Just a Few Photographs

Just some of the Amateurs that operated at G1T in the IOTA contest over the weekend.

Just Waiting for the Tide

At the moment we are all packed down and ready to make our way home, only problem is we cannot go anywhere until the tide is low enough to allow the cars to get through, at least the rain has stopped. The contest has been great and we have smashed last year's score and the amount of stations worked, this was greatly helped by having the 'run' frequency on 20M for several hours. Everybody has enjoyed themselves and we thank the residents once again for putting up with us for yet another year.

Sunday Morning.

What a change in the weather this morning. It is pouring down and getting quite windy, still, we are warm and dry in the Reading Room here at our location. It has been a steady night on the bands, mostly covering 80M until greyline approached with the dawn. Brian and Kev worked through the night and added steadily to the score. At the moment we are down on last years rate of contacts but we have many more points with using the multipliers to great success! We will probably concentrate on 20M and above until the end of IOTA at 12:00GMT and allow some of the dipoles to be dismantled ready for the departing tide later in the afternoon.

Seven Hours In

It has been a very busy few hours so far. We initially had trouble with high SWR on the Spiderbeam but we managed to solve the problem and get on with the contest. Very busy on the bands and conditions are reasonable. Again we have worked our first CW in IOTA and managed contacts in Japan and Australia.
The weather has been very kind to us and we have had a lot of visitors down to see us. As usual Kev has treated the gang to his famous Corned Beef Hash which will keep us going until sausage and bacon for breakfast in the morning.

Tidal Bore!

The tidal bore at Sunderland point, quite an impressive sight.....

Nice Day For It!

Just putting up the beam ready for the start of the contest in a couple of hour's time. Weather is sunny and warm, it really is a lovely day down at Sunderland Point. The tide is now coming in and we will be, in effect, an island for the next few hours, one of the reasons we do this particular contest from this location...

IOTA Draws Nearer.

We are now working towards the IOTA contest this coming weekend. We will be down at Sunderland Point yet again for this most exciting of contests. The good news is that Chris M0DWK and Bex 2E0BEX will be coming up for the contest, it will be great to have the gang back together again. Weather reports are not favourable at the moment with unsettled conditions forecast for the entire weekend. We also will have some of the highest tides of the year to cope with. Some of the guy ropes and stakes may end up actually in the water. For anyone wishing to come and see us bear this in mind, it will make access impossible from about 11am to 2pm each day.

Nearing the End

Hughie working SSB

Ian using the Elecraft K3 and Begali key

Just under 30 minutes to go in the IARU contest. It has been a good one for us, although we are slightly down on last year's score at the moment. SSB has been fairly quiet for us with most stations already in the log. Ian and Mike are continuing with CW and that has helped out tremendously. Some of us are now taking down the antennas down for the bands not in use whilst others, especially Kev and Brian on the night shift, take a well earned break.

A Rainy Start!

It has rained all night and been quite windy at the site but everything is still standing. Conditions over night have been fairly good and we have worked SSB and CW through the wee small hours. For Mike (now M0PRL) this has been his first go at CW on a contest and he has managed very well. It may also be his last contest with us for a while as he flies out to the Antartic later this year. Barrie provided us all with a wonderful supper last night and our thanks also to Kathy and Steph for keeping us fed and watered. Time for breakfast now and then back to it!

Setting Up for Tomorrow

Everything is ready for the contest tomorrow....just the shack to put together so another early start!

An Early Start

It'a a lovely morning and it's time to start packing the cars with the gear needed for this weekend's contest. We hope to have everything ready to take part in the IARU contest by the end of the afternoon. The Spiderbeam is now repaired so we will be using that but also run with some verticals as well. The weather forecast for the weekend is, of course, wet and windy. We do seem to be jinxed and it has become a bit of a standing joke amongst us.