You may have seen a spot from me today on 160m CW/SSB around 1030z from G/TW-004. I was setting up the antenna for the RSGB CW National Field Day Contest when I will enter in the 6 hour "QRP Get on the Air, Renewable Energy, Unassisted Portable Single Operator, Single transceiver, 5W max section using the callsign G2CP/P on Saturday 3rd June.
After trimming the antenna by shortening it 16 feet (It was resonant on 1.7 MHz!) I was able to make one QSO on 1845 KHz SSB with @G3TQQ, 20 miles away in my home town of Pickering using 50 ohm coax feeder and so get my top band activator point - thank you to Dave for coming on. I then telescoped the 12m mast down and replaced the coax with 300 ohm line. I then raised the mast again and worked several EU stations on 40m and 20m before QRT, the best contact was an S2S on 40m and 20m with HB9SOTA on HB/SO-023 who I think was Bruno @HB9CBR.
I wondered if any other activators will be taking part in CW NFD from a summit on June 3rd and 4th? I’ve done the contest before on summits - but some years ago from G/NP-009, G/NP-008 and our local office of G/TW-004 where I was today setting up my all band doublet inverted vee antenna.
Interesting Phil. Lovely weather for sitting out on TW4 and photos. Dave on Top Band too. Love the 12m mast. Hope you get success on Saturday 3rd June and the WX cooperates. If it doesn’t it’ll be easy to take a shelter with you. Henry Wiggins will be watching over you! 73, John
I don’t know the relevance of that, but it took my attention because in 1957 I started in the labs of Henry Wiggin Co as a trainee analyst, leaving when they moved from Brum to Hereford ten years later. Anyway, sorry not to have been in the house at the time, I’m always alert for the chance of a Top Band chase but the XYL dragged me out shopping!
I’m heading over to G/TW-004 after lunch to set up for the RSGB CW NFD Contest as G2CP/P which is the Scarborough ARS QRP callsign, formerly held for many years by Henry Wiggins (SK). I won’t be able to spot myself from G/TW-004 as the operation must be unassisted to comply with the rules. If Chasers spot me then there is no problem with that.
I don’t plan to start at 1500z. My operating time is limited to six hours, so I plan to start at 1515z on CW, however I will give 160m SSB a try at 1500z on 1845 KHz ± QRM and will spot myself as at that time I will not be in the contest. I don’t expect to work so many at that time on 160m SSB, however last week I did work Dave @G3TQQ over a distance of 20 miles in the middle of the day. I will be using a top band dipole fed with 300 ohm twin on a 12m mast and a KX3. I have an 18 AH LION golf trolley battery for power.
FB Nick! I hope the hare is still there. (I’m a poet but didn’t know it!). Full moon tonight so that should make it easier when packing up the station in the dark. I need to be on 160m for the double points bonus QSOs between dusk and midnight.
Well done on your DX QSOs with Indonesia and South America from there G/TW-004 yesterday!
An RBN spot is not a self-spot. Cluster spot streams are widely used in most major contests nowadays.
Announcing your working conditions for an upcoming contest in advance (ie an alert) is not against the rules. Spotting yourself during the contest is against the rules. The fact that RBNhole feeds selected spots of the RBN through to the SOTAwatch Spots is neither here nor there. If disabled or an alert not placed, the RBN will still be feeding a great many spots of contesting CW stations through to a multitude of cluster networks.
last year I participated in the RSGB NFD that runs simultaneously to IARU R1 Field Day, and it was funny to use my SOTA kit on a park.
I decided to try today for a few hours again portable.
I also participated in the QRP renewable energy unassisted and it was funny despite current conditions with deep QSB on HF.
Just another chance to run the rig out of home with simple wire antennas.
Best QSO was KL2A/1, great!
