ARRL DX Contest Saturday's Report!

Just a few of our group operating G1T in the ARRL DX Contest on Saturday

Hi All,

Here's some pics I took on Saturday.... Kev and I worked 70+ overnight on topband, 40 and 80m contacts were hard won during the day, when I left they had not much over the 230 mark but everything that could be worked was worked. It was nice to have so many of our members able to find time to take part.

Barrie, Kathy and Stephany did their magic in the kitchen and provided a main meal with a Mexican theme and a lovely sweet in the form of an Raspberry and Cream Pavlova. I left around 9:15 with Ian Kev and Damien providing cover for the graveyard shift which I believe was very busy indeed!

Best 73
Brian

Steady Progress

Not the busiest Field Day ever but we are making steady progress on 20/40/80m. It was a long stint during the night and Andrew has just arrived in time for a bacon and sausage sandwich ( he always knows when there is food about) Thanks again to Barrie, Kathy and Steph for feeding the troops on Saturday evening, wonderful food as always. We now have until 2pm local time to get the points collected and hopefully get packed down before the rain arrives.

Setting Up for Field Day

Usual weather, of course, for this year's RSGB Field Day. It is raining and quite windy but no where near as bad as some of the previous years. Setting up is nearly complete and we have about 15 minutes to go the the start of the contest. Everyone is in high spirits and looking forward to the weekend ahead.

Field Day Dawns

Yet again, with the autumn definitely showing its teeth weather wise, it is SSB Field Day this coming weekend. This year Sands have decided to enter the restricted section and work with a simple dipole and 100 watts only, to be fair we cannot hope to compete with some of the bigger stations out there. It will just be nice to fire up the generator and enjoy the weekend without worrying about winning any prizes. Lets hope that the event is not cursed with the usual bad weather and we see some sun.

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.

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...

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.

Last Night's 80m Club Calls

Tonight was the penultimate contest of the RSGB 80m CC SSB section, an interesting contest with mixed conditions but non the less very enjoyable... A small hiccup at this end made for a slightly late start, but it was not long before we were mixing it with the best, although getting no where near the three figure scores of some of the stations.

It was nice to have Mark M0DGK join me for the contest and we worked things nicely between us running 100w from the FT-1000 into my trap dipole. The Heil headsets worked a dream as always and we received many compliments on our audio through the night, a point that pleased Mark immensely not to mention yours truely neither of us have powerful radio voices..... It was almost like being on Jura again!

However we were not the only group members taking part..... Ian G0VGS operated his K3 to perfection along with Kev G6FKE and our paths crossed a few times as we tuned through the band allocation. Full kudos to Ian's station in holding the higher score of the night.

G0VGS 73
M0SCG 64

Just 9 points in it. Never since the contest that shall remain nameless have we been so close. And the great thing is there are no losers because any group stations that work the contest have their scores added together towards the final overall score for Sands Contest Group, the point being were a team. The more group stations who take part the more overall points are gained..... The final contest in this competition takes place on Wednesday 15th July..... unless corrected, I think you can go out and enjoy the summer evening operating /p..... give it a go, it honestly is good fun.

73
Brian G0RDH

Last Night's Contest

Mark was just one of our members spending May Bank Holiday Monday taking part in the Club Championship 80M Contest. It was the SSB leg last night. Both Mark and Brian found it easier to "search and pounce" rather than hold a run frequency. Conditions were fairly good and plenty of stations were taking part.

And So To Bed!

Sunny Sunday

A beautiful day in North Yorkshire for a change! All is working well and we have also managed to put up an antenna for 15m as the band opened fairly early on Saturday. We have had some super contacts so far and everybody is enjoying themselves, whether it's operating the station or just enjoying the company.....

The 40m Vertical Rocks!

What a night! Already worked several Australian stations, Greenland , Iceland and other exotic DX. We can safely say that the 40m vertical works very well indeed! Kev and Brian are now off to bed and are letting the morning shift take over.....

Windy....Must Be Contest Time!

No it's not Time Team!!

The CQ WW WPX contest is this weekend and guess what? Its blowing a gale again! We are up at the contest site erecting some verticals for the weekend. The plan is to put up separate verticals for 20/40/80 meters. For once this will not be a serious contest for us but more a time for experimentation with antennas and a chance for our newer members to get used to taking part in contests. Again this is a long contest of 48 hours with British Summer Time coming into force in the early hours of Sunday morning. On a good note the sun is shining and the forecast is for the wind to abate by Sunday. Barry has promised homemade Chilli Con Carne for the troops on Saturday evening! It feels like its going to be a good weekend whatever happens.....

Abandon Ship!

Last night we were again hit by another storm, driving rain and severe gusts. Both masts and the Spiderbeam again suffered damage. It was at this point we decided it was time to abandon the contest and go home to our warm beds. The contest has been hard work and its a shame that a lot of work was put into the set up of the station by our members. These things, unfortunately, happen! Today we will assess the damage but it looks as if its going to be quite expensive to replace the parts for both masts. At least we have a local radio rally coming up in the next few months which will help raise our funds.