[UK-CONTEST] NFD09 - ADDISCOMBE ARC G4ALE/P

[G4FNL]

Quin

The NFD reports are getting better and better (following on from my comments
to Peter G3KNU). Once again, a nicely written piece that we can all
picture - but oh dear - what a calamity re: the rig. I certainly hope that
it's not too expensive (all that way and it got damaged when you got home!)

73 Graham G4FNL

-----Original Message-----
From: uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com
[mailto:uk-contest-bounces at contesting.com]On Behalf Of QUENTIN COLLIER
Sent: 18 June 2009 09:44
To: uk-contest at contesting.com
Subject: [UK-CONTEST] NFD09 - ADDISCOMBE ARC G4ALE/P



I've been prompted by the posting from Pete G3KNU to belatedly jot down our
own experiences of the NFD weekend - if only to show folks how NOT to do
NFD.

The gang of four (G3SJX, G3UFY, G3VYI and self) arrived at the farm early
afternoon, after journeys of up to 200 miles. Unfortunately the large
tractor and trailer that we normally use to ferry the gear from farmhouse to
site were unavailable this year, so we had to use a much smaller trailer
towed by a quad bike. And to make matters worse the farmer (my sister in
law - soon to be ex sister in law, but you really don't want to know about
that) had DEFRA in doing tuberculosis tests on her cattle, so yours truly
had to drive it. Luckily we also had access to a small 4x4, and all the gear
was delivered to site in a series of runs.

We got the masts, antenna and tents up (fortunately in kind weather) on
Friday evening before repairing to the local pub for a meal and beer (the
latter purely to restore our fluid balance, you will understand). Saturday
dawned dry and clear and we were able to get the ATUs tuned up without
difficulty (some kind of first, I think) - and one, which obviously hadn't
been touched since last year, gave a perfect SWR first try without any
tweaking at all. The rain set in about lunchtime and stayed until around
4.30pm. (This gave rise to a new game in which off duty personnel would bet
on whether the puddles on the roof of the tent would pour off to left or
right - sad or what?) Unfortunately the associated rain static caused quite
a few problems, and meant that we couldn't take full advantage of the inital
flurry of activity on 10m. But the rain finally cleared and we had some sun.
But the wetness set in again around noon on the Sunday and stayed until
 just after the finish, and thunderstorms in the vicinity made the RX quite
lively at times. Overall conditions seemed substantially better this year:
like nearly everyone else our QSO count was substantially up on last year
(although points per QSO were down) and it was good to have the last few
hours keep going well in contrast to the usual attritional slog.

Overall results (station was IC7800 to 274ft doublet at 35ft):

160 - 129 scoring QSOs
80 - 166
40 - 242
20 - 296
15 -134
10 - 58
Total - 1025.

UFY and I dropped in to see Derrick G3LHJ on the way home, which was good.
But when I got home, while my son and I were unloading the car, the IC7800
transit case did a 180 degree flip and deposited the contents on the
pavement, smashing the main tuning dial and bending 6 other controls enough
to need replacement. It's currently in Martin Lynch's intensive care unit
awaiting repair....hum ho, the delights of NFD.

Needless to say we'll be back next year and I am even trying to persuade the
team to do an Open section entry for 2010.

73,




Quin G3WRR    
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