Field weekend (3)

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TSGARC Field WeekendThis is the third post in a three part series regarding the late May field weekend of the Thornbury and South Gloucestershire Amateur Radio Club (TSGARC).

So Tuesday arrived.  Four days on site had passed very quickly.  The final day was set aside for taking everything down, packing it away, clearing the site and getting home.  No radio operation was planned. This proved a good choice as it was mid-afternoon when John finally left.

Just like the setup day, we had a good attendance and it didn’t take long for the tents to come down and packing to start.  What took time was all the little things like tables, chairs, food etc not to mention the coax, antenna masts and guys…  Anyway, by mid-afternoon everything was packed and the only evidence we had been there was the trampled grass. 🙂

TSGARC Radio TentThe objective of the weekend was not just to setup a station and make contacts but to try things that we could not try at home where space or equipment are constraining factors and to facilitate the exchange of skills and knowledge between club members.  Measured against these objectives, the weekend was a great success.  Everyone who attended had a good time and the English bank holiday weather was kind to us.

The club was active on 2m, 6m, 12m, 15m, 17m, 20m and 80m making contacts around the world.  In total we spoke to 19 countries excluding the UK.  We did not generally participate in ‘rubber stamp’ contacts, most lasted several minutes, some significantly longer.  The countries worked were:

  • America
  • Argentina
  • Aruba
  • Austria
  • Bulgaria
  • Canada
  • Israel
  • Japan
  • Kenya
  • Kuwait
  • Russia
  • Spain
  • St. Helena Is
  • Svalbard
  • Sweden
  • Turkey (maritime mobile)
  • Ukraine
  • United Arab Emirates
  • Uzbekistan

The event had 2 x 2kW and 2 x 1kW petrol generators.  The intention was to operate 1 or 2 of the 2kW units and the others would be used in case of failure.  As it turned out one of the 2kW units failed but the other worked flawlessly so no others were needed.  But just having one of the primary generators fail proved how important it was to have backups.  The amount of petrol consumed was surprisingly low (approx. 40 litres) considering almost full day/evening use.

Almost everything went well but things of special note are:

  • site access incl parking
  • the site location was close to home
  • excellent member turnout, especially on setup and tear-down days
  • the chemical toilet
  • separating the radio tent and social/domestic tent
  • trailer tower
  • G-600RC rotator.

TSGARC Catering/Domestic TentOf course there were some things that didn’t go to plan or that could be done better next time:

  • catering – bring your own food & drink failed
  • conversations still occurred in the radio tent and were hard to limit
  • disappointingly low use of VHF despite having some excellent antennas
  • failure of a primary generator.

As organiser of this event I would like to express my special thanks to the following:

  • John’s friends for the use of their field (We have bought them a bottle of Pernot and some flowers)
  • John Laney for the tents and cooking
  • Graham Clark for petrol
  • Rob Dodson for his TS-2000
  • Shirley for the wood burning stove.

Final thoughts

The message from those who attended was that this sort of event is something the club should do again before the year is out.  We will have a rethink about catering and try something different next time.  Possible options have already been identified, discussed and sound promising.

When we do this next?  Well almost anytime is possible, but there is the RSGB VHF Field Day on the 4th and 5th of July and the RSGB SSB Field day on 5th and 6th September.  We should also not forget the ARRL Field Day on June 27th and 28th….

Andrew
G0RVM

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