[UK-CONTEST] VHF NFD

[Steve Bunting]

The Clifton 2008 VHF FD effort from the Kent county showground took 
place with even fewer operators than usual. With our stalwart 70cm 
operator G4FAA out of action due to family illness we decided to run 6, 
4 and 2m, with 70cm as an make weight for an hour or two overnight after 
6 finished and before 4m started. We have all the kit for a sensible 
entry and a fairly decent site, but simply can’t find the operators!

The weather forecast was ominous, with low pressure coming from the 
west. We got on site at around 10am Saturday and had tents up quite 
quickly so we had somewhere to shelter should the heavens open. In 
actual fact it was bright if breezy for all of Saturday. The antennas 
went together quickly and two 10m masts erected by 1300UTC. One mast had 
a dual band 6/4m yagi and a 21 el Tonna. The second had a 3WL 2m yagi. 
We had a minor wobble with the 2m mast as it went up but some quick work 
on the ropes ensured everything stayed up. By Clifton standards it was a 
minor tremble and will not go down in the club annals alongside the 
unrestricted downward telescope (aka collapse) of a 30m lattice mast or 
the time a passing motorcyclist ended up in the hedge bottom as Jacob’s 
ladder ascended to heaven in the field next to him.

Remarkably the RF side went together well the 6/4/70 station was based 
around an FT-847 and amplifier so that was simple and reliable all 
weekend. The 2m station was an IC-756Pro, DEM transverter and amplifier 
where the only problem was the sequencer packing up but some quick work 
with the soldering iron sorted that out in about 20 minutes. We had a 
wifi network running N1MM on site and the cluster supplied by 3G was 
reliable all weekend. The gas powered generator required no attention at 
all other than “start” and “stop”.

The low pressure and predicted heavy weather led us to expect little 
tropo enhancement once we got underway and we weren’t wrong. We made 20 
fewer QSOs on 2m than our adjudicated score last year and 130 less than 
2005. The station seemed to work, with 700Km contacts to the bigger 
continental contest stations but we simply didn’t get a run of the 
average “near continental” home stations that makes a 2m contest 
weekend. We also closed down on 2m overnight as the average age of the 
club is reflected in reduced willpower and conditions didn’t warrant the 
effort. We had a tune around on 70cm and worked the locals over an hour 
or so for a token entry so can’t really comment on that band.

6m provided some entertainment. With a few minutes to go before the 
contest started, I found the CY0X DXpedition running stations on cw and 
worked them first call. I then duped them at the start of the contest 
(sorry guys - well not really) for what turned out to be our best DX at 
4490 Km. From there on we had a reasonable time with spotty SpE 
throughout the contest from all over Europe. G7TWC put in a shift on SSB 
to make many of the contacts. The Sunday 4m session with G3JKY at the 
helm had a fast start, but the contacts soon dried up. We were unable to 
contact IK0SMG via SpE early in the contest (he appeared for about 3 
minutes) but getting a very weak CT1HZE in the last few minutes helped 
enormously. We didn’t help ourselves mind, as a Caribbean opening on 6m 
caused a quick QSY and and bagged PJ6, TO5E and three KP4’s outside of 
the contest and for some entertainment in the middle.

The wind and rain really ratcheted up at around noon Sunday, making for 
a wet tear down. I didn’t feel that the weather was as bad as the 
forecast predicted, but we were off site two hours after the contest 
ended so it certainly speeded us up!

Operators: G0DCG, G3JKY, M0BPQ, G7TWC, G4RFC

Equipment: FT847 on 70cm (21 el, fed with LDF5-50), 4m (5 el), and 6m (4 
el fed with ecoflex 15). IC-756Pro + DEM transverter + amp for 2m (9 el 
fed with LDF5-50). Overall mix and match section. Score summary from N1MM:

Band	Call	Mode	QSOs	Pts	ODX 	KM
50	M0BPQ/p	Mix	72	62429	CY0X	4490	
70	M0BPQ/p	Mix	34	8282	CT1HZE	1728
144	G3GHN/p	USB	147	34270	F1USF/p	798
420	M0BPQ/p	USB	12	1396	DK0PU	429