| At
the time of writing GW6YB was standing in FIRST PLACE in the
Restricted Section, having won 6m, 2m and 70cms.
On The Bristol Contest Group decided
almost at the last minute to enter VHF NFD 2002. Planning started less
than 3 weeks before the event and consisted of one trip each to those
bastions of contest arrangement, the Rose & Crown in Wick and the
HTV social club in Bristol. From this alco-chaos order emerged and a
team was finally dragged screaming together and by chance or design
off we went to Gadair Fawr in the Black Mountains.
Who was in this intrepid band of
maniacs? They were Geoff G4FKA, Howard M0XXX, Dave G6FFB, John G0JLF,
Andy M1EBV/M3ABC, Steve M1AHH and Wilf M0WLF.
We decided on balance that the
Restricted section was the best to enter, although this did require
some last minute purchases, including a 432MHz amp, Heil headsets
(with an adaptor that only arrived the day before we went),
footswitches and lots of cables to be made up. Low power was also
viable and is worth trying in future years.
We found ourselves up at our storage
farm on the Friday afternoon with a general list of things required
and a pile of stuff which a few of us had sorted out a couple of days
before. This was duly loaded into the wagons with the firm knowledge
that much of the equipment had not been integrated before the event
– risk mitigation at its worst.
Off we set in convoy down the M4 and
then the fun began. Differing views on the best route led to us
splitting up and reforming on several occasions. The benefit was that
we got fish & chips in Risca, but of course we shouldn’t have
been anywhere near Risca! Anyway we did finally get to the mountain
but it was 11pm and very damp and foggy so all we could do was plant
some tents and go to sleep.
Next morning the fog had cleared and
the task was to find sites for stations amongst the bog and rocks and
of course get it all working by 3pm. This challenge amused the midges
who came out in millions and bit us all nearly to distraction. We just
about survived but extra strength insect spray is already on order for
next time!
Setting up the bands varied
significantly, from the mature 50/70MHz stations provided by Howard
and Dave to the 144/432 “build from scratch” concoctions provided
by the rest of the group.
50 MHz was definitely the star band
of the weekend. Based around the FT-847 with an 8 ele beam, the band
gave good conditions to western Europe with best DX down to CT at
nearly 1700km. The station was on for the full period, caused no
problems and seemed to be very loud everywhere. For about 80w out, the
scores were well up on many other entrants and at last count were
beating many open section entries!
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70 MHz was another mature
and reliable station, again comprising the FT-847 with an 8 ele beam.
It didn’t seem to matter what section everyone entered. All stations
seemed to make similar numbers of QSOs, no S5s or ZBs, so best DX for
everyone in the south was Scotland at around 470km.
144 MHz was as ever the bread and
butter band, comprising FT-736R plus pa and a 17 ele beam. However a
disaster nearly ensued as a 5:1 VSWR was discovered only 30 minutes
before the start. Very rapid lowering of the mast revealed an open
circuit balun in the antenna. Some very deft soldering fixed the fault
and we were ready with just 15 minutes to go. Nearly lost it all early
on Sunday morning when the mains plug fell out of the generator and
the computer log disappeared for a while! Propagation was good on
north-south paths to Orkney, Spain and best DX was SW France at over
1100km. East-west paths were less favourable and we certainly didn’t
hear the OZs/OKs worked from the east coast.
432 MHz got going 30 minutes
late due to amplifier problems. Two amps, including one only purchased
the week before at Longleat failed to integrate with the FT736 and the
38-ele, leaving us with only 20w and no pre-amp! Almost gave up
altogether after the Saturday night; slow going, poor conditions, no
working pa or pre-amp and to cap it all a VSWR which rose to 10:1.
Left it until Sunday morning to take it down and fix it. We’re glad
we did as the day produced some remarkable DX (including EA and DL)
for just 20w and brought an air of respectability to the score.
What did we learn from this little
spasm of activity? Well our mountain site is certainly good for all
the VHF bands and we should continue to exploit it. Also plan earlier,
get more people, integrate the kit beforehand and take a very large
pot of insect spray. Full claimed scores can be found on the
Blacksheep.org web site.
Geoff G4FKA
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