Jamboree

JOTA weekend is now behind us and was well attended. Both stations worked very well ( note the well designed data interface). Thanks to Andrew for all the arrangements and the scouts for their enthusiasm. We now move on to the big 48 hour contest this weekend, remembering at some point to put the clocks back to GMT. The rotator we will be using was fixed last week thanks to Ian and Kev and we anticipate a good weekend!

GB50LDS

This weekend is" Jamboree on the Air" and we will be down at the small village of Overton for the weekend. We will be using simple dipole antennas for HF and a colinear for VHF on one of our 50' masts. Hopefully the weekend will be well attended by both scouts and guides. The callsign used will be GB50LDS.

80M SSB Sprint

Several members of Sands took part in the second leg of the 80 metre sprint contest yesterday evening. It was an interesting contest but certainly took some reading of the rules. If you initiated a CQ call on a frequency you could only work one station and then had to QSY to a different frequency. It was a lot of fun and certainly stopped some of the problems of the 80m Club Championships that run in the first half of the year. Everybody was polite and shows what fun can be had in these type of contests!

Fantastic Rally

Sands enjoyed a fabulous day out at the Rochdale QRP Convention. The journey there was incident free with fantastic views in the early morning sunrise. The Rally was very busy indeed and by midday there was very little room to move. This is a traditional rally which has no computer traders and deals mainly with radio components and lots of older amateur gear. Lunch was pie and peas and fruit pie to round it all off! We had a very profitable day and also had time to catch up with many old friends and meet many new ones. Next year the rally will be moving down the road to Halifax and although it will be at a larger venue the organizers hope to maintain the atmosphere of previous rallies.

AGM and Rally

Sands will hold their fourth AGM on Monday evening and are looking forward to the next 12 months and beyond. Plenty of contests to take part in and another DXpedition planned to a Scottish Isle in 2008. In the meantime we will be attending the QRP Convention in Rochdale on 6th October. We will have plenty of radio "bits and pieces" for sale and hope to catch up with a lot of old and new friends. If you are coming to the convention please pop by and have a chat.

80m Sprint Contests

The growth and popularity in the 80m Club Championship reflects a strong interest in domestic contesting, and the mid week evening short contest format is convenient for a lot of operators. After the final sessions of the Club Championship in July, there were comments that the start of the 2008 Championship in February seemed very far away.

Another comment that has arisen due to the increased participation in the events is that winning scores can now be produced by only calling CQ. In the very beginning it was necessary to search as well as call in order to maximise your score. Competition to find a frequency to call on is increasing, especially on SSB. To secure a spot to call on, some entrants begin occupying frequencies a long time before the contest begins.

To address both remarks, the Contest Committee has decided to run two Sprint style contests this October. These are 90 minute long, 10 or 100 watt, mid-week events, one on CW and one on SSB, in a similar format to the existing 80m Club Championship. The Sprint format requires stations to QSY if a contact was solicited on a frequency, and means that different skills and operating style are needed compared with a traditional contest.

Full rules can be found on the web site www.rsgbhfcc.org and we hope you will participate in these contests in October, and let us have plenty of feedback.

Dave G4BUO
RSGB Contests Committee
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Packed Down and Back Home

Managed to get packed down and back home by mid afternoon, so we have done well. It has been raining most of the day but it did stay dry for a time which allowed the tent to dry out. Its not been the most successful Field Day we have ever done but we have all had a good time and enjoyed the radio we have done. Made well over 200 contacts but running in the" restricted section" has had its limitations compared to some of the big stations. The main thing is taking part and its nice to get out portable again before the autumn sets in!

Late Afternoon

We are all enjoying ourselves whether its operating or just relaxing! Conditions could be better but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Its the best part of the day now and it should be a cracking sunset!

Set Up and Ready to Go

Its nearly time for Field Day to start. All was set up and working about 11am local time, so plenty of time to double check things! Our 2.4ghz internet link is working well and the bacon sandwiches are on the go! What more could you ask for? Conditions seem rather poor at the moment but hopefully this will improve when the contest starts....fingers crossed!

Stan Holt G0GEU

Members of Sands have been involved with clearing the estate of Stan Holt G0GEU who went "silent key" at the beginning of May this year. Many of us had known Stan for many years. He was a very quiet man but very knowledgeable about all aspects of radio, especially valves and vintage radios. He also collected many things, including cameras and watches. We hope that a lot of his radio memorabilia will find good homes and put to good use. Stan was a true Amateur and will be sadly missed by a lot of people!

SSB Field Day 2007

Hopefully this year the weather will be good. If you can cast your minds back to 2006 it was one of worst weekends for wind and rain for many years! Sands will return to Quernmore this year. We have decided to run in the 100w single element antenna section. In use will be one of the 50' masts and a trap dipole for 40/80m, we have found that this works very well for 15/20m also. Unfortunately Chris and Bex cannot make it due to commitments in Warwick and we shall certainly miss them this time. We would also like to welcome Frank, Hughie and Paul, who has just achieved his full licence, as new members to Sands!

QSL

All QSL cards from GB2AOS have been sent out to the RSGB Bureau and all direct ones have been dispatched. Sorry about any delay!

Chris and Bex "leaving" Party!

Last night was a "leaving party" for Chris and Bex as work commitments mean they have to move to Warwick. This does not mean goodbye though, as they will be back in Morecambe for the major contests and can also take part in the Club Championships from their new address. We will, however, miss them greatly on our weekly get togethers! Most of the Sands members and alot of good Amateur friends attended the Owls Nest for drinks and sandwiches ( sorry Keith we can't find a photo of you and Barbara! Also missed Kev the Hat out because he was late) We had a wonderful evening and it was so nice to see so many good people in one place.

Andrew at GB100J

Andrew G0LWU missed the IOTA contest because he is at the big Scout Jamboree, here is his letter to Sands

We only got power last night, after arriving last Saturday.

We have put up an awesome antenna farm, I will try to get pictures
back at some point. We have two tri-banders, one with 6 elements,
one on a three section mast the other on a 5-section. Dipoles for
40m, 80m and trapped dipole for all WARC bands. We also have 2 linears
PSK, SSTV, and SDR radio.

There are 10 antennas up in total.

Anybody wanting GB100J please email me with band/mode/freq/time.
We are operating with 40 operators 24X7 on all HF bands for about 10 days.

Hoping to get Swedish King in the shack (marquee) as he is a
scout and is licensed.

Met Prince William yesterday afternoon.

Back home about 9th August.

Regards to all.

Andrew

Great IOTA Contest

It has been a very successful contest this year! We smashed last year's score and ended up with nearly 1000 contacts and some serious points. The weather has been brilliant and everything ran like clockwork. The stations were well attended by both Amateurs and members of the public, who were keen to see what was going on. Pack down time was just under 2 hours and we then retreated back to Linda and Ian's home for a cool beer or two. This evening we have a "business "meeting to go over the events of the weekend and to start planning Field Day which is coming up in just over a month!