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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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Another year, another beautiful day in Sussex!
We have been extremely lucky with the weather for our outdoor events in the last few years, and this weekend was as good as any.
The car park was almost full when our members began setting up, though I arrived just late enough to avoid the traditional de-tangling of the radial wires on our helically-wound HF vertical, which was mashed into the hedge on the southern boundary of the public car park (the mill grounds weren't open to the public on the Saturday - only the Sunday).
The crew consisted of Alan G8YKV, Stella M6ZJR, Merv M0WVE, Chris M7VJE, Phil G4KIL and myself. We were also joined later by a very nice chap Matt 2E0SFI, a visitor from 'up north' on a day-trip to Brighton. Nice to meet you Matt.
Phil G4KIL set up a 2m station on the northern side of the car park, and we set up our radio trailer ARROW near the HF antenna, and taped-off the immediate area. With an earth rod driven in and one of our brand new LiFePO4 100Ah batteries connected, it was time to see just how well the bands had recovered from the spectacular auroras seen by so many the night before.
The very short answer to that question was 'not very well'. A couple of European stations heard, but nobody we could get a response from. The Yaesu FT-847 seemed to have a bit of an issue on 20m, with the output bandwidth showing an intermittent leap to around 10k, and then back to 3k (on another SDR waterfall we had available) so we swapped the radio out for Alan's Icom IC-7100. Sadly, this too proved to be faulty, with major touchscreen issues. Back to the Yaesu, and we moved down to the 40m band, thankfully with no further problems evident. Odd. The radio could probably do with some extended use to make sure all is well before being taken out into the field again.
Repeated calling on 40m gave equally disappointing results, and it was decided to throw up a 70cm Yagi and try our luck there. Nothing doing. Not a sausage. A scan of the entire band uncovered nothing but background noise.
Phil on the other hand seemed to be talking to a succession of contacts on 2m (a band we were obviously trying to avoid), so that looked to be the place where general activity had migrated to.
Around this time, Dick G0LFF arrived with news that there had been some FT8 activity on 6 metres earlier in the morning, but when we checked the cluster and a couple of UK SDR's, it confirmed our suspicion that HF activity was virtually non-existent and the reported MUF further cemented the fact that it wasn't worth pursuing further.
We agreed that Phil would shut down his station, and ARROW was then outfitted with a 2m Yagi to resume contact with a station that Phil had spoken to, and operations were transferred to the trailer and the Yaesu. Phil wrote-up around 20 contacts made with the GB0JAJ SES callsign, and we went on to make around 10 more log entries to end the day on a respectable tally.
It was good to see Gavin G6DGK who dropped in as we were packing up the trailer for the day.
I spent most of the day working an array of Meshtastic nodes on 868MHz including Henry M0VHR, who was stationed up at Ditchling Beacon, as well as a few regular nodes to the North in Horsham, Surrey Hills and up as far as Caterham, many of whom are amateurs. That's my Heltec V3 node on a 5m mast adjacent to G4KIL's 2m station in the first photo.
On Sunday, I made the trip to High Salvington Mill near Worthing, where WADARC were running a MOTA station (well three, actually).
The trip down there was pretty bad, with traffic along the A27 very slow as you might expect on such a nice weekend. The return journey was even worse, with the A27 closed eastbound at the Adur crossing, so I had to come back along the A24/A272.
Still, I arrived well before the public opening at 2:30pm and chatted with the Worthing guys, but no sign of Phil G4UDU or Gavin G6DGK who both threatened to make an appearance.
They were running a 70cm Yagi on a tripod beaming south, and a 2m station on a vertical antenna up a 5m mast. I think I transferred our bad luck from Saturday to Worthing, as no sooner as I started chatting to the chaps, their new battery died and 2m operations come to an unceremonious halt!
Over to the HF station in the base of the windmill itself, which was doing surprisingly good business with Kelvan M0KEL making several contacts on 40m while I was there. They were using a horizontal 10/15/20/40/80m end fed half wave antenna, the same as is installed at Cyprus Hall, with the coax tied off to the top of the mill steps, well out of the way of the public.
Again, I'd taken my Meshtastic radio along to experiment with, and added a few more nodes to my node list, although not as many as I had expected - just a handful to the south in the Worthing area. I was hoping to connect with a French station in Cherbourg, which a few other guys had contacted, but more disappointment for me. Spot my node on the steps of the mill...
Once the public were admitted, the mill volunteers wasted no time in demonstrating just how easy it was to rotate the entire mill on it's central post, by having three or four youngsters lean their shoulders into the steering arm, and move the mill around by maybe 10 degrees or so. Just enough rotation in fact, to snap the RG8-mini coax - bringing an abrupt end to HF operations too.
Perhaps I had jinxed proceedings enough, and I made a hasty retreat back to Burgess Hill. Sorry guys, but thanks for letting me enjoy another RF day in the sun.
That's all for this year. Hope to see you at the next one!
Berni M0XYF
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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Another month and another new logbook - they don’t seem to last as long as they used to or perhaps it’s the FT8 effect.
I should have read my own notes last month, as I heard a bit of African DX I needed. In my rush to get a call in I fumbled a bit. I got the guy first call, then I checked my station. I had just called with about 8 Watts! This had broken through the pile up and left me dumfounded and with a new one in the log.
I usually run FT8 at about 100W using the amplifier to do the work rather than let the K3 run at its' full power, but it does help to turn the amp’ on first!
Since using FT8 and FT4, I have managed to increase my all-time DXCC score, and I'm now getting close to the magic 300!
At the time of writing, I just added three more, KH0 The Mariana Isl’s, A52 Bhutan, and 3G0 Easter Island. All were on my ATNO list of 'I never thought I’d work these'.
In the last few days of the month, the sun got a bit agitated with some big flares causing the flux to vary wildly as did the A and K indexes. This caused some apparent blackouts, but in spite of this, one evening I worked ZL4 on South Island closely followed by VK3 and VK2. No one else seemed to be working anyone else, strange conditions.
Then...
The disputer threw its last wobbly blue screen, so a newish replacement was obtained. The transfer of files, programs and logbooks was a nightmare. However, I am up and running now in less than 2 minutes boot time rather than over 10 on the old machine. Unfortunately, I made some mistakes loading the files so although it works, I didn't transfer all of the log properly. Another job for May!
That’s enough for this month, now let’s see what May can bring.
Good DXing,
Chris G4ZCS
Note:
My huge thanks to Chris for producing his monthly updates and sending them over to me, when he must be feeling pretty rough most of the time. Chris has been a great contributor and servant to the club for many years, and it's much appreciated. If anyone else feels that they could drop me a small article that other club members might find interesting, then please do so. Don't bother formatting it - just send me the text and any photos - I'll do the rest.
Berni M0XYF, Webmaster.
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- Written by: Mike G8KMP
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Tony Bailey RIP
Tony Bailey came along to one of our meetings on 7th September 1966 just a few months after MSARS started and signed in with a BRS 27845 certificate. A year later on the 6th September 1967 Tony had the callsign G3WPO.
1974 Tony gave a lecture to MSARS on 'Oscar 7' and 'FM Transceivers' to 25 of our members, including G5RV.
In 1975 Tony had designed the 'WOPPO' box, a ten channel scanning transceiver that several of our members built. A 25 years certificate was awarded to Tony in 1998.
Tony died on Friday 12th April 2024.
May he rest in peace.
Mike G8KMP
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- Written by: Maintenance Guy
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A new historical video has been uploaded to our videos page thanks to Mike Pollock G8KMP (source material), Gordon King G3XTH (editing) and of course the artist K J Farmer.
It makes interesting viewing and I'm sure it will bring back some memories for many of our long-standing members.
The original painting still resides in our shack of course, and the club is also proud to retain Louis' famous G5RV callsign.
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- Written by: Chris G4ZCS
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If you read last month’s edition you will not be surprised that the last remaining US states got into my log in the first couple of days of March. Alaska and Vermont made it a full house. Now to try for some elusive DX; Galapagos, Nepal and of course New Zealand.
One day I’ll turn the wire direction from N-S to E-W and work Antarctica and over the pole to the Pacific. Still, just over 140 DXCCs this year on my wire loop with 100W. I don’t think the pigeons and squirrels would appreciate it if I wound the wick up to 1 kW!
This month has been good for me, as I have contacted 4 ATNOs (All Time New Ones). I’m getting close to the big 300. All the outstanding ones are remote islands with the exception of Syria. March was also good for islands, 26 in all; 4 in Europe, 6 in Asia, 8 in North America, and 8 in Oceana.
As promised last month, a few tips based on personal experience, on how to get the DX in the log. First of all, get a logbook (or a computer log) HI. Then turn on the radio, check the antenna, PSU, tuner and anything else you might need.
I find it useful to pick a band that is active, so read up on propagation or watch one of the web-based sources. There is little point in shouting into the mic’ if there is no propagation. All pretty obvious so far.
If you are a bit short of experience, voice might not be your preferred mode. Don’t forget there is CW and numerous data modes to choose from as well.
I find that a quiet band is OK provided you can hear something going on. If you hear any station calling CQ answer him to get warmed up, then be brave and find a quiet spot and call CQ yourself. You might have to wait for a number of calls before you get a reply, however, remember if you don’t put out any calls no one can reply!
I have found that using FT8 with my CQ call loaded into the system can produce surprising replies including some of my rare DX! Quite often you can call a rare station for a long time with no luck, however, I have found that without telling anyone the DX has a 'list' it is easy to give up - but unknown to you, you might be next on his list. This happened to me with Fiji. After 8 minutes of calling, I stopped but I kept listening and two of his contacts later I was sent a signal report!
So go on give it a try, but remember listen, listen, listen then make a noise.
This year I managed to get to the club’s AGM, it was great to catch up with some of the 'old' faces again after such a long break. It is noticeable that the club is growing again with new faces & callsigns. Some of the new tech’ is leaving me behind but it was great to see Bob N4XAT, Phil EA8 portable and others more local joining in from afar. All overseen by our RSGB regional rep’ Keith. I had an interesting chat with him about training and the changes Covid has brought to our hobby.
That’s enough for this month, now let’s see what April can bring.
Chris G4ZCS
