New Website Now Live!

Our new home website is now up and running. The new site runs on a linux server and wordpress. There are several new features, including a forum, and it should be much more user friendly! Bear in mind it is still early days and we hope to add and improve content as time progresses. Thanks to Ian for all his hard work over the last few days in getting everything transferred to the new server.

A few Visitors

We had a few visitors come to see us at our weekly meeting last night. Martin GD3YUM dropped in to spend a very pleasant few hours with us. It was a committee meeting that went very smoothly, thinking ahead to HF Field Day and the Jura trip which is only a few weeks away. Martin stayed over with Ian and Linda before making his way back to the Isle of Man today.

IOTA 2008 Sunday...

Just a few photographs of some members of Sands who operated the IOTA station over the weekend.....

Kev managed the best contact of the contest with a good report into VK7 using 40m and our simple dipole from the Elecraft K3!

Frank G8BME can be seen using the multiplier station which used the Yaesu FT1000D.

Gary M0RGB running with a frequency on 15m!

A rare photo of Hughie G4UME actually caught on camera doing a bit of contesting...

Paul G4TUZ did good work on the night shift and had a good run on 20m in the early hours...

That is it for another year! We managed to beat our score for 2007, which is all that matters. All equipment performed very well apart from a small problem with the balun on the Spiderbeam which affected 10m slightly. The bands were in fairly good condition all weekend and every band was workable at some point. Thanks to the folk at Sunderland Point who made us very welcome, yet again! Thanks also to everybody who came along to see what we were up to! Its been a wonderful contest and a lovely weekend...see you in IOTA in 2009!

The Story So Far....

It has been a good few hours so far. Conditions on the higher bands seem to be improving as we go into the evening. Kev G6FKE is at the moment running on a frequency on 15 meters with great success! Band noise has also dropped considerably which is usually a good sign. The rest of us are now going to have something to eat and get ready for the evening stint! By the way, the weather has been absolutely glorious, one of the hottest days so far up here in the North West of England, the forecast is also good for tomorrow....

Setting Up IOTA 2008

We spent yesterday evening setting up for the weekend's IOTA contest. Sands are down at Sunderland Point again for 2008. The weather was a little on the changeable side but we managed to get the majority of the dipoles in place.


This morning we will put up the Spiderbeam and set up the rest of the main station. Below you can see Faris M6FAZ setting up our network that we will use during the contest.


The weather so far looks good for the rest of the weekend and it is a beautiful morning to be down by the side of the River Lune. It promises to be another good weekend!

A Few More Photographs!

Thanks Barrie for sending on a few more photos of the weekend. Everything is finally packed down until the weekend after next when it all starts again.......

Good Results!

Happy to report that we smashed last year's points total. The contest has been a great success, helped by wonderful weather and great hospitality! It was the first outing for the Elecraft K3 and it has performed flawlessly, showing what a great contest radio it is. Conditions have been reasonable, although the lower bands could have been better for us, the low noise floor helped considerably. Everyone has had a chance to do some operating and Jay certainly enjoyed his weekend on the key. Next is IOTA in two weeks time so we barely have time to breathe before setting the stations up again...lets hope the weather is as kind down at Sunderland Point!

Saturday Evening

Just a few pics of the terrific food we all shared on the saturday evening. Thanks to Kathy and Barrie for the ginger and Rhubarb crumble...

IARU 2008

At the moment we are heavily involved with this years IARU contest. A new location for us this year at the home of G1JYB Barrie. The location is fantastic with no noise floor to contend with. We had a few teething problems with one of the laptops and the Spiderbeam assembly so we started about an hour late, hope to make this up in the next few hours. Nice to see so many guests yesterday, including Jay M/LY4Y who did a bit of CW for us!

Good Luck!

Tomorrow night Kev and Ian's students will be taking their radio exams. Good luck to Faris, who will take his Foundation exam and to Matt, Mike and Sam who will be taking the Intermediate. Anyone who is interested in any of the three levels of the examinations and wants to be tutored can contact Kev G6FKE, his contact details are available on the RSGB website and on QRZ.Com. Potential students must be willing to travel to Morecambe, Lancashire.


Just to add that all four students passed with flying colours...congratulations!