & by lunchtime was dry underfoot.
We are starting to get established at Hopehill Scout Campsite now, having a pitch on the highest point of the camp on a relatively flat piece of ground, sheltered by trees & it has good facilities.
Once the trailer tent had been positioned the camp warden on his tractor reappeared this time towing a trailer, the contents of our cars were decanted into this trailer & we walked behind it grateful we didn’t have to man-haul the kit by ourselves.
However whilst previously we’ve had most of the field containing our pitch to ourselves, on arrival this time we found most of the field was very well occupied by a District Family Camp, lots of tents & loads of people, so we slipped a little further along our pitch in order to distance the generator & find a deeper gap in the hedge to muffle its noise from our neighbours.
We set to work, as unusual trailer tent first after relocating the generator that Ian had positioned the previous evening in our usual spot, thankfully it’s on its own mini trailer. The next task was putting up the 20’ pole mast, which with the 10’ stub mast over the rotator hosts the two long LFA Yagi’s.
It was here that we hit the first problem of the weekend. The rotator didn’t rotate! After a bit of fault finding no immediate solution could be found, so it was swapped out for the second rotator, which thankfully worked perfectly. When that was up & together we got the station ready to transmit, as there was only half an hour to go before contest starting. The second problem then reared its head. The logging computer was found to have a broken screen, luckily I had, on a last minute whim packed my netbook computer with my kit & it had Minos installed, so no delay. (Ian later popped home to pick up a spare laptop & the data was transferred at the end of the contest.)
It was at this point that the Richardson’s joined us. Kevin, G0PEK & his daughter, Lauren, M6HLR, they had popped by just to say hello. We put together the second pole mast for the new stack of four three element LFA Yagi’s that Ian had built. This would have to be a fixed array, as it didn’t now have a rotator.
Lauren & I left Ian & Kevin to complete the array as start time had come. I jumped in the operator chair & Lauren in the loggist seat & off we went. Steadily moving up & down the band picking off the strong & local stations whilst at the same time getting used to the new experience of having two receivers, the audio of the transceiver appearing in the right ear of the headphones & the second receiver in the left. However before we could really get used to it or make use of it properly the third problem of the weekend occurred the receiver stopped talking to the transceiver so we couldn’t make use of the extra receiver to net the transceiver onto a found station. It was abandoned to sort out later, as we wanted to keep making contacts.
Soon Kevin & Ian appeared at the operating position clutching a feeder ready to plug into the second linear. A short pause, quick check & we were now able to transmit 200w into each array, 400w total output, the four three element array was left pointing North West up the spine of the UK & the pair of nine elements were rotated to peak up for best reception. Kevin & Lauren were then left to operate for as long as they wished, as we two Ian’s would be operating late into the evening & all Sunday.
The Richardson’s did really well operating for quite a time (they were enjoying themselves) staying far longer than they originally intended, only Laurens need for pizza ended their session. Thanks for the help.
When they had left we noted that we were making a string of contacts to the East into Europe, so the 4×3 was swung around to the East to maximise our transmitted power in that direction. We made a steady number of contacts with some good DX contacts often at good signal strengths. The only one that we can say that got away was a HB9, Swiss, station, who heard us but was the victim of QSB & QRM, he failed to pursue our contact, as he wanted to keep his contact rate up, annoying as he would have been our best DX.
We decided that it was time to start calling rather than hunting & after a few calls we noted that the CQ parrot was not driving the amplifiers. So another pause to fault find, again unsuccessful, so the parrot was taken out of line & the microphone relinked directly back into the rig.
Back on the air, so we thought, we noted an increased noise in the headphones when transmitting, a burbling rumble, an earth loop, or other stray connection when we rewired the microphone? Then we had reports of poor audio, so again another fault-finding session, which again proved unsuccessful. Dead rig. So, out came the Yaesu FT897ND again. It is no ‘contest radio’ but we were able to run it through one of the linear amplifiers into the pair of long Yagi’s so we remained on the air with 200w output but without the benefit of the masthead pre-amp.
We carried on until just after midnight when the contact rate really started to taper off & we couldn’t hear anyone we hadn’t already worked. We decided to call it a night & after a drink turn in for a few hours, to be fresh for the ‘Worked All Britain’, the ‘Backpackers’ & the ‘six hour limit’ stations that would join the contest in the morning. Just as we had boiled the kettle we had a ‘verbal’ knock on the tent door. It was one of the family campers asking if we were going to run the genset all night long, he was very pleased when we told him it was just about to be switched off.
However, I’m not sure how pleased he was when it was fired up again just before 7am when we started up again for the final session. A slow but steady start, but as the morning advanced more & more new stations were found or found us when we called CQ. Note to self, must get the parrot microphone for my Yaesu rigs working, they really save the voice when calling CQ!
It is quite disheartening to hear the ‘big guns’ quoting serial numbers into the multi hundreds when we only managed to put one hundred claimed contacts in the log. But then when looking at the claimed scores submitted so far by stations similar to ours, we have done reasonably well. Every contest we learn something new, every failure teaches a new lesson. I’m sure Ian & I will discuss further the kit we use & how we operate, we will improve & fine tune things, with a bit of luck we will climb the table with increased scores.
The end of the contest we were again joined by Kevin, G0PEK, who helped us break down the station & pack everything away after he had completed his session in the Backpackers contest from a location further along the hill. A look at Kevin’s Facebook page will reveal his minimalist contest station that is carried in a small rucksack.
So that is it for ‘Field’ contesting for this year. Ian & I will be discussing strategy over the winter making plans for next year. Potentially we may relocate again closer to Thanet, which may tempt a few more G0HRS members to come out & join us contesting in the field.
Oh, Ian cooks a mean bacon bap for breakfast & the burgers are always excellent so even if you don’t want to play radio its worth it for the food – if you tell us in advance you are coming!
73.
Ian, G0PDZ.