[UK-CONTEST] CW Field day. Three As Contest Group GI0AAA/P

[Ian Pritchard]

Hello UK Contesters

Field day preparations got off to an odd start  with several of the more competitive UK groups signalling their intention not to take part this year.  I can understand their reasons,
Nevertheless, Field Day has been a constant item in our diary for decades so we were always going to go ahead with it!   But this year it was with a different approach.  Instead of attempting,  once again to  win the Open or Restricted sections we would try and have some fun with a single 14MHz. band entry.  In order to give ourselves maximum flexibility with technology we had to enter the Open section, even though our antenna set-up would be very much restricted. Once again we would try a different UK location.

It was just the two of us.
 Steve GW4BLE is unwell at present but next year he'll be back in action and we'll be at full strength.   So what did we do? Nigel G3TXF and myself set off for Rathlin Island just off the north coast of Northern Ireland.  A bit of a palaver involving Large Ferries, Small Ferries, and a special permit to allow our vehicle onto the Island.  Our location was at Rue Point at the extreme south of Rathlin and our antennas were a pair of phased verticals right at the sea edge.  Now, 2 Ops and one band was a bit of overkill so to give the other person something to do Nigel set up a second station on 10MHz  to give out some GI3TXF/P  IOTA CW qsos. In fact he did exceptionally well making over 1200 Qsos on 10MHz .  His other project, a last minute descision to enter the concurrent UKSMG contest  (on 6 metres) wasn't quite so successful .. just 7 QSOs in 24 hours .. Six metres is either open or shut and for
 us it was shut!

In FD we made 767 QSOs on 14 MHz.  As we expected, by the end of the 24Hours QSOs were few and far between.

The weather was kind to us ..in so much that we didn't have even one drop of rain. It did however get a little windy.   Many years ago we decided that we should always operate from a van rather than a tent. This year we made the mistake (not to be repeated) of using a tent. The wind noise in the night was horrendous, the tent stayed intact but the flapping made copying signals really difficult and I spent a lot of time squeezing the headphones on to my head to try and cut out the extraneous noise.  I guess that setting up a station on a exposed land just metres from the edge of the Atlantic it was only to be expected that it might get breezy!

Rathlin is a gorgeous little island and when the sun is shining its well worth a trip.
Nigel has posted some excellent photos on his
 website.

<http://www.g0aaa.com/GI0AAA-Jun12/GI0AAA-Jun-12.html>

73 Ian G3WVG

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