In celebration of the wedding of Kate to Prince Bill on Fri 29 Apr 11 lunch will be served on the summit of Easington Fell at 1200A.
The theme will be pricesses and their knights and diners must be dressed accordingly and sporting the emblem of the Royal House of Lancaster.
Mead will be served promptly at 1230 although diners must bring their own caviar. Champagne will be available on a first come first served basis.
Please signify your attendance in the usual manner.
It must be noted that as Prince Bill will be otherwise engaged there maybe no Long Tailed Yellow Choppers (sporting the pi and the malteese cross) available.
A four-day weekend for International SOTA Weekend - nice! Shame for any associations in places that won’t have the bank holidays on the Friday and Monday.
Must speak to Mr ISW (Sean M0GIA) and see if we’re planning anything major.
In reply to G6DDQ:
Well I may well be chasing summits that day, but I have to admit that I have absolutely no interest in the wedding and certainly won’t be going to any celebrations in connection with it. Might even go for a full day activation well away from it all…
Probably not! I can think of a few places in the UK that won’t be dealing with power surges in the adverts!
I have no interest in it and won’t be watching / celebrating. But I am quite grateful for the extra day off. If William gets me out fellwalking for an extra day, then in return I wish him a very nice marriage.
I suppose, morally, I should use that day off to watch proceedings on the telly and put bunting up in my garden. But I suspect we will be off SOTAing somewhere if the wx is nice.
Now, wonder if I can get a four-day pass to go LD SOTAing with Jimmy? Fancy Pillar, High Stile, Hard Knott, Seatallan and Black Combe…
I get a day off work. In exchange I’m happy to think positive thoughts for the couple. I don’t have to watch the TV coverage nor take part in anything for my free day off so it seems a fair exchange to me.
The royal family cost £ 38.2m in 2009-10 or 62p per taxpayer per year. Figures are difficult to calculate, but the estimated value to the UK tourist industry from the royal family is put around £ 300m/year. A benefit to the economy of 8 times their cost which looks good to me.
For republicans, removing the royal family will require the appointment of a head of state, a president. Looking at most republics, their presidents are all ex-politicians. So you would exchange one privileged family with a positive benefit to the economy with a former politician who would also have a significant cost to the taxpayer without the tourism benefit.
In the absense of anarchy, the monarchy seems the best deal for the taxpayer. That doesn’t include the bonus of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh whose ability to insult all nations,races, peoples etc. is simply priceless.
In reply to MM0FMF.Hi Andy You have summed it up niceley.I couldn`t agree more for my money they are well worth the 60 odd pence.All the best 73 Geoff G6MZX
In reply to MM0FMF:
That doesn’t include the bonus of HRH Prince Philip, Duke of
Edinburgh whose ability to insult all nations,races, peoples etc. is
simply priceless.
Not to mention Prince Charles, who’s ability to rake down architects for some of their more revolting creations is worth every penny and makes up for his “New Age” nonsense!
Tom, take your wet weather gear to LD - its a wedding, it always rains on weddings!
Tom, take your wet weather gear to LD - its a wedding, it always rains
on weddings!
Not always. In fact the first time I ever went up Helvellyn was on one of the Royal wedding days. I forget whose it was but I do remember it was a gloriously sunny day. Whilst my father, my brother and myself and a few hundred others went up LD-003 the rest of the family hid indoors with curtains closed to catch the ‘action’.
I was in the Lake District for Diana/Charlies wedding playing 2m from Helvellyn with a home made aluminium 5 ele beam and an FT290…Ironically, I was also in the Lake district playing radio from a summit when the split was announced.
Is the Lake District bad news for weddings?
Do I spend too much time there?
Should I not go for the sake of Prince Bill’s future happiness?
Lake District here we come. Some serious unique activating to be done, kicking off with Blencathra G/LD-008 and ending with Swinside G/LD-057. In the middle we hope to do a round of the Wainwright Langdale Pikes with several WOTA activations (2m HH only) and High Raise G/LD-019 as the day’s SOTA activation.
I trust Her Majesty The Queen has ordered the weather for the weekend, and arranged for it to extend throughout her Kingdom.
In reply to G3YMC:
Agreed, no interest in the wedding, but I wish them well and hope their’s survives longer than many of the other royal marriages. XYL and I (I’ve done my two life sentences and a few more) will be in the caravan at Pandy, so a few G/WBs or GW/SWs could be activated. Hope it’s not raining, but suspect a contest over the weekend will limit hf SOTA activities.
So well as wishing them well you can also celebrate by using a special callsign. Just seen this on the RSGB website.
Special temporary call signs for Royal Wedding
RSGB has agreed with Ofcom arrangements for all UK Radio Amateurs to opt to use special callsigns for a period of eleven days beginning on the date of the marriage of H.R.H. Prince William and Miss Catherine Middleton, 29th April 2011.
Use of the special prefix, which is “GR, MR or 2R”, is conditional on allocation of a Notice of Variation (NoV) which can be quickly obtained via a simple process on the Society’s website, where full details of the arrangements can also be found.
UK amateurs wishing to use the special prefix should visit
and follow the guidance there. The last date and time for application is 6.00 pm on 26th April 2011. All NoVs will be provided by close of business on 28th April. No postal applications will be accepted and all NoVs will be sent by email.
Not sure if it will be of interest to me as I’m having to work still I do get time and a half and a day off later in the year.
Not sure if it will be of interest to me as I’m having to work still I do get >time and a half and a day off later in the year.
Well I have applied for mine, in fact for all the calls I hold for the very simple reason that prefix hunters go crazy for them.
In 2009, Scottish stations were able to use A as the secondary locator, i.e. my call was MA0FMF. I didn’t think much too it but as it was simply a matter of clicking the link to get the NoV, I did so. Like a silly billy I used it on and off mainly on 60m. Then I went SOTAing on 40m with the prefix and the effect was as if I had a significant amp and antenna in use. Really quite wild pile-ups as people worked an “MA” prefix.
My employers have slewed wildly over whether we are having the day off. First we were, then we weren’t and now we are. But you have to take the wedding day off, you can’t float the day to sometime more convenient. Except in our office, we’re wanted to do rush job. However, I’ll be out that weekend with MR0FMF and GR3PYU on the air. I’ve been practicing trying to send them on the key but it requires much concentration not to drop into memory keyer mode!
Hmmm… It’s going to be fun trying to figure out whether that R caller’s near Land’s End, John o’Groats, the White Cliffs, St. David’s, or wherever, though…
In reply to GW7AAV:OK, then I don’t expect a chase from you when I’m (subject to the weather) somewhere on a GW/SW summit, hiding from the inevitable party on a touring caravan site somewhere near Abergavenny.
73 de Dave G®6DTN
PS GR6 died in 1952, I believe. ER2 calls from where, please?
Dave
I don’t believe you Steve. Unfortunately, I see that you have Swinside G/LD-057 in your chaser log, so I cannot twist your arm behind your back with that one on the Bank Holiday Monday.
All the same, I do hope that somebody with the GR or MR special prefix activates Crowborough G/SE-007 on the NoV dates to test your resolve.
I have no great affinity with the monarchy, although I do appreciate the day off. Moreover, I am looking forward to my 20m CW pile-ups from SOTAs with the MR1 prefix, especially after announcing the WFF reference!!! (No affinity with WFF either, but I will shamelessly use anything to my own personal advantage).
