Members travelled to a summit 360m ASL on Tuesday 16th March to take part in the RSGB 23cm contest. Despite a generator problem and the bitter wind, the station was soon on the air and clocking up the contacts.
NWRS members travelled to Gwaenesgor on Saturday afternoon (13th March) to try out the club’s new Icom IC910HX. A station was set up adjacent to the BT mast @ 220m ASL with a clear view of around 300 degrees. The station comprised the Icom 25a PSU powered by the Honda generator and the ICOM 910HX running into the DL6WU 23cm, 23ele beam at a height of around 3m. Tuning the rig to 1296.500 fm horizontal polarization, our first call was answered by Ross G6GVI in Bolton, GW0NWR was back on air !! The calls were answered quickly including Andy G1HBE in Duckinfield, MW1FGQ in Holywell and Alan GW4HDR to name but a few. All in all we were amazed at the quantity and quality of qso’s, 23cm is a fascinating band that we are all looking forward to operating as often as possible.
Whilst on air, we were invited to enter the RSGB Microwave contest on Tuesday 16th March from 8pm until 10.30pm. All six members present have jumped at the chance and I would urge other members to join us, you dont know what you are missing! For further details please contact Gordon on 07733 531766.
We noticed another hill around 200m from the BT site with vehiclular access and what looks to be 360degree take off, this would be slightly better from a contest point of view. We will take one of the masts this time and install the new Yaesu rotator, whilst we may not win, we should do pretty well even barefoot, 10w is quite a lot up there!!
So no excuses, see you Tuesday!
