[UK-CONTEST] SSB Field Day 2008+2m SSB G2AS/p and G3RCM/p

[Colin Wilson]

Ok well I will be the second to tell our tale of this weekends great
event!

We entered the none restricted bit with all the bells and whistles!
G2AS/P went on air as predicted on time and with Peter G3PHO on the mic,
we had spent all morning setting up the station FT2000 with a SPE Expert
amp - Antennas were A4S (40m -10m yagi) and an inverted V for 80m, the
sun was to shine on us throughout the set up and on pushing the PTT and
calling our first CQ Contest, down came the rain bang on 1300Z just as
we kicked off the contest, amazing like we really were in control!! It
only lasted an hour or so but by then we didn't care (despite the fields
around us being flooded Peter never noticed it was raining - even 70
year olds get excited in contests!)

I have to say band conditions were not impressive by any means for the
most we worked EU with the very odd W or VE being around until later in
the evening when we worked a reasonable pile up on 20m of US and
Canadian stations, at 1am we were on target to meet last years score
which put us 6th so we were doing ok and so far no major disasters other
than finding the bit of coax cable used during our MM3M IOTA operation
in July that has a short in the cable (Not the PL259's but the coax
itself)! But for some reason and I'm told it was not a lack of fuel, the
generator crashed at about 3am taking with it all things electric
including the laptop which for some reason meant we lost the second
screen once everything was back up and despite 3 re-boots with or
without the VDU attached  it would only show the screen saver! (Yep we
still don't know why - it worked fine with my laptop next morning).  Any
way things were not good during the night (the wx holding nice) then
Sunday morning we got openings on 15m and 10m, not much but enough to
work a few multipliers which boosted our final score, it was not to last
though but it was not long before the JA's were pounding through on 20m.
Still no VK or ZL activity - did anyone work any?  

Our overall performance is okay were 55,000 up on last year and a total
of 947 QSO's which is also up on our 866 claimed last year.

Surprisingly we did not do much on 40m as previous years but we did 300
on 80m and the most of course as you would expect on 20m.

Band    QSO         DXCC      
80       300         25
40       130         19
20       472         56
15        33          8
10        12          8
         947         116
Total points 405,304 claimed, don't think were looking at any major
awards again this year!

Wintest V3.2 used and performed extremely well.  Would you believe that
we had sunshine for dismantling the station, then we had an fantastic
thunder storm which flooded the fields around us again the minute we
were finished with the exception of getting the generator into the back
of Peters van! (Peter noticed this time)  Thanks then I think to the WX
controller for looking after us all.  I have not heard of any major
disasters around the country yet so I hope everyone enjoyed the contest
as much as we did despite the wx and all returned home safe to contest
again another day....

Some of our guys may have worked you also as G3RCM/p on 2m SSB this
morning I think we did 25 or so in between cups of tea when not
operating on the FD event! Was there a lift on? We worked GM, F, PA and
ON and many G's all over the country. If we did work you then you might
like to know we were running an FT857d with about 50w (I think) and a
3el SOTA beam about 15ft above the ground 700 ft ASL on the borders of
North Derbyshire/South Yorkshire. Seems to be a good site for VHF
contests so we will be back! First time I have tried that antenna - its
great and highly recommended for any budding SOTA contesters out there!

Thanks to all who took part especially if you worked us - see you next
time around

G2AS/p - on behalf of the Sheffield Amateur Radio Club
73
Colin G3VCQ