[UK-CONTEST] GQ pfx

[Clive Whelan]

Ahem, prepare have your bottom bored off!

25 years ago, ah yes I remember it well. To my great chagrin I 
had missed the special Jubilee holiday altogether because I was 
manning the company's stand at DRUPA ( printing exhibition) in 
Dusseldorf, which strangely didn't care about such things!

I remember leaving Dusseldorf on the Friday afternoon, flying 
back to LHR, train to Cardiff, arrive ca 22z. Unpack bags, hit 
the sack. Up at 07:00 hit the M4 mid morning and arrive Swansea 
NFD site, and start assembling antennas as soon as it was 
permitted( was it midday forget now?), with GW3OAY and the rest 
of the Jacks. 

Apparently it had been decided that the call used would still be 
GW5ZL/P and *not* GE5ZL/P, the reason being that GE was an 
"enhancement" to a G call but not to a GW call. I recall that 
this a matter of some debate and controversy at the time. I 
confess that my memory could be suspect, but we possibly used 
the FL/FR 500 separates into an inverted vee doublet which was 
264ft in total for 160m, but had shorting links which were 
removed during daylight, for better performance on HF. The 
support for this was a three section Aluminium ladder, which was 
just pushed up handraulically, and guyed in two places. The 
weather, I recall, was quite untypical of NFD, being warm and 
dry! We were on the North Gower peninsular, and the tide almost 
surrounded us as it came in. In the distance one could see the 
cockle pickers at Penclawdd, and in the other direction, it was 
alleged that one could see the boathouse at Laugharne, where 
Dylan Thomas wrote so much of his work. Although I couldn't 
personally verify the latter, it was a nice romantic idea, which 
provided inspiration to keep the rate up! 

About ten years previously, Mary Hopkin, a local girl, had sung 
" Those were the days my friend, we thought they'd never end, 
we'd sing and dance for ever and a day", and that's how I 
remember that magical NFD. Reminiscences of a tired OF?; very 
possibly, but I'm glad I was there!



Oh, did I mention GW5ZL/P won NFD that year?




73


Clive

 
 Donald Field wrote:
> Just like 25 years ago when we used the letter E rather than Q
>

GW3NJW
gw3njw at gw7x.org
Contest Cambria-http://www.gw7x.org