Last month was probably one of the busiest so far with a number of events taking place all within a short space of time, taking in 3 amateur radio events and one to mark the end of me being a part of the university student fold.
SSB Field day
For the first time in a couple of years I took part in SSB Field day with the Oxford and District Amateur Radio Society, conditions were poor although we did make around 941 QSOs in the 24 hour period and didn’t have any major problems apart from static rain.
GB2CCC
Every year we take part in the special event station, at Christ Church Cathedral in Oxford which is for the Oxfordshire Historic Churches Trust, Ride and Stride. The amateur radio station counts as a point to anyone who visits and is organised by Harry G3NGX.
G3NGX and G0GWK
Sadly I didn’t get to the station in till just after lunch time (it was graduation the day before!) so everything was already setup using a Kenwood TS570 and a G5RV for HF and a mobile FT-100 and whip to get access to the local repeaters and work the odd station simplex.
Like usual conditions were pretty grim and we kept to 80m for the main bulk of qsos, but we had plenty of interest from the public walking past. Not sure how many qsos were put into the logbook but I’m guessing around 150.
Kempton Radio Rally
Kempton Radio Rally was slightly earlier this time but nonetheless Barry (G4AZN), Terry (G0LUQ), Dad (M3JFM) and I went along to see if there were any bargains to be had. First call was ML&S to pick up a new VHF/UHF radio, in the form of a Yaesu FT-7800 plus we also got the extension kit free with it!
We then proceeded to have a look around, unlike previous years the number of trades and visitors were down, whether this was due to it conflicting with another event or if it was just a show of things to come in the future with everyone watching the amount of money they spend.
Lunchtime came and we was joined by Paul (M0TZO) who I run HamTests with, so some friendly banter was exchanged before having a final look around the rally where Dad picked up a weather station from ML&S just before we exited the building.