For the November SHF UKAC we decided to have a little bit of a party to celebrate the Drowned Rats GHz /P exploits in 2018. On a cold wet and windy Tuesday evening we gathered from 6pm at the top of Britwell Hill (IO91LO98FM), 229m (751ft) on the Chiltern Ridge. This is a useful local /P site which has the benefit of plenty of space for multiple stations with off-road parking.
The camping stove was quickly lit with kettle atop to make a warm brew. At the same time sausage and onions were cooked for our team hot dog supper. Onsite there were a total of 4 Rats - Jules M0UGA, Carl M0ICR, Richard G8FUO and myself. We started to assemble various 13cm, 9cm, 6cm WBFM and 3cm kit ready for for the 7.30pm contest start. Luckily the weather had quietened down and it was reasonably dry although there was a fine drizzle which made our tables and equipment wet.
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| Dark, Cold and Wet on Britwell Hill! |
First up on 3cm we worked Stewart G0LGS/P and Matt 2E0MDJ/P (Hereford ARS) at Birdlip Hill, Gloucestershire (IO81WU80) at 78km with good strong signals both ways. In fact over the course of the evening, abiding by the 15 minute rule for using shared kit, we all worked both of them for a total of 8 QSO's. The Zello SHF Chat channel made it super easy to arrange QSO's. We have been thankful for Stewart and Matt's company over the past year in all weathers, and much appreciate the QSO's and tests completed between us on 6cm WBFM, 3cm SSB and sometimes on 13cm SSB. I also worked Neil G4LDR (IO91EC) at 70km. The Cleeve Hill beacon GB3CCX on 10368.940MHz (IO81XW) 80km away was reassuringly a massive signal all evening. Several times we tried with Dave G4ASR (IO81MX) at 139km but despite hearing Dave with his 5W in/out of the noise, my 0.2W QRP didn't cut the mustard.
On 9cm with Mike G8CUL not around this month, we relied heavily on local station Neil G4BRK (IO91HP) at 24km for contacts with all 4 of us. Neil was end-stop as was the Bampton beacon GB3LPC (I091FR) on 3400.9350 MHz throughout the contest. I also heard Neil G4LDR much stronger on 9cm than he was on 3cm but strangely he was not able to hear my 0.2W QRP on this band. On 6cm WBFM using Jules M0UGA's kit we heard G0LGS/P once, but then they had mic audio problems (like I suffered last month) so no QSO's were made.
On 13cm, Jules M0UGA had some issues with his 28v power supply feeding the PE1RKI amp, so was running milliwatts from his SG Labs transverter. We still managed to "pass around the mic" and make contacts with Neil G4BRK who was very loud on this band too! Richard G8FUO also worked Neil G4LDR for ODX on that band.
All the GHz bands were in particularly poor shape with only a handful of folks active to try QSO's with, a shame given the excellent RS reported earlier that day. So whilst this outing was not a great success in terms of QO's - 18 on 3 bands between us - it was nonetheless a very enjoyable evening in the company of friends and fellow GHz enthusiasts, out on the hill.
Looking forward to making even more QSO's in 2019 and bolting-on some RF amps and LNA's - to make things easier on 13cm, 9cm and 3cm. Plus getting 6cm WBFM working again! Festive greetings!