Last weekend was VHF Field day (FD) throughout most of Europe. As usual I was out with the Clifton ARS near Detling in Kent (JO01HH). I provided two stations for the contest. The 50 and 70MHz station (restricted section) was based on my heavily modified FT-847 running 100W on 6m and about 70W on 4m to a dual band yagi at 10m AGL – this station was on the air as G3JKY/p. I also provided a TS-2000, solid state amplifier and 9 element DK7ZB yagi for the 144MHz station which operated under the club call of G3GHN/p. The only technical disappointment was that the2m PA would only produce about 220W in the field where it does 325W at home – I put that down to long leads from the generator introducing voltage sag. Otherwise everything was assembled in about three hours and we were on the air no problem, which makes a change!
G0GTO and G3BSN provided a very smart cherry picker and a full station for 432MHz, that they ran as G4FAA/p.
I spent some time on 6 and 4m, and the conditions were fairly spotty with minor SpE openings on both days. We did better on 4m than in previous years, which means that 56 Qs was a reasonable return, but well down on the leaders who seemed to get much better Es than we did in the south east.
The 6m score was down on last year as there was less DX. We weren’t that far off the leaders on that band in Q total, so our position will depend on how well we did on Es compared to our rivals.
G0GTO and G3BSN provided a very smart cherry picker and a full station for 432MHz, that they ran as G4FAA/p.
I spent some time on 6 and 4m, and the conditions were fairly spotty with minor SpE openings on both days. We did better on 4m than in previous years, which means that 56 Qs was a reasonable return, but well down on the leaders who seemed to get much better Es than we did in the south east.
The 6m score was down on last year as there was less DX. We weren’t that far off the leaders on that band in Q total, so our position will depend on how well we did on Es compared to our rivals.
2m was a major disappointment. With only 130 QSOs this was a terrible return. Apart from being a little under powered for the open section the gear was fine and on my visits to the station I worked OZ and EA telling me that we didn’t have any electrical faults. I think the problem is rather that the operators on 2m are more DXers than contesters so they spent a lot of time tuning the band looking for people to work rather than calling CQ. I need to work on the 2m station for next year.
In contrast, Terry and Phil did a great job on 70cm working the more stations on that band than the club has for several years. Having the full legal power helps, but calling CQ for long periods of time really helped boost the score, even though the band was flat. They only ran a short yagi, so with a better antenna they could have made many more mid range contacts.
No doubt I will be reflecting on this performance over the coming months and trying to come up with a solution for the next contest!
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