The weather looked poor for the August SHF UKAC and it did not disappoint. That day Storm Francis lashed the UK with severe 70-80mph wind gusts and heavy rain. Most of the South East was forecast to be wet and the only area that looked to be dry was the North Downs.
After Googling sites along the ridge between Dorking and Guildford, a location on Staples Lane (IO91SF28SE) was spotted. This site is currently being used for the 6/4M UKAC’s and on arrival the view towards London was amazing! I co-sited with Jules M0UGA/P who had driven down from St. Albans to do 13cm.
It was nice to arrive early and not be in a rush. I used the 5M telescopic mast on the drive on plate and decide to put 3 dish’s on the same mast. It was already getting windy and I guyed the mast to two fence posts. In fact it was starting to get extremely gusty and I was a bit concerned it if was going to stay upright. The 1M Gibertini dish for 10GHz was like a sail. It started to rain and I hugddled under an umbrella trying to keep the kit dry. The operating conditions and GHGz band conditions were together atrocious.
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| Windy Conditions on the North Downs |
On 9cm, 2 QSO’s were completed with locals G8CUL (IO91JO, 67km) and G4BRK (IO91HP, 79km). On 6cm no QSO’s and also zero on 3cm, although I heard John G4ZTR and he could just make my signal out (JO01KW, 121km).
Most disappointingly, there weren’t many stations on to try with, I counted at one point only 12 on KST. That evening was probably one of the worst and most dangerous conditions I have ever operated under and I was glad to pack everything away without anything being broken or lost. Definitely one to forget!