Day of the Cross Bay Walk

Well, what a day for it! The weather was very bad right up to and during the walk. For this reason Kev and Ian decided to not go out on the tractor, in fact we were not sure the walk would go ahead at one point. For those not familiar with Morecambe Bay conditions out there are very dangerous and there have been deaths on many occasions apart from the walks, hence the need for caution. Here is a report from one of the two stations we set up..GB2GSB at Arnside Knott.

We set off on time as planned for what promised to be an enjoyable day covering the 25th Anniversary of the Galloway's Society for the Blind Cross Bay Walk. We set off in sunshine but looking across the bay we could see this would not last long once we were in Cumbria. It started to rain not long after we arrived at Arnside Knott and changed our original plan of operating from the hillside in favour of an area that afforded us some shelter from the wind and rain. The team today consisted of Frank G8BME, Brian G0RDH and Steve G1TLQ, Gary M0RGB was hoping to join us later. Setting the 80m Dipole antenna up went well, and with the aid of Andrew G0LWU, who later went round to our other station GB4GSB at Kents Bank, things went smoothly after a minor adjustment to the dipole. Considering our location plans had changed we did well in scouting a location for the antenna and planning a safe and methodical way of getting the station on air. Our station consisted of a K2 Tranciever running 100w into an 80m dipole, and a zero noise floor that most amateurs can only dream about. It was a good call to operate from the car because a few bad weather fronts moved in but did not last long. 80m was very quiet considering this was the lighthouse and Lightship weekend and from contacts we made and listening around it soon became evident that overall conditions were poor with many stations suffering with QSB. Most of the stations worked were Lighthouse stations and despite the poor conditions we were able to make contact with stations around the UK. Early afternoon saw a break in the wx and we got to see some spectacular views from Arnside Knott that no other location could afford some of which have been included for you too see. 73 Brian G0RDH