Burgess Hill Summer Fayre (Town Day) 25th June 2023
To be quite honest I wasn't really sure if Mid Sussex ARS were going to attend this year, but I made up my mind that somehow we would show our face to the public.
Saturday evening I loaded my car with what I needed from the club. Sunday morning I loaded up the car with my radio gear from home along with the generator kindly loaned to me from Kim G7AIE and the petrol can from Alan G8YKV, filled with the correct grade of fuel.
Arriving at the entry point to St Johns Park 20 minutes before my allotted entry time, I was very happy to be let in early. After following a marshal at the obligatory speed of 5mph I arrived at my pitch for the day.
Having spoken to the organisers, I was granted permission to keep my car on site which gave me a good base for any antennas to be put up. So the assembly began - I wasn't sure how the gazebo was going to go up being on my own but was pleasantly surprised having worked out that if I pinned one corner down I could pull it out and then extend all four corners one by one. This process was made even more enjoyable watching how the other groups were coping with even more people helping.
I then unpacked the car and set up the tables with my radios and got them connected to the antennas. My trusty Yaesu FT7 was connected to a 9:1 unun with a long wire which runs very well on 20m, and a Xiegu X1M connected to an Ampro 15m antenna.
I had also brought along my DMR setup which unfortunately I wasn't able to run owing to the fact that my DMR hotspot had developed a fault and wasn't working properly.
Monitoring GB3HY through the earpiece connected to my handheld, I heard Adrian M0TCD calling and after a short conversation he arrived on site.
My next job was to get the Flex Radio at the club connected and working with my laptop and external monitor using my phone as an Internet hotspot. This proved to be a bit problematic but after a quick trip to the club to look at the Flex - leaving Adrian to look after everything for me - we were up and running.
My second visitor was John M3UKI who popped in for a while (thank you for the ice cream). Phil G4UDU was my third visitor and brought with him a WSPRlite, which after some fiddling around with, we were unable to get running properly.
The weather was glorious and certainly brought the crowds out. We had a few enquiries regarding training and obtaining an amateur licence - not as many as I would have liked - but I had achieved what I set out to do and showed the club's face at a community event, with the Flex radio running perfectly.
So to end this article I would like to thank Kim G7AIE for the loan of the generator, Alan G8YKV for the use of the petrol canister, John M3UKI and Phil G4UDU for taking the time to come along and say hello. My biggest thanks of all goes to Adrian M0TCD for spending the whole day with me, answering any questions I couldn't and helping me to pack up afterwards and take everything back to the club.
Chris M7VJE
