Brilliant Bank Holiday Afternoon at Brill, 13 QSO's on 3cm!

The UKuG's first 10GHz/5GHz contest was fast approaching at the end of May, and I wanted to try a new location, somewhere totally different. I scanned the online maps looking at possible sites and narrowed it down to 4 previously unexplored options: Barkway (IO92XA92 or JO02AA02), Therfield (IO92XA03 or IO92XA13), Dasset Hill (IO92HD08) or Brill (IO91LT19). Looking at the HeyWhatsThat Path Profiler the Brill site looked amazing and it is also the closest site being about 1 hours drive away via the M40 from Wargrave.

Brill is a well known radio location and most folks operate from Brill Windmill which is on common land in the centre of the village. The land rises higher to the North and the highest spot is actually Muswell Hill, listed on the HEMA website (HuMPs Excluding Marilyns Award) as G/HCE-016. A HuMP is a summit that has Hundred Metre Prominence, meaning that it sticks up above the surrounding land by at least 100m. A Marilyn is a summit with 150m prominence. HEMA is an award site for HuMPs with a prominence of less than 150m. Marilyns have their own award scheme through SOTA. The HEMA scheme currently operates in the UK and Ireland, other parts of Europe and Australia and is quite popular will "Hill Baggers". The Trig at Brill is 198m ASL and the prominence is 126m, with spectacular 360 degree views.

3cm and 6cm on the Tripod at Brill

The access arrangements at Brill are complicated and walkers need to stick to the footpath as the actual summit trig point is in the middle of a privately owned field. I arrived at the footpath entrance just to the South West of the summit. Jules M0UGA arrived onsite to say hello. To start with I set up nearby just along the footpath but there are a lot of trees and the Reigate beacon on 10GHz was shielded. I decided to re-position the tripod further along the footpath, nearer the trig point. At this point the farmer drove up and asked what I was doing. I sought her permission to operate at the actual trig point, which she was reasonably happy to allow just for the afternoon. However she asked that I seek prior permission via email to notify her of any future visits to the summit field. During the Covid pandemic, like a lot of land owners that have trig points, she had experienced troublemakers playing loud music, leaving litter, and not adhering to social distancing rules.

At the trig point it was fabulous to hear 3 beacons GB3SEE on 10368.850MHz in Reigate (IO91VG41, 84km), GB3CAM on 10368.755MHz in Cambridge (IO92WI53, 87km) and GB3LEX on 10368.955MHz in Leicester (IO92IQ45, 99km). On 10GHz I used my HB9CV for talkback and just the 3W from the FT-817ND. First in the log was Martyn G3ZME/P at Brown Clee a massive signal (I082QL, 132km), then John G4ZTR (JO01KW, 133km). I then worked Barry G4SJH/P on Walbury Hill which was visual LOS with the binoculars just behind the Chiltern Ridge in the haze (IO91GI, 59km). 

I tuned around and was shocked to hear Clive GW4MBS/P (IO71XW, 207km near Swansea) calling CQ! He was a huge signal and my ODX of the day! Local (<100km) QSO's followed with David M0GHZ (IO81VK, 91km), Neil G4LDR (IO91EC, 89km). Next in the log again with very strong signals were Keith GW3TKH/P and Pete GW4HQX/P who were co-sited at The British (IO81KR, 144km). 

I was also monitoring the SHF Chat channel on the freeware Zello Push-to-Talk (PTT) Mobile App, and was pleased to have a very easy SSB contact with Paul M0EYT who was at Ridgway Hill on the Purbecks in Dorset (IO80WP, 151km). Later in the afternoon I had QSO's with Keith G4ODA (IO92WS, 124km), Dave G4RGK (IO91ON, 33km), Bryan G8DKK (IO91VX, 61km) and finally Pete G4CLA (IO92JL, 76km). The last QSO was helped by plugging in the Pluto SDR and finding Pete's signal on the waterfall with SDR Console.

My 6cm system, after having problems at Britwell in the May SHF UKAC, was playing-up and the USB Relay board was clearly broken and could not be found or controlled by my laptop. So I tried with the Pluto barefoot connected directly via the TX then RX SMA outputs to the back of the dish. Neil G4BRK and the G3SME/P team at Brown Clee could not hear me despite me hearing them. Finally I had success with Dave G1EHF/P at Walbury Hill (IO91GI, 59km) for my only QSO on the band. Chuffed that my 1mW (or 0.001W) reached Walbury!

I was well pleased with 13 QSO's on 3cm, and with the single QSO on 6cm that made 14 contacts in total, a record to-date for my portable GHZ operations. The site at Brill is truly amazing and I plan to return later in the year (subject to landowner permission) to try out 24GHz and 47GHz. It will be very interesting to see how the site performs on the mmWave bands.