A high-pressure weather system made for an unusually warm,
calm evening up at the Pink Road lay-by on top of the Chiltern Ridge at Lacey
Green IO91OQ. Unfortunately, band conditions in the SHF UKAC were flat with no
enhancements. Testing of all the systems prior to the contest paid dividends as everything worked!
After some terrible traffic around High Wycombe, I arrived
on site just before 7pm and quickly set-up the Gear4Music tripod with 3cm and
9cm sharing the 60cm Offset Dish at 4M above ground, the 1m 13cm TP-Link Wi-Fi
Grid Dish just below that, and the 6cm WBFM TP-Link 60cm Grid Dish at about
2M off the ground.
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| 4-band SHF UKAC at Lacey Green |
At the start 13cm seemed very quiet with no one calling CQ? The small beamwidth’s of yagi’s and
dish’s means that folks are less inclined than on the lower bands to
call CQ. Folks tended to choke KST, with G stations ignoring my meeps as they were focussed on
A/S contacts into EU, especially SM and OZ.
On 13cm I was pleased to work fellow Drowned Rat and local
Gordon G3WJG as my first QSO. The
GB3FNM beacon at Farnham was reassuringly 579 so the system was working
fine after last month’s challenges in the Snow and Ice at Chilton in Oxfordshire.
The Zello SHF Chat came to life with lots of chatter,
mostly folks trying to arrange 6cm WBFM tests. I decided to focus on 3cm for
the first 2 hours and this strategy proved fruitful. Really pleased to work Dave
G4ASR/P at Dorstone IO82LB (160km) as my first 10GHz contact of the evening,
not huge signals but we persevered with the QSB. I had heard Graham G3VKV from
Cheltenham working Dave earlier, and Graham followed in the log from IO81XV (89km).
Next-up on 3cm was Stewart G0LGS/P on Cleeve Hill IO81XW (91km)
always a massive signal end-stop from Cleeve Hill, which is practically LOS from
Lacey Green. Steve G1YBB/P co-sited with ASR was next. I was tuning
the band and found M6PWD in Hastings JO00HV (132km) calling "CQ 10GHz!". Paul was a
massive signal and I was still beaming NW so it must have been scattered. Some equally easy and very pleasant QSO’s with Matt
2E0MDJ/P also at Cleeve Hill, and Pete G4CLA IO92JL (92km) followed. Towards
the end of the evening it was great to get Peter G3PHO in Sheffield IO93GG
(181km) for my ODX. Gotaways were the two Neil’s G4LDR (Salisbury) and G4DBN
(Goole). I could faintly here DBN’s CW beacon, but he could not hear my
flea-power. It was sad not to hear the
GB3CCX beacon which was turned-off on Monday.
With Harwell locals G8CUL and G4BRK missing, it was a relatively
quiet evening on 3.4GHz. I did hear G3ZUD who was very loud from
Nottingham. Leslie was running 45W and I
had just 200mW so it was not surprising that he could not hear me! Just two contacts
followed, a struggle with Keith G4ODA IO92WS (128km) for my ODX, and towards
the end of the evening an end-stop signal from Pete G4CLA (IO92JL) at 92km. Interestingly
the Bampton beacon GB3LPC was not as strong as it is from Britwell, but still a
good signal at 559.
On 6cm WB FM I was a bit late starting and with the focus on
3cm I missed Matt G8XYJ who was out on Titterstone Clee Hill in Shropshire
IO82QJ (148km). That would have been a nice QSO - I’ll try with Matt next time! I was really chuffed to work M0RKX/P for the first time at Broadway
Tower in Worcestershire IO92BA (83km) on channel 42. He was armchair copy, the signal was so clear
it was if Mark was in the same room! Next up was a try with Matt 2EOMDJ/P on Cleve Hill. Signals were weak
and not copy-able due to my dish being low and local obstructions including the
metal farm gate, hedge and a clump of trees. After raising the TP-Link Grid
Dish up to 2m, Matt was easily worked for an ODX of 91km. Half an hour later
just before the end of the contest Stewart G0LGS/P was also worked over the
same path for a third QSO. A great
evening on 6cm WB FM and a lot of fun with the FPV units and a GHz station that
cost less than £100.
Towards the end I switched off 3cm and plugged in
13cm to complete local QSO’s with Anthony G7LRQ in Watford and Jules M0UGA/P at
Dunstable Downs. Given the path from Lacey Green to IO91RU is so obstructed we
did not try on 6cm WB FM this time. The
evening finished with a contact with Matt 2E0MDJ/P for my ODX on that band at
91km.
Overall, I was super pleased with total of 17 QSO's across 4
bands: 13cm (4), 9cm (2), 6cm WBFM (3) and 3cm (8). I worked 8 stations on 10GHz the last time I was at Lacey Green in June. I probably should have spent more time on 13cm
but with 4 bands it’s a challenge to achieve a balance. The friendly Farmer who owns the land next to the
field gate even made a visit – always a bit scary when someone pulls up in a
car next to you - to check out what all the lights were!
The Pink Road lay-by site, whilst having an excellent
take-off is actually rather small and a bit cramped with prickly hedges
both sides of the gate and barbed wire.
When the wind started to pick-up towards the end it was noticeable that
with so many dish’s and 4 transverter systems on the tripod I am maxing the
headload. I had to guy the mast toards
the end of the evening as the wind started to pick-up, to stop the whole lot
from crashing onto my car! For multi-band contests like SHF UKAC it’s time to start
thinking about upgrading to a drive on plate and using my rotator. An idea might be to mount the transverters
for 13cm and 9cm lower to reduce the weight at the top of the pole.