Three Years On with Humber Fortress DX A.R.C
It is now almost 3 years since the founding of the club. Apart from the usual club nights, we have organised special events, activating the radio in celebration of momentous occasions, for example, the Museum and the Blackburn Beverley aircraft. The club has also taken up the challenge of the RSGB 80m CC and the 160m Club Calls contests, and year on year are showing improvements in the league table as more members start to become involved.
The whole fort is fortunate to have been built on a sand bank and then having salt water flowing around the site. These mere attributes alone means that the antennas see an effective height of 110ft ASL and an equivalent signal gain of 20dB’s on the low bands.
As with any other radio club, the antennas are the ears and mouth, and the shack the heart of the club. It our relatively short existence, we have built the shack up into a full two operator station, capable of working all the bands independently, from 160m through to 10m. In the near future we are hoping to expand again and install a third operator position for V/UHF bands. This will then further cement our founding premise for starting out, as a Contest and Special Events club.
The short time lapse video gives an indication of what has occurred in the shack over the last year; Special Events, Contesting, Teaching (how to log, operating , PSK), Guest operators, and just passing by visitors. It has all happened in the shack.
The Project room is now in constant use, with repairs taking place on old valve radios that members have brought in. There are demonstrations to the newer members of how to solder simple items, and the construction of antenna peripherals. It has been a long time coming, but this project room had construction problem to overcome due to the inability to secure to the walls. The following slide show, demonstrates how it all came together with hard work.
The clubs new mobile shack is nearing completion despite the bad weather hindering progress. The mobile shack is derived from an old BT Box van which has now been placed on a caravan chassis. For a couple events last year, we used the shack for operating even though it is not 100% complete. This has enabled us to test out its capabilities. We are able to run up to 3 operating positions from the trailer, albeit powered from Battery, Mains or Generators. It is hoped that the trailer will be used to great effect for not only operating from, but also for promoting Amateur Radio in general.