2000 contest and special event page

Take a look at the score page

VHF NFD - Well we were active on 50 MHz 70mhz 144mhz & 432mhz. No major problems this year with all equipment and antennas running like a dream and as for the generator, simply brilliant!

On 50mhz there was some sporadic E, 70mhz & 432mhz fairly quiet as usual, 70mhz being especially difficult as we were suffering with strong qrm from European Broadcast stations! on 144mhz we worked some nice sporadic E on Saturday evening and Sunday dinnertime.

A big thanks goes to all operators, loggers and the tea lady !

Thanks to all who came to visit and give some morel support when times were low.

Lighthouse / Lightship Activity Weekend 19/20 August 2000 - Well for those that made the effort to come and visit us I think they enjoyed it. The usual team of Myself M0CKE, Steve M0CKI, Andy M0CHK and Mel M1MEL were on site most of the time with Len G4ODH, Alan M0DUQ, Peter G4NJJ, Ted M0BRM & Bob G0FHM visiting for a while over both days, Thanks Guys!
We also had the usual interest from passers by saying "What's all this for then .. can you talk to Mars?".
I stayed overnight to keep an eye on the equipment and I never realized how quiet the place was until I was on my own, I could hear grass hoppers at 50 paces!

I thoroughly enjoyed my time on the microphone, we seemed to have constant pileups, what fun. 40m and 20m being the main bands, 15m was fairly quiet and 10m yielding some nice DX.
We were using a TS570DGE with a Heil Pro HC5 Headset, were getting nice audio reports once we solved the RF getting into the headset leads problem, antennas consisted of the following:

Saturday (Quite Windy) 20M rotary dipole fed with a mast mounted SGC SG230 Smart tuner, a half wave end fed wire for 80m in inverted v config also fed via a SGC SG230 & the trusty A99 vertical for 10M.

Sunday (Nice and calm) 40M rotary dipole fed with a mast mounted SGC SG230 Smart tuner, a half wave end fed wire for 80m in inverted v config also fed via a SGC SG230 & the trusty A99 vertical for 10M.

If you would like to see the log in MS Excel format             View Online   or   Download it

Pictures from the weekend

Click to see full size pictures

Sunrise on the site. 20m Dipole	Sunrise on the site. 20m Dipole	The mobile shack ready to tow with new graphics by Kwik Signs
The rear of the mobile shack showing the web URL	The awesome 40m rotary dipole fed with SGC SG230	Gives a sense of size, Steve M0CKI and young Jack Balls

       

HF NFD 2000 - We performed the best this year I think we have ever done, not saying too much be we far exceeded last years score, Fingers crossed eh?

We had loads of fun although the weather was not ideal, cold wet and windy, we also had o few minor prob.'s at the start, we lost around 15 minutes to a flapping SGC230!

Food and liquids consumed were good, thanks goes to all who attended the site, members or non members and anyone who was involved in the buildup to the weekend but couldn't attend.

Pictures from the event are here

 

21 / 28 Mhz RSGB - Again we have scored the best we have ever done, the bands didn't seem in good shape but 15M kept on supplying some nice multipliers and the majority of the contacts, 10M didn't go well at all but it was better than previous years.

I think we all enjoyed it again, thanks to all who could attend and all who visited!

RSGB Club Calls - Well the weather was quite bad, infact I think there was around 2" of standing water on the land we were on, we got set up before the large storm but we didn't dare go back onto the field with 2wd cars. The 160m inverted v 1/2 wave was up at 50' this year using the same Kenwood TS570DGE and Heil Pro Headset.
The contest didn't seem as popular this year, with contacts and points down on last year, Maybe it's all the strong winds and flooding we have had of late, we will just have to wait and see what others made of it.

Thanks to all that came out in the bad weather to help set up, operate and pack away.

Well that's it for this year, see you all on the VHF/UHF next year!

The WAREC Contest Team!