MT0SCG Isle of Man

Hi all,

Many thanks to all who worked the MT0SCG team on the Isle Of Man (EU-116).

We are all now safely back home and re-building our shacks.

A few of my thoughts on how it all went. Hughie, Paul and Steve will probably add their own perspective. The overall consensus was that the event could not have gone better.

We worked just over 1000 QSOs on the "40M rig" mainly Paul and Hughie, and just a couple under 1000 QSOs on the "20M rig" mainly Steve and Andrew. Giving an approximate total at this point of around 2025 contacts (final numbers still to be confirmed). We had a handful of contacts on other bands, possibly 80M, 15M, 17M and certainly 10M.

Paul and Hughie also had 13 SOTA contacts from Snaefell (The Snow Mountain).

All the radio and aerials worked fine, once we had resolved the laptop charger problem. We did not need the phased arrays or amplifiers. As most of you will already know, we put up 80m and 40M dipoles on the wooden flagpole at the side of the house, firing East/West across the water. The 20M 1/4-wave vertical was pitched on the grass next to the beach, with the 10M vertical on the beach beyond. The 20M Moxon vertical was placed further down on the beach once the weather improved. With hindsight we should have put up the 15M vertical, as we had little success on 10M despite the band being open for most of the week. I also played around with a 17M dipole on the KX3, but as expected interference was a problem.

My "f##ting about with a moxon in the dark" (see Hughie's comments below) paid off as we worked 2 X VK (Adelaide and Sydney), Falkland Islands, Algeria, St Helena, Barbados and 2 X South Africa, as well as numerous stateside stations on the Moxon. ZL was also heard at S5, but not worked, as I didn't want to spend too much time breaking the pileup, whilst we could have been running our own pileup. The Moxon was showing zero noise floor whilst the 20M vertical was giving S3 noise when the problem laptop charger was running. The Moxon was also giving an additional 2 S-points of signal over the single 20M vertical. Before we solved the charger problem, I was switching between the 20M vertical for Tx and the 10M vertical for Rx, whilst operating on 20M. The 10M aerial was further from the house and showing zero noise floor.

The Moxon fell down during the night during a particularly high tide; I should have noticed the Full moon. We had positioned one of the stakes where the tide hadn't previously reached. The aerial must have come down kindly as there was no damage, and the aerial was still completely intact. As this was very near the end of the dx-pedition it didn't go back up.

The pile-ups on 20m and 40M were almost continuous, and at all times of the day. The peak rate observed was 196 QSOs per hour!  Taking into account that we were away from the house sight-seeing for several full days, over 2000 QSOs with two main rigs and four operators seems a great result.

I will post photos as soon as I can

Andrew G0LWU

IOTA 2012 from Sunderland Point

Hello Folks,

We are privileged to be back at Sunderland Point for IOTA 2012 on what turns out to be a glorious midsummers evening.  This contest was more eventful than normal for us and at times darn right spooky especially after sunset but more on that later.

I have started this posting with some of the picturesque views taken from the end of Terrace One mainly looking back towards Overton and Lancaster.

The first picture taken at the End of Terrace One

Looking inland towards the village of Overton

The City of Lancaster is on the far right looking across the River Lune

Sunderland point is where the river Lune meets the sea.  The original name was the River Lune was Loyne 

Because the size and bulk of the ships they had to anchor in the area of Sunderland Point where they could off load smaller goods to be carried into Lancaster and surrounding area by horse and cart at low tide, however Larger goods were lowered into boat and rowed up river.

This picture was taken from the entrance Terrace Two of looking 

back towards Overton and Lancaster

If you would like to learn more about the History of Sunderland Point there is an excellent 88 page book written by John Cunliffe "The Story of Sunderland Point" The book is easy to read and full of factual information including the much visited "Sambo's Grave" the book can usually be purchased at Sunderland Point. You may also be able to get a loan copy via your local library, sadly there is no isbn number available to help with this.

The causeway and path leading to our base of operations looking out from Terrace One

As we leave Terrace One we have a steep narrow drop down to sea level that is best taken slowly especially if your vehicle is fully laden with masts and equipment.  This was full tide leaving the pebble and shale road clear for us to access Terrace Two.   Just above the road is a well kept path for those on foot or bicycle.

Heres some of the kit including our coiled coaxial cables

The event started as normal on the Friday evening with the setup of the the antenna's, in all the 8 years we have covered the event we have had to take into account the time of the local tides and to make sure we got them right Peter Gilchrist has given us the local perspective not only of the time the causeway would be clear but the type of tide and where it is safe to park without your vehicle being swept away.

This year high tide was not a problem full tide is known locally as a toucher where the waterline stays clear of the causeway or at the very most washes gently over the causeway leaving just a little surface water.

Antenna's in use were: 20m, 40m Phased Arrays, 80m vertical, 10m vertical.

Here we find Kev G6FKE checking the 80m vertical is ok before its fed into the station

There was a slight problem with the impedance but was remedied by lowering the feed point 

 This picture looks out to Terrace Two our home for the weekend
and you can see the 80m vertical is erected 

The last two pictures look out to where the River Lune joins the sea

So onto the IOTA contest.

Antenna's

The antenna's for IOTA were Phased Arrays for 20m, 15m, 10m and we had an 80m vertical.

We were limited in what we could do because of the lack of space for erecting antenna's.  The grass in front of the houses on Terrace Two belongs to the house holders and used by them for sitting out and family activities.  All our antenna's were fibreglass verticals that were sited as close to the pebble beach as possible so that area's could still be used by the householders.

Radio Stations in use:

The stations in use for the contest were Elecraft K3s belonging to Mike and Ian.  The main station benefitted from the use of Damiens Ranger 811H linear.  The main station worked on a spot frequencies for most of the contest running 400w and the second station ran at 100w looking for Mults. This station also had the benefit of the Elecraft Pan Adapter that worked a treat.

Mike M0PRL's Station running 100W

Morse Keys
The main station had Ian's Begali Simplex key in line with it and its a dream to send from. The best analogy I can think of is the difference between driving a budget car and a Rolls Royce.  The Simplex is fitted with gold contacts

YO3LIW Marquesas Island operating the Begali Simplex Key via the K3. you will see that the K3 has the ability to read morse scrolling across the bottom of screen, it also allows you to monitor your own morse going out.

Youtube Link Elecraft K3 Marquesas Island YO2LIW

The Begali Traveller on Mikes station has magnetic contact fitted.

YouTube Link  GW4OKT using the Begali Traveller with his K2

Sorry folks but I could not resist the temptation of adding the rolling pin key by OH6DC you'll never be able to do speed morse with it but it is fun to see.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZbSnGYChjc

Operators during the weekend included:

Joe 2E0JEX,  Kev G6FKE, Mike, Paul 2E0CKC, Ian G0VGS, Brian G0RDH

Paul 2E0CKC

But all was not plain sailing during the day unknown to me because I was getting some sleep ready for the graveyard shift through the night things got rather spooky with flickering lights and other electrical devices suffering.... Was it a case of our equipment drawing too much from the ancient/historic mains supply?  We knew there had been a great deal of work done on the electrical side of the building with trip switches replacing the old fuse system and the mains sockets had been changed throughout the building.

As the evening went on the problems got worst to such a point that we checked the mains supply board which by this time was too hot to touch, everything was powered down and Joe came to the rescue by getting in touch with the electricity provider who were out to us in less than an hour. The electricians confirmed that there was a problem with the mains box and had a brand new up to date mains box fitted and tested in around 30 minutes.

It was time for Kev G6FKE and myself to get busy on the graveyard shift, sadly Kev felt it was better to close down and get some sleep after around 40 minutes because his logging program experienced a conflict with the MS Vista operating system. on the laptop.  I had a fun time on the main station operating on 40m throughout the night, I missed the briefing that the problem with 80m was resolved and thats my only regret..... I could have worked so many other stations.

Ian and Mike enjoying some off time on their computers

We had a few Visitor to the event over the weekend.  It was good to see Linda and Bob come and spend some time with us on Saturday, and a new G4 to the area Tim called in to see us twice on the Saturday and again on Sunday when he arrived with Mary to show her what we were doing.

Barrie and Kathy came down from Oysterber Farm to see us as part of their normal Sunday ride out on their the bikes. Barrie was responsible for the special event station promoting the Tour-De-France a station you may have worked at some time.  It was no short ride they embarked on to visit us being over 50 miles for the round trip it was fantastic to see them.

Food for the event:

• Food for the event took the form of sandwiches for lunch
• Kev prepared a spicy concoction that started out with sausages with extra's thrown in.... This was a little rich for my stomach but enjoyed by all the members.
• I warmed up some salad potatoes I had pre-cooked, sweetcorn, carrots, fresh tomatos and a Lamb Shank that that been marinated in Rosemary and Thyme.

• With all the excitement of the failing electrics a few members set the George Foreman Grill and hotplate up and broke into the supplies for breakfast in order to have a midnight feast before settling down for the night. 

• Breakfast took the form of our tradition contesters breakfast: Bacon, Sausage, Free range egg, Mushrooms and optional fresh tomato delicately slapped between each side of a Lancashire Oven Bottom Barmcake.

The morning contacts worked out nicely for us and as each band closed, there was a team taking down the antenna's and packing away equipment.  Sunderland point relies heavily on special events they put on to raise funds and just before the contest finished at 1pm a team of volunteers headed by Peter and his wife came in to start setting tables up, for the homemade cakes etc.  The weather forecast was a little unclear for the weekend with the possibility of showers..... The day was fine up until this point and they were keen to have us out of the reading room a.s.a.p....

Now were no slouches at breaking a station down after an event but they helped us out with such speed Nora Batty would have given it her seal of approval and probably asked for a few tips on where she wear she could improve her skills.  On a serious note it was a rushed ending to the event, but we hope they made plenty of money which is much needed to maintain a unique and beautiful area of our coastline.

My next Blog will cover the GB4GBO stations that were run to celebrate the whole of the Olympics.

73 Brian (The Reluctant Contester)
        

On the Sands

After work today, I decided to go off to Middleton Sands to do some portable

operating. After loading up the car, I set off. High tide was 16:48 BST and I

arrived at around that time. First surprise was that the tide was a long way out!

That was because high tides aren't that high at present.

I drove onto the sand which was quite firm. It took me quite a while to set up the

20M Moxon vertical. I connected up the KX3 and started to operate from the car,

on 5W using the internal batteries. I had already checked before I set off that the

20M band was open. Plenty of stations were active but I could not get a single

contact.

Eventually I realised that it wasn't just my 5W which was limiting me; there had to

some other problem. It turned out to be a faulty feeder. With the KX3's internal ATU

which can tune 10:1 it wasn't obvious that there was a fault. Fortunately I had a spare

feeder in the car, just in case. This was put into service and the band was alive.

As expected, the combination of KX3, 20M vertical Moxon, and most importantly

wet sand proved quite potent. All the reports I was given from around Europe were

between 55 and 59.

I worked a mini-dxpedition from Dundee ARC, active on the Isle Of Man as

GT4AAF/P. I had a long chat with Paul (GM0BKC) about our trip next month.

He said he would get in touch by email after their group returns home tomorrow,

and said he was looking forward to working our "MT0" prefix next month.

I managed to get the aerial and kit packed away just as it was going dark!

As a bonus, after I got home I worked YW5B on Isla la Blanquilla off Venezuela

(IOTA SA-037). He replied first time though this was from my Kenwood running

100W to a 20M dipole.

Regards,

Andrew

G0LWU

Sands Contest Group IARU / The GB4TDF Special Event Station

Hi Folks,

The IARU Contest did not have the the best operating conditions but was enjoyable non the less.  Sadly Kev was not able to make the event due to illness which was a shame because it was a contest he was looking forward too taking part in.

I arrived at 9am to find that Paul 2e0ckc was already working on site in preparation for setting the antenna's up.

Oysterber Farm from the air

Rather than putting some of the normal pictures into the blog I though you might enjoy an aerial view filmed for Barrie and Kathy by Chris M5XYZ with the aid of a camera fitted to his radio controlled helicopter. 

The video does not show the rear of Oysterber Farm where you will find the meadow we site our antenna farm on or Hancocks Radio Hut our hub of communications activity for the weekend so I have added a few pictures here.

I took this picture of Sunrise around 04:30 on Sunday Morning 

Looking out from the front of Oysterber Farm

This picture was taken around dawn on Sunday Morning looking back into the meadow from Hancocks Radio Hut

Looking out over the meadow from Hancocks Radio Hut

IARU Station Operators

The operating team for the weekend were: Paul 2e0ckc, Ian g0vgs, Brian g0rdh Stephany g1lat, Steve g1tlq, Mike m0prl, Mark m0dgk

Tour de France 2012. (Information supplied by Barrie G1JYB)

Le Tour De France 2012 Celebrating the 99th year of the Tour de France

Supporting our cyclists Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish

Promoting cycling in general.

The GB4TDF SES was a real success for Steph and myself with Brad Wiggins coming first and Chris Froome coming second, we could not have asked for more and we certainly helped to raise the profile of Cycling in the UK and I feel that this next few years will see many more talented riders in the sport and more importantly, lots more money from companies wanting to sponsor both the Teams and Riders. Thanks to all SANDS members who made the effort and worked us.

There is a nice video link below worth watching. I apologise for The single advert before the video footage of Bradley Wiggins but it's not anything I could change.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2012/jul/21/tour-de-france-2012-bradley-wiggins

Paul 2E0CKC operating GB4TDF Prior to the Morecambe Bay Net being run on 2m

The QSL Card 

Thanks to all the stations worldwide who worked us

For more in depth information please visit the GB4TDF page on QRZ.Com

The next blog will cover the groups activity at IOTA 2012 from Sunderland Point.

The Bentham Beagles 10K Bash

Hi Folks,
I thought it would be nice to shine a light on an unsung hero of the Sands Contest Group and thats Kathy Cartledge, a lady who as a rule shy's away from publicity.

Kathy M3YOG running “Bentham Beagles 10k Bash” 
where she won best in her age group 

The motion Blur image was created by Barrie Cartledge

            
                                                Kathy was presented with a Race Medal 
                                 and a Silver Training Shoe to recognise her achievement.

The Bentham Beagles Running Club

The Bentham Beagles Running Club is a new club that launched on 4th October 2011. If you would like to learn more about the club and their activities then take a look on the link below

The Bentham Beagles

Kathy is a very talented lady whose other interests include Cycling with Barrie G1JYB using either the Tandem or her own bicycle.  It was great to see Barrie and Kathy at Sunderland Point at the end of July when they cycled down to visit Sands Contest Group who were taking part in IOTA 2012. This was no short ride with the round trip being a minimum of around 50 miles.

Along with a keen interest in Yoga, its not uncommon for her to throw the odd pot or two when she's pottering about at Bentham Pottery.  The pottery is attached to Oysterber Farm from where we are privileged do most of our contests. 

Here is one of the hard wearing bowls created by the pottery in use

I remember it well as the last of the summer fruits were collected from the hedgerows around Oysterber Farm along with Apple and Pears from the Orchard. they were combined into a fruit crumble that had your tastebuds doing summersaults with every delicious spoonful. 

I joked earlier about Kathy Pottering about when in reality nothing could be further from the truth, along with running popular pottery courses with her son, a range of ceramics are available to buy in the little shop.

Please click on the link http://www.benthampottery.com/gallery.htm

Well done on the run Kathy!

The next blog will be on the IARU contest.

73
Brian

Sands Contest Group Barbi

Hello Folks,

As many in the UK will recall the first 5 months of the year have not been kind to us on the weather front drought restrictions were  put in place due to the depleted water reserves and it seems to add insult to injury that within weeks of this many in the UK were suffering floods due to torrential downpours of rain causing flash flooding and river banks to burst causing untold misery and our hearts go out to affected.

Sands Contest Group Barbi

At the end of June Barrie and Kathy put a welcome and much anticipated group Barbi on for us ably helped by Stephany and even Hughie who was probably in charge of the eggs.

As you can see we were not guaranteed a dry night but Barrie had plans in place just incase things turned bad.

Barrie Basting the chicken legs as they cooked and although not in shot 
the Sausages were also sizzling

Although a little on the chilly side the Wx stayed dry and there was a little wood burner you can see top left of this picture for those feeling a little cold.  This is an excellent evening for both group members and their families to chill out and socialise with only the occasional much frowned upon mention of radio... This was a night dedicated to our families who allow us to have fun in our chosen hobby of radio communications. 

 

Along with the food supplied by Barrie and Kathy members also brought some offerings to add to an already impressive spread.  This picture was taken halfway through the evening but the baked potatoes just melted in your mouth.  Also on this table you can see Pate, Salad, Rice, Canape's and Cheese and Onion to name a few dishes.

The second part of the meal was really great in the form of a variety of sweet dishes.  

 Fresh Fruit Salad

 Black Forest Gateaux

 Chocolate and Raspberry Pavloav

 Lemon Cheese Cake

Fruit Trifle

  Franks Delicious Homemade Apple Pie

 Heres a picture of Joe 2E0JEX with his son Ozzy

who is not at all phased by the two hoodies in shot

Thanks as always to Barrie and Kathy for supplying us with a fantastic evening 

and not forgetting Stephany for the work that she does in making the event such a success

So as the lambs keep the meadow down around Barries 5/8 20m Monoband Vertical

And the birdsong settles as the sun begins to set

I'll leave the last few words for Ozzy..... 

Thanks for looking in and 73 till we meet again further down the log

Sands Special Event Station GB4QDJ

 Hi Folks,

Welcome to a report on our Queens Diamond Jubilee hosted at Oysterber Farm.

We decided that the best time to setup was on the Saturday morning and Hughie G4UME and Steve set to work putting the 40m dipole up with a coaxial feed point around 30ft above ground. After a little adjustment the antenna was resonant and ready for action.

  Hancocks Hut

Whilst the antenna was being put up Ian G0VGS set the computer up and made sure the N1MM logging program was ready for use.  Brian G0RDH set the FT-2000D up with the Heil Pro headset with the HC5 Insert and the option of using a hand key or foot-switch to key the transmitter.
 
But why the HC-5 insert over the HC-4?  The answer is simple..... Although the HC-4 is designed for DX, I found it didn't work well for my voice whilst the HC-5 was fantastic and suited all operators.

If you would like to find out more about the characteristics please click on the hyperlink below.

Heil proset.

Regular readers of the blog will note that we usually use an Elecraft K3 for our events but on this occasion there was no Ranger 811H linear available.  My FT-2000D was used because we can use up to 200W.

 

Yaesu FT-2000D

Saturday
The station was on the air just before 9am and it was not long before it was found by amateurs eager to work the station both from the UK and Europe.

Operators for the day were:
Hughie G4UME, Steve G1TLQ  Mark M0DGK, Ian G0VGS and Brian G0RDH

Hughie G4UME

Steve G1TLQ

After putting the antenna up Steve spent some time on the radio before having to leave mid afternoon.  He's a true gentleman on the air and we don't get to see as much of him as we would like to to his work commitments.

 Mark M0DGK 

Mark joined us for a few hours on Saturday afternoon and it was great to see him enjoying using the radio.  For the last 8 years Mark has operated with me during the RSGBCC SSB contest and is just in the process of renovating a new house just around the corner from Hughie needless to say Hughie is trying to make inroads with him to operate as his partner for the contest.  Hands Off Hughie

 

 Stephany G1LAT

WX for Saturday was reported to be poor with heavy rain and cloud and I am pleased to report the the WX was fantastic with sunshine and a mild breeze but I know many amateurs around the country were suffering with really heavy rainfall and boy did we get it on Sunday.

We had sold contacts from the moment we called CQ that lasted throughout the day.  We had intended to use Barries 20m Vertical at some point during the event but conditions were so good we held a spot frequency on 40m we tried to listen for m3's & m6's along with QRP operators throughout the event and this was picked up and appreciated by other stations waiting to work us.  

Sunday
And the heavens opened!

Operators were: Brian G0RDH, Hughie G4UME, Ian G0VGS


Hughie and I made for Hancock's Hut in what can only we described as torrential rain which made things a little difficult as we navigated the pot-hole ridden country lanes to get to Hancocks Hut, they were filled with water and blended in perfectly with the road surface, having a good idea where the big ones were located we arrived unscathed, I set the radio up and Hughie brewed a perfect pot of tea.

Disaster strikes during "The Great Storm of 2012" 

Ok I am over exaggerating a little, this was more like a storm in a teacup..... compared with "The Great Storm of 2009" that bent our dipole and Spiderbeam masts in two and severely damaged our Spiderbeam.  All our antenna's were sound.

Please see Archive Pictures below.

 Spiderbeam mast bent in two and fiberglass sections shattered.

At the top end of the meadow you will see our Dipole mast suffered the same fate.

This was a freak storm with wind-speeds in excess of 100mph

Not long after 8am I had found a clear frequency and Hughie was enjoying his coffee when I felt a cold drip of water on the back of my neck to which I uttered words of surprise :) as a second drip soon followed. Hughie said "whats tu do" and proceeded to draw his finger down the tunnel and groove line causing me to say "Eccy Thump Hughie" (because I don't swear :) It was just like somebody turning the tap on and I was under it. I looked back to see Hughie trying to hide a little smile of success and contentment.  It was not long before Hughie had slowed the flow with the aid of our ever ready gaffer tape.

Satisfied there was no danger to the electrics or any of the equipment we carried on.  Ian arrived at 10am and we did two hour shifts between us. 

Archive photograph of Brian

This was not a rubber stamp event and were possible we had a short rag chew with stations. during one of these sessions I showed Hughie a picture from QRZ of the station he was working and Hughie commented in fun "He could have had a shave!" and a little banter continued within the QSO.

 Ian G0VGS

Monday

Operators Were:
Brian G0RDH, Hughie G4UME, Ian G0VGS, Linda G0YLM, Andrew G0LWU

The storm clouds had moved on and we were treated to a lovely start for our final day of activity from Hancocks Hut although not the final day of the event because Barrie G1JYB and Stephany G1LAT worked 100+ stations on Tuesday. from Barries station overlooking Hancocks Hut.

  Stepper IR & 20m Vertical

Hughie started the event off on Monday and a station who had heard the banter on Sunday called in advising us that he'd had a shave..... The station Hughie was working was quite rightly not best amused at the rouge comment but it made us smile..

Another incident that still makes me smile happened after I took over from Hughie..... Barrie G1JYB popped into the shack to see that we were ok before he set of for a bike ride with Kathy using the tandem.  Neither could talk quietly so I asked them both to leave Hancocks Hut and chat outside.... It dawned on me seconds later that I had just evicted Barrie our host out of his own purpose built shack..... That had me chuckling on and off for the rest of the day and Barrie was still in a state of shock as we were leaving. 

 Linda G0YLM

Linda  and Bob arrived around 10am and it was not long before she took control of my radio I am fairly sure for the first time lists were taken and it was not long before they were worked trough and more contacts were listed for working..... I was on air at one point during the afternoon and a station who had not had time to call in during Linda's session made reference to hearing a young lady operating that morning..... I felt sure Linda would be listening from home so passed a cheeky comment to which Linda replied immediately

 Andrew G1LWU

Andrew arrived mid afternoon and spent a few hours operating before helping to dismantle the station around 5pm.  Thank you to all the amateurs who took the time to work the station and shortwave listeners who took time to listen.  We had a really enjoyable event and we could not had done it without you.

Stephany G1LAT and Barrie G1JYB are running a Special Event Station GB4TDF from 26th June until 27th July inclusive from Oysterber Farm along with members of the Sands Contest Group.

It is to celebrate the 99th Tour de France, Cycling in general and Bradley Wiggins and Mark Cavendish in particular who are both top contenders for the overall (Yellow Jersey) and the Points (Green Jersey), lets hope that they both do us proud in the UK because somehow, I feel that cycling is our most successful sport and gets the least coverage. We spend billions on Football and the Olympic Games but we are hardly world leaders in either, so, we thought that we would do our best for the guys who are likely to bring us success.

Barrie G1JYB

Our next event will be the IARU contest next weekend, followed by IOTA from Sunderland Point at the end of the July. We will also be running a Special event station for the Olympics

Thats it for now folks, thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings.

73

Brian (The Reluctant Contestor)