[UK-CONTEST] GW0AAA/P SSB FD

[Ian Pritchard]

Rather than read this, perhaps a better option would be to follow the link from G3TXF below and  view the weekend in his excellent pictures.
 
http://www.g0aaa.com/GW0AAA-Sep12/GW0AAA-Sep-12.html
 
 
 
This was a perfectly balanced multi-national entry with two G operators (Nigel G3TXF and  Me G3WVG) accompanied by two GW operators (Steve GW4BKG and another Steve ,GW4BLE).   Now, a rhetorical question: Is it me or are there a disproportionate number of radio hams called Steve? ..but I digress.  This time we returned to an old haunt of ours. Its just across (or just inside, depending on your point of view) the Welsh border. Over the years we've got to know a farmer who has a dairy farm on the edge of the Bristol Channel, He's happy to let us use one of his his fields.and he also keeps it free of cows for the weekend.  In fact, this time he told us cheerfully that "our" field was too wet for his cows this year and we would probably get our van stuck. Luckily we didn't.
On the positive side, it didn't rain over the weekend, it wasn't too cold and we had a lot of laughs!  On the minus side, well, not much really. A bent scaffold coupler, a network glitch and a field, ankle deep in water.
 
   
G3TXF and myself travelled down with our Van (shack) the night before, paid our entry tax to cross the border and then booked ourselves into a small hotel just off the M4 near Newport. The  two Steves joined us and over supper and we spent a great evening solving most of the  Worlds problems with the aid food and wine.
We entered  the restricted section with what I guess has become the the usual set-up. A centre fed doublet, a rig with twin receivers and two networked laptops.
 
People have mentioned the All Asia contest .. for the record our average age was 63. ( even as I type this it feels hard to believe, I mean my memories of past field days see ourselves as a fresh faced  teenagers.!)  We didn't hesitate to call Asian staions and they were of course delighted to make a QSO with us.  Some even gave a serial number as well as their age.  We in turn gave both a serial and the "age" ..
We had a number of people call us who liked the sound of our call but didnt really know what field day was all about and didnt really understand the concept of serial numbers either so we just logged them as the usual 000...much to the disgust of the RSGB robot!
 
It was quite slow going compared to the CW event and we ended up with 945 qsos which include a fair sprinkling of dupes. But a great deal of fun was had by all, I probably ate my body weight in chocolate and biscuits and who knows , we may even do it again.
 
73 Ian G3WVG.
Three As Contest Group.