Red Rose Rally 2012

Hello Folks,

I thought I would just put a file together on the Red Rose Rally that took place a few weeks ago.

I attended with Damien G0LLG, Hughie G4UME and Mark M0DGK. The Rally was not expensive to get into with a £3 entry fee. and while we were waiting for it to open it was nice to be able to get a hot drink along with Bacon or Sausage bun's from the sports center cafe.  Both early morning food and lunchtime food were very reasonably priced and of excellent quality.

 The rally consisted of two large halls.... The entrance Hall had the RSGB Stand, Bring and Buy, LAM Communications who were the only mainstream amateur shop in attendance TRETRA & DSTAR

This was Hall 2 which had most of the things I was interested in.

It was good to see G0VAP in attendance Ian manages to cover most of the rally's in the northwest and Wales selling high quality components.

Ian is well known in my local area for the quality of construction so whoever ends up buying the K2 and ATU will be sure of a first class build .

For the last 7 years Sands Contest Group have had the pleasure of using the K2 and K3 Transceiver to good effect in the contests thanks to the generosity of our Ian G0VGS.  If you would like to learn more about them go to the Elecraft Website where you can find details of all the equipment made by Elecraft range including the new KX3

 

The KX3 picture was taken from the Elecraft website

http://www.elecraft.com

This series of pictures shows a special morse Telegraph Key made by Hy-mound complete with a nice dust cover

Model HK-802 "Swedish" Presentation Key

I think this is the correct model which came with a unique serial number

The only way of getting one of these keys now is on the secondhand market

For those of you who are interested in radio restoration Francis was in attendance with a selection of WWII Radio's and Amateur related items

The set above is not military, its the Drake MN4 Matching Network. It was also nice to see a couple of rollacoasters  one of them of I last saw used with the TenTec Omni series a steal at £30

 If you would like to learn more about this receiver the link below has plenty of photographs and information 

http://www.radiomuseum.org/r/military_receiver_tcstcs.html

This receiver dates back to 1943

I must commend Paul Bosh for putting information out not only covering model/type of receiver but also an index of who they were made by. Please click on this link for more information.

Continuing with the naval theme here's an Eddystone EA-12

You will know from previous blogs that our DX-Peditions have taken the form of working the Scottish Isle's.... At last years rally we met up with Eileen from BYLARA whilst having lunch and we learned about lighthouses they had worked which was food for thought for some form of future activity  by the group.  We met up with the group again this year to hear about their latest adventures.

Eileen in the left of the photograph with Damien on the right

Hall 1

I have always thought of Tetra as a secure communications link between the police and emergency service radio's however in this case they are Tait and Philips 25w PMR sets available for 4m 70cm and 2m offering an a reasonably priced alternative to the mainstream sets costing a lot more. The sets were also advertised as being ideal set for M3/M6 licensee's with 5w being minimum power output.

For those wanting to get into DSTAR the next stand offered a demonstrations of DSTAR Equipment

A Military Man Pack for sale at the Bring and Buy

 

An R1155 in need of restoration

The Sky Champion by Halicrafters inc. was said to be in working order and offered at a very cheap price.  It had a few scratches to the paint work but there are not many of them around this particular model only had a short production run of around a year before the Sky Champion S was released.  The only other Sky Champion I have seen can be found in the original Station X tower at Bletchley Park

To my knowledge the only change was to replace the alloy dial on the left with a back lit Bakelite dial similar in size to the one in the centre of the radio above.

Well that it from me for this review

All our yesterdays a review of our activities during 2011

Hello Folks,

We have just seen the end of the 2011 activity within Sands Amateur Radio Contest Group so I thought it would be nice to look back at the year and mix of a special event stations and a few words on a Dxpedition a few of our members we have been involved in.  The blog will finish with a few on our hopes and aspirations  for 2012.

You will notice that I have not added any pictures in this blog they are all available via hyperlinks I have added within the text in this blog.

Blogs going back through the years are available to new and old readers by clicking on a hyperlink for individual months that can be found in month order in the righthand column of the blog page.  There you will find all the pictures and blogs for Contests, Special event stations and DX-Pedition's going back through the years.  If your looking for a particular subject then you may find the search option a useful tool.

Special Event Station GB4HCM
In March we were asked by "Heron Corn Mill" to put an amateur radio station on air as part of the "National Science and Engineering Week" which this year was focused on communications.  


We put a series of antenna's up and stations were setup for both SSB and DATA.  and at the last minute I received the news that the schools had expressed a particular interest in Wartime Communications. They were covering WWII as part of their course work.  It was a very worthwhile event which took the children from passing greeting messages on SSB via modern radio's through to Digital communications and finally they learned about Bletchley Park and the Y stations finishing with hands on experience with vintage military morse keys.


Radio Cumbria joined us for the morning of the first day and a number of interviews with the Children and members of the group were broadcast and to our surprise  the interviews were re-transmitted the following day.  If you would like to read the blog and hear the interviews from this event then click on the link below.
http://m0scg.blogspot.com/2011/03/science-week-at-heron-corn-mill.html

The Royal Wedding Prince William and Kate Middleton 
The callsign for this event is GB4HRH
Our next special event found us at Oysterber Farm running two stations one in Hancock's Radio Hut and the other found members braving the elements.  Again this was a fantastic event to be apart of a little heath Robinson invention was called upon for the outside station because the wind would have damaged the parasol we would have liked to use. If you would like to read the blog and see what we got up too please click on the link below
http://m0scg.blogspot.com/2011/04/gb4hrh-special-event.html

The Isle of Tiree Dx-pedition 2011
In late September members of the group were invited to join with our friends in Workington to the Isle of Tiree where a good time was had by all.... Below are couple of a links to the Workington site. they are both well worth viewing
http://www.mx0wrc.org/dxpeditions/tiree-2011/

http://www.mx0wrc.org/2011/10/15m-phased-verticals-used-on-tiree/comment-page-1/#comment-500

So what does 2012 hold in store for Sands Amateur Radio Contest Group? 
We have already got most of the equipment for contesting ready for use and we will be taking part in all the major contests including the RSGBCC monthly contest which are very enjoyable.

There is little doubt that there will be more experimentation done on antenna's and we may have something special to work with in Hancocks Radio Hut if everything works out.

Listen out for the special callsign GB4QDJ in June as we commemorate our Queens Diamond Jubilee and reign on the throne.

As for personal hopes and aspirations, each group member will have their own but one thing we will all have in common is to strive to improve on the skills they have nurtured along a willingness to embrace new skills as we all work together in the field of Amateur Radio.

73
Brian (G0RDH)

Sands Christmas Meal 2011

Hi Folks,
This is a very belated blog, much to my frustration I had a logging fault which has now been sorted out.

Our last event for 2011 was our Christmas meal.  The group went back to Trungs for an oriental banquet that was excellent.  It was good to be able to see the year out with a social group event.  I will just publish some photos from the even and move on to the next blog "All our Yesterdays" A revew of the 2011 contest and special event season.

This picture was taken by Bob G1OCK

 Our network Guru Faris and Martin to his left

Emma on the left & Martin are expecting to hear the patter of tiny feet in a few months time

Paul & Steve

Just before the start of the contest season I introduced an award for the most improved member of the year.  Our group chairman presented the award to Paul M6APB.  I well remember the look of sheer terror on his face way back in March when it was suggested to him that he was the next operator on air after a short time observing how the radio and logging software worked, but he took the mike and squeaked out a very quiet M0SCG.  Since that time he has taken part in "The National Science and Engineering work where he got to grips with PSK31 data communications,  a special event GB4HRH SSB to celebrate the Royal wedding and quite a number of contests including IOTA.  It has been a pleasure to see Paul and others raise their game and improve their basic knowledge, operating procedures and skills.

  The prize was a weather station.

Kathy, Barrie and Stephany were also given gifts in recognition of their generosity throughout the year.  Kathy and Barrie are the owners of Oysterber Farm and allow us to use Hankcocks Hut for our station, the meadow for our antenna farm and an evening meal which is always excellent often cooked by Stephany G1LAT.  Barries gift was a bottle of wine and the ladies were presented with a bouquet of flowers.

                      

                                                           Kathy, Barrie & Stephan

First Course

                                     
It was nice to meet Joe and Claire with their new arrival Oskar who was well behaved throughout the evening and had a smile for everyone.

A firm favorite with most members is the shredded duck and pancakes, Damien Annette are in the forefront of the picture with Bob, Linda, Ian and Joe as you look around the table.

Here are our newlyweds Jenni and Mark..... I will no doubt have a contract and bounty stuck on my head when Jenni sees the picture.

Our chairman Kev with his wife Hazel can be seen here.  They say every picture tells a story and this one is no exception.  This is Kev's second Christmas meal of the day the first being around 4 to 5 hours earlier when he attended his works meal..... despite asking for small portions at his earlier meal his pleas fell on deaf ears...... Kev is just looking at the second course out of a 5 course banquet and he's thinking "you expect me to eat that!"

Linda and Ian

This has to be one of my favorite photo's of Ian as he explains the finer points on a subject with care and enthusiasm.... I have no idea what he was discussing but I have seen this gesture so many times and its a pleasure to be able to catch it on film.

However I do have a word of caution

Taking on a two year stint as chairman of Sand can leave you like this!

No worries the tender loving care of Linda will soon have him back to normal.

All it remains for me to do is wish all our blog readers a very happy and healthy New Year from all at Sands Amateur Radio Contest Group and we look forward to working many of you during 2012
                
73
Brian
(The reluctant contestor)

CQWW October 2011

Hi Folks,
Sorry for this blog being late but I am just getting used to using the iMAC after years of using the windows OS. 


The manager for this event was Damien with myself as sub-manager.  Damien was also our cook for the event with the exception of Saturday night when Barrie and Kathy hosted a meal cooked by Stephany. 


Well here we are at the end of another contest season having just completed the October CQWW contest, and I have to say for the time of year we had excellent conditions in fact I cannot remember a better contest at Oysterber Farm for setting the antenna's up where there was no wind or rain to battle through. 


The weekend started with Damien G0LLG and Paul M6APB setting up their caravan's on site ready for the contest. 


Paul was able to do mixture of setting up the antenna's, work the contest station and spend time with his XYL over the course of the weekend.  Damien's caravan was used by members not on air to have a place to Sleep, Socialise and have a place to go for meals.


We have been fortunate enough to have the use of Pauls trailer to store and transport most of the groups antenna's and masts etc for most of the year, a godsend in many ways because it saved group members the task of loading their cars with the antenna's masts, ropes and stakes. 


The Antenna Team for Friday was: 

Damien G0LLG, Hughie G4UME, Paul 2E0EET, Paul M6APB.  Ian G0VGS arrived later and stayed for the full weekend after setting up the Radio equipment and Logging software. The nest of dipoles was erected for topband 80 & 40m along with verticals phased arrays for 80m & 40m was setup.  

Saturday Morning as group members finished setting up the phased array verticals for the other bands of operation

Operators for the weekend included:

Brian G0RDH on the graveyard shift along with so other operating times. Damien G0LLG, Mike M0PRL, Paul 2E0APB, Paul 2E0EET and Stephany G1LAT.  You may have worked the following operators on the recent DX-pedition to the Isle of Tiree: Andrew G0LWU, Hughie G4UME, Ian G0VGS.

Paul 2E0EET operated mainly during the mornings

As you can see we are using our standard setup in the form of the Elecraft K3, The Ranger 811H Linear. 

My Heil headset with the HC5 Insert and the keying option of either a hand switch or a foot switch recently purchased by Ian.

The foot switch has good and bad points.... On the positive side it allows the operator to use both hands for logging and rig control as needed.  The negative report is that foot switches have a tendency to move around on most surfaces however this is easily remedied by placing the switch on a piece of non-slip webbing underneath the base plate. 
With the exception of most of the Antenna's, Masts and Accessories all the equipment used on our events belongs to our group members.  The Ranger 811H Linear belongs to Ian's XYL and group member Linda G0YLM and it has given good service since the group was started in 2004 at nearly all our contests, events and DX-Peditions.  As you can imagine the Linear is now in need of some TLC and has been returned to Ranger for a complete service prior to being put into retirement.


If there has been a running theme throughout this years activity which was not planned by the group but welcomed none the less and this has been Experimentation with Antenna's and Personal training and achievement as new members come into the group.  I will be posting a special end of year blog that will cover these area's in the next blog "All Our Yesterdays 2011" at the end of the year.


Thanks to all members who took part in this event and to Barrie and Kathy for allowing us the use of Hancock's Radio Hut and hosting our much looked forward to meal on Saturday night.  Stephany was our cook for the meal and nobody left the table feeling hungry.


Mike M0PRL seen in a few of these photo's tried the impossible by trying to pour the contents of a carton of double cream over the fantastic fruit crumble made by Stephany with the last of the hand picked summer fruits.  Mike is of to Antartica again for a three month tour.


Hopefully the link below will work and allow you to view a collection of pictures I have taken during the course of the weekend.

Picture Gallery

This blog is shorter than normal due to time constraints but I hope you enjoy the content.


73
Brian G0RDH
The Reluctant Contester

The gallant Dxpeditioners

The lads on the return to the mainland from the Tiree DXpedition



Linda G0YLM

Final Day

We are in the final hour or so of operation on most bands but will
probably leave 40m running tonight and pack it in the morning. 20m has
proved fruitful to VK and 15m has brought in Thailand and India.
The weather has been glorious today albeit still windy! We will end
up with more than 12000 QSO's in the log by the end of the operation
here.
We have hit most of our objectives including DXCC on all bands. We
have only missed DXCC ON 15m by 10 countries using SSB but this will
be added as an objective on the next dxpedition.
We travel home tomorrow morning and we will have very fond memories of
our time on Tiree

Eating Well

At this point can we take some time to give thanks to our two chefs Paddy and Mick! The guys have fed us each day, starting with the famous DX breakfast and finished each day off with a marvelous dinner. Ok, it's been late in the evening sometimes as the beer has flowed freely!



The famous honey glazed gammon!



All plated up, a real feast!

Stormy Thursday!

Today is exceptionally windy and wet. It doesn't start raining, it
just rains! One minute nothing and then completely wet.
We have had 2 issues crop up today. The rain static on 40m hits 20
over 9 at times and makes it impossible to hear anyone. The second
issue was between 10m on the FT2000 and 40m on the K3. When 10m keyed
on the Yaesu, it was 10 over 9 on 40m. This turned out to be phase
noise from the FT2000. Once we moved 10m to one of the K3's, the
problem completely disappeared. Brendan had been noticing the noise
floor rising on 30m when the Yaesu keyed up on 17m before any
modulation! Very poor show Yaesu!

We expect to hit our target of 10,000 Q's later today and we have had
some remarkable contacts including Afganistan, Reunion Island and
Mauritius. Runs to Indonesia and India have been common. Once we are
home and have had time to interrogate the logs I will post more of the
highlights






By the way, they call our hobby wireless?

Ian G0VGS

A Few Photos

Steve Operating the 80m station



Andrew and Brendan both dealing with pileups on SSB and CW




Paul on one of the five stations we have running!

Tuesday

A much slower day today with difficult conditions. Still managed to
work VK6 on 20m but the band noise is a killer :(. Paul just managed
to get Uganda for a new country on 15m but progress is slow. The WX is
better today after the strong winds overnight but we are promised
60mph winds for Thursday. We can only hope that the aerials can stand
it! So far they have. We have managed 5,500 contacts as of this afternoon. Everyone is having a wonderful time, even Hughie ( or is that Hugo)




Some of the team enjoying Mark and Paddy's DX Breakfast!

Ian G0VGS

Windy Monday

We woke up this morning to extremely strong winds and some minor
repairs were required to some of the verticals. This has been the
theme of the day really with plenty of wind and some rain. Currently
we think everything is as secure as we can make it and we have
totalled 3600 Q's so far. I have been taking plenty of video and I
will edit this on return and post it for viewing.

Here is a picture of the homemade tuning stubs we have been using.



Ian G0VGS

Hot Off the Press

One of the cottages seen through the 15m array



The view of our beach



Ian G0VGS

Sunday. First Full Day

An absolutely lovely day on the island today with full sun and very
little wind. We continue to put up aerials and Paul continues to make
stubs to counteract the ensuing interactions! :)
We now have all 5 stations working and the contacts are flying in!
Japan was easy this morning on 17m and DX is coming in all the time.
We have a 264 ft doublet which is proving superb on 40m at the moment.
The 4 element vertical phased end fire array on 15m is working really
well too. We are using a vertical Moxon rectangle on 20m right by the
water and a vertical for 30m. We also have a 2 element vertical phased
array for 10m which is also getting us contacts. The computer
networking is working wonderfully well and N1MM is brilliant as
always. Considering the amount of work done we should crack the 1500
QSO barrier today and if we can make it 2000, even better!
The weather is due to change tomorrow which is a shame as currently I
can think of no better place to be in the world at the moment. It is
absolutely perfect.


Ian G0VGS

Landed on Tiree

After a long journey up to Oban to catch the ferry we have just arrived on Tiree. The crossing was very calm and we had a good breakfast on board. Just disembarking now! It has rained overnight here but the weather is fine now.
Hope to start putting the antennas up as soon as we get to the cottages. With a bit of luck we will be on HF by late afternoon on a few bands at least!

Ian G0VGS