[UK-CONTEST] NFD Report Echelford Amateur Radio Society

[G3KKQ at aol.com]

This year we were very short of CW operators so we decided to enter the QRP 
section once again. The fact was that G3KKQ went swanning off to the Isle of 
Wight for a friend's birthday celebration. (Not without the FT 817 and a 40M 
dipole. The sole operating burden fell on the shoulders of John G4IRN.
Since we were running QRP using the K2, it was thought appropriate to run the 
whole station on batteries, and a 300W generator was taken along to power 
lights and soldering iron etc.
Masts, tent and antenna were erected by midday Saturday, enabling the crew to 
take necessary refreshment.

The first problem was encountered when setting up the laptop. The dc power 
connector was the wrong size, so we had to run it off the generator.
We started on time and things went smoothly, taking  break for evening meal 
until John retired for the night at 0130 local time. He had made 235 QSOs and 
spent 6 1/2 Hrs of the 12 allowed.
Starting around 0800 local, he went to start the generator and the cord came 
off in his hand. All attempts to repair it failed so Stuart, M0SAR nipped home 
in the car and fetched a dc to ac invertor. We were back in action again by 
0950 local time.
40M and above were all active from then on and John plugged away without a 
break until the 12 hours were up at 1445. 364 QSOs in the log 1690 points 
claimed.
Thanks to the team of willing helpers who helped put it all together; to 
Nigel G0VDZ for the use of his caravan and barbeque and Huw M0WDX for making an 
NFD Flag to advertise our presence!

G3KKQ