Tag Archives: 10m

ARRL International DX Contest 2023

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ARRL International DX Contest 2023

This year the HFDXARC acquired the brand new contest call of M6C which we are very proud of and put to good use this time around.
This contest itself is very different from the CQWW, in that we can only score points with QSOs in the USA and Canada, and this meant a totally different strategy being adopted.

The team comprised of 10 members who were all geared up for different time slots throughout the weekend. This in itself was difficult, as we needed the station staffed at all times, even when North America was sleeping.
Friday night saw a team of 3 begin the contest, which started very slow ( as expected ) and eventually sprang into action sat morning. We held frequencies on 10 / 15 / 20 meters and called CQ, to which the response was amazing. At one stage on Sunday, we racked up a 400 QSO count over 2 hours.

So as you can imagine it was frantic and none stop, but during this period an old friend of the Club from over the pond, Steve W4SLT called in and wanted a quick chat with Andy G7LRR. Not exactly the right time eh, but Steve has not spoken to anyone at the Club in over 10 years, and even paid us a visit from across the pond one year. It was an absolute pleasure working with Steve who is now back in touch with the Club.
Amazingly, with the conversation over, I called CQ Contest again and was hit by a wall of stations calling in. Credit to the Americans for their patience and understanding, top operators.

So we kept at it and went right through to the finish Sunday midnight. We hit over One million points for this contest, which is an amazing achievement for the Club, given it was the first time entered by us.
The whole weekend was an absolute pleasure to be involved in, and again the support shown by both Club members and guests was incredible.
A few pictures from the event are below, but the intended video was not done as planned due to how busy everyone was. The next one we shall be better prepared for.

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A massive thanks go out to everyone who took part, and to all those who supported us throughout the planning and execution of the contest. The club is picking itself back up after Covid and has a very vibrant feel to it. We have new and old members joining and also have now adopted a digital membership, following many recent requests. More details are on the website regarding this.
Call signs of contesters are
Andy G7LRR – Chris G0URG – Steve M0EBJ – Andy 2E1TAP – SUE M6URG – DAVE 2E0TKO – KEVIN M0KVK – MARCIN M0GLV – LEE G0ULN – John G6LNV
We welcome visitors, guests, and membership requests and openly encourage you all to come down and see us at the clubhouse.

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More details on the website along with contact details.

 

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Posted in Club News, Contests, Events, Todays News

Cold Nights and Going Green M0KVK Style

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Well, last weekend saw Kevin M0KVK testing out the new Club winter uniform, this was suggested by Jason M0MGF the club’s treasure, As he informed the membership of rising costs running the 3KW heaters all the time, and suggested warmer clothes.

Kevin set the standard with his list below

Thermal Hat, Gloves, and Scarf

and fleece lined Slippers of course to keep your feet warm

and for really cold DX nights a hot water bottle is a must.

Now Kevin found operating the Radio a little hard with the Big Gloves on, he has asked for a bigger VFO knob to be fitted on all radios as this could be the way forward he thinks.

The biggest problem was when operating the keyboard four keys would be pressed at once, this resulting in some funny callsign being entered into the logbook, Kevin has asked if we can look into the bigger keyboards with bigger keys on them.

 

 

  Kevin feels the first run out was a success and looks forwarded to other Members coming forwarded with more warm Ideas.

 

P.S

I think I will just stick to the 3KW Heaters :).

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Posted in Club News, News Letters, Todays News, Uncategorized

what else would you do on cold winter Saturday mornings

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Well, what else would you do on cold winter Saturday mornings, well in true Amateur Radio Fashion, Antenna work of course?

Two of our Members Bob M0RWL and John G6LNV required long-awaited help with antenna Works.

Bob required help to install a new 3 element mini beam on his tower.

John required help to install a trapped invert L for 40/80/160 bands.

First up was for Bob M0RWL to install his New 3 Element Mini Beam

Saturday 5th of February saw Steve 2E0NSQ and Andy G7LRR turn up to Bobs M0RWL house at 9:30 am to begin helping him erect his new 3 element mini beam on his tilt-over tower.

Bob had already got his beam 99% built and ready to go. It just required a final fine-tuning which Bob and Steve got on with right away.

The tower was luffed over and the old 2 Element beam which had served Bob well for many years removed.

There was also the rotator in need of repair. This took some time as two 500ohm potentiometer in the feedback circuit was in need of replacement, one in the rotator and the other in the controller. This circuit helps to track the rotator as it rotates the beam. This task was undertaken by Andy G7LRR.

Once the rotator was working, we mounted the new beam and raised the tower again. As luck would have it, Bob and Steve had made a great job in fine-tuning the antenna and no extra was required.

Bob was impressed as the antenna tested on 20m 17m 15m 12m 10m at a low power of 5 watts, easily making contacts into Europe.

This task took the three of us nearly all day but was great fun. Many thanks to Bob and his daughter for providing the nutrition in the form of some great bacon and egg sandwiches, which kept us going throughout.

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Next up was Johns G6LNV  40m 80m 160m trapped Inverted L

Saturday 12th of February at 9:00 am; it was a cold and raining day which never stopped.

Kevin M0KVK, John M0JDT, Jason M0MGF, Andy G7LRR turning up at John’s G6LNV house with the aim of sorting John’s wire antennas..

Wrapped up in warm winter clothes, they began the task of getting an inverted L in the sky for 160-40m.

John already had a 20ft support pole at the bottom of his garden and a halyard on his chimney stack; these were put to good use.

At the base of the 20ft pole, we installed a 4ft copper grounding rod into the wet soil.

Next, a counterpoise of 130ft of wire was placed down one side of the garden fence which runs more of else under where the inverted-L is to be positioned.

 

The base of the connection plate, which was made at the radio club a few weeks prior, was then connected to the earth.

 

Then it was time for the new run of RG-213 coaxial from the feed-point to the shack at the front of the property.

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The trapped Inverted L that had been constructed by Andy G7LRR at the Radio club was hoisted aloft. With the Inverted-L in the air, Kevin M0KVK and Jason M0MGF checked the SWR with an antenna analyser, while John M0JDT and Andy G7LRR made adjustments to result in good readings for the said bands.

Once 40m, then 80m, and finally 160m was completed, the connections were all soldered and sealed, and the antenna hoisted high in the air and secured.

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Now complete, It is all for John to rebuild his shack and to re-connect up his radio, then we can all hear how well it is working.
Although it was a cold and damp day, with the team effort we succeeded in getting Johns Inverted-L up

Well done to all that helped our members in need.

It was great getting back out and helping those in need after all the Covid-19 lockdown periods and to see the club working as a team.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted in Club News, News Letters, Todays News

CQWW 2021 has been Fun.

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We were well ready to hit a big Contest this year once lockdown was lifted, and what a contest to start off on again the CQWW 2021.

Armed with 3 Stations make for contesting, Antenna’s for all Bands and 8 Operators ready to go we were set.

1 am Friday night saw Andy G7LRR, Kevin M0KVK, Andy M0TTL, Marcin M0GLV, and Our Guest Operator for the weekend Steve M0EBJ from Norwich start the contest off.

Marcin M0GLV working 80m and stacking points up very quickly.

But in the early hours 80m falls off and Marcin’s face says it all

 

Andy M0TTL on 40m

Kevin M0KVK on 20m


Steve M0EBJ takes Over 20m

All the above worked the night shift until 9 am.

Chris G0URG, Andy G7LRR, John G6LNV takes over for the Saturday Daytime shift while Kevin and Steve get some well-earned sleep.

 

Chris G0URG working 40m

Andy G7LRR on 40m

By Sunday morning the team had worked just under one million Score on the CQ WW, this was already a new record for the Club.

 

But Paul 2E0PWP and Steve M0EBJ take the Club well over the million score mark late afternoon Sunday.

 

 

 

All Weekend we needed to keep the engine running and this meant feeding the Team 

Linda   Andy’s Wife did this by making a big pot of beef stew that all enjoyed, along with a  bacon and egg pie.

Bacon Butty in the mornings as well.

Kevin was very busy in the kitchen enjoying Linda’s cooking.

John G6LNV kept us all top up with drinks, while he played mother cleaning the social area of the Club, he is timed served we here on the hover.

By the end of the Contest, we had done very well and set the bar high with all-time record score for the Club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fun slide show movie of the full weekend

 

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Posted in Club News, Contests, Events, News Letters, Todays News
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