At the end of June for the UKuG 5GHz/10GHz cumulative contest I visited a new site in Swallowfield (IO91MJ) above the A33, just south of Reading. It's a location that I've tried out a couple of times quite successfully in the 70cm and 23cm UKAC's. The site is a quiet field gate with convenient off-road parking just east of another site I've used at Beech Hill (IO91LI) which is more exposed and lower.
This was my first outing to Swallowfield on the higher GHz bands. A concern I have is that it its relatively low (68m ASL) and has trees and hedges in lots of directions. There is a clear take-off with the horizon visible to the west north west.
After a quick set-up I called CQ on the 2M Microwave talkback frequency of 144.390MHz SSB and found Dave G1EHF/P on Walbury Hill at 36km. It was a difficult obstructed path through some trees and we struggled to find a clear 6cm WBFM channel with 33 and 42 both full of WiFi data hash! Channel 43 (5780GHz) was clear and that worked and a QSO was completed despite some intermittent audio issues my side. It was the only 6cm WBFM QSO in the contest as all other entrants were using narrowband SSB or CW systems. This can be seen from the final results table on the UKuG website:
Unfortunately my 10GHz transverter would not power up and despite trying lots of things (including taking it all to bits and re-building it), no QSO's took place. Sadly it needs some attention (its currently on the bench). After 30 minutes I packed up and returned home.
This was my first outing to Swallowfield on the higher GHz bands. A concern I have is that it its relatively low (68m ASL) and has trees and hedges in lots of directions. There is a clear take-off with the horizon visible to the west north west.
After a quick set-up I called CQ on the 2M Microwave talkback frequency of 144.390MHz SSB and found Dave G1EHF/P on Walbury Hill at 36km. It was a difficult obstructed path through some trees and we struggled to find a clear 6cm WBFM channel with 33 and 42 both full of WiFi data hash! Channel 43 (5780GHz) was clear and that worked and a QSO was completed despite some intermittent audio issues my side. It was the only 6cm WBFM QSO in the contest as all other entrants were using narrowband SSB or CW systems. This can be seen from the final results table on the UKuG website:
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| June UKuG Contest Results for 5GHz |
Unfortunately my 10GHz transverter would not power up and despite trying lots of things (including taking it all to bits and re-building it), no QSO's took place. Sadly it needs some attention (its currently on the bench). After 30 minutes I packed up and returned home.