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Tony M0WND will be giving our famous callsign an airing this bank holiday Monday, so look out for him on the bands.
You may possibly also get G5RV in a POTA log, because Tony mentioned that he might make it up to Devil's Dyke to do the activation.
He plans to be up there in the morning and will probably try 20m and 40m.
Good luck!
Checklist: radio, antenna, battery, SPF-100, bucket of water...
Berni M0XYF
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Quick reminder.
In addition to the flurry of Direction Finding Events in June, we have the annual MSARS birthday celebration up at Jack and Jill Windmills car park on Friday 12th (and this year is special of course), as well as the Burgess Hill Summer Fayre on Sunday 14th. Both are cracking events and very different in nature, so please support them if you can.
We have had a number of enquiries recently from various people interested in finding out more about amateur radio, which is excellent - including a handful of individuals, and a local scout group regarding YOTA and JOTA/JOTI. 'Town Day' is the perfect opportunity for anybody to come along and find out more.
See you there!
Berni M0XYF
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A quick update for anyone wondering how we got on at the weekend.
Blessed by the weather once again, I turned up at about 10am with a car full of stuff and the keys to an actual windmill!
I'd scoped out the site both on satellite maps and in-person a couple of weeks before, and discovered that there was really nothing to attach an antenna or mast to anywhere. Not to be deterred, I figured that if push came to shove, I'd just run a Hamstick on the car, or a vertical 17' stainless telescopic quarter-wave and loading coil. I'd already decided that I was going to focus almost exclusively on 40m to keep things simple. Anyway, the short version is that I spent most of the day either chatting to people, or putting antennas up and down. That's just the way it goes sometimes. Two members from the mill society showed up and were both really nice chaps (Chris and John), and were genuinely glad that the mill was being activated again. My pleasure, and it was an honour.
40m wasn't really playing ball, coming and going as it does some days.
I went with the telescopic whip to start with, as it's easy to deploy with a handful of radials, but with the site layout as it is, I had to run 20m of RG8 coax out the door of the windmill and into a 'safe' corner where I could tape-off the area and put up all the blessed safety signs. I know. I spent more time putting up warning tape than anything else.
Turns out, that hidden in the trees in an adjacent garden was a power distribution pole which destroyed reception on the band. I eventually gave that up as a bad job, but then Chris M7VJE turned up, which made things much easier - and we managed to get a sort-of-ok EFHW up by utilising a distant tree and a 10m mast on my drive-on mount. A bit sketchy, but the interference was gone.
Unfortunately, so was the general reception. I did work about a dozen stations on SSB with the help of George G4PTJ, who called in, and then spent a while spotting us on the cluster and relaying messages from stations that could hear us, but which we were totally unable to decipher sufficiently. Thanks for trying George.
Chris stayed around for a few hours, and then Dick G1AFU turned up. We chatted for quite a while, and then at about 5 o'clock I decided to start clearing up and packing away.
Once I was left with just the antenna up, I changed my mind and decided to work on into the evening, as I really wanted to get the SES callsign for Gavin on the air properly and into some logbooks. I switched to FT8 and stayed until the light started going at around 8:00pm. I'm glad I did, and I finished the day with 65 QSOs, which I was happy with.
I had a fun day in the sunshine, and that's all that matters really. Thanks to everyone that checked-in or stopped by for a chinwag.
73,
Berni M0XYF
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Bob N4XAT sent in this reminder a couple of days ago, and I thought it was something that some of you might be interested in - and maybe having a go at?
Remarkably, Bob informs me that 102 museum ships have already registered for the event (which is just for fun, and not a contest).
The list is pretty impressive, and can be viewed at the Battleship New Jersey ARS website here: https://www.nj2bb.org/museum/
The event runs from midnight to midnight UTC both days.
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Well, they've really dragged their heels over rubber-stamping their prior decision to remove the deeply unpopular evening parking charges in Burgess Hill, Haywards Heath and East Grinstead, but Mid Sussex District Council have finally implemented this change today, Monday 11th May 2026 via a statutory notice.
You can read more about it on the BBC Sussex website here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn5px20452do
From what we understand, this simply revokes the prior extension of charges levied (between 18:00 and 20:00) made 18 months ago, but does not affect the charges on a Sunday. We'll have to wait until they update their website https://www.midsussex.gov.uk/parking-travel/parking/ and erect the expensive new signage in the car parks themselves to know for sure. What a waste of our time and money.
Still, at least we can go back to attending our club on a Friday night, parking in the Cyprus Road car park, and not having to pay for the privilege.
A win for for common sense and the pressure of local elections!
Berni M0XYF
