Well, after another great event the results are in for the RSGB SSB Field Day.
We came 5th in our section, from 29 stations, and just 200 points behind 4th place. An amazing achievement considering we were operating from a new untested location. A field next to the River Monnow just outside the small village of Grosmont, between Abergavenny and Hereford, IO81nv, 45 mins from Newport.
Station building began 1300utc on the 6th September (Friday) and after setting up too close to the river, with endless guy rope adjustments, everything was ready to go around 1800utc. The contest is a 24hr event, running from 1300utc Saturday until 1300utc Sunday. We entered the Low Power Unassisted Portable section, single transceiver, 100W max. One single element antenna (vertical or dipole) with a maximum of two elevated supports not exceeding 15m above ground. Receiving with more than two receivers or receiving while transmitting is not allowed. The 80m doublet worked very well over the weekend, as did the solar power, only needing an hour top up from the van alternator during the early hours of Sunday morning.
We were joined by members from both Cwmbran and District Amateur Radio Society, and Chepstow and District Radio Society. It was great to see many visitors during the day. The station was operated by six amateurs in total, with the night shift manned mostly by Gareth MW1DCF and Joe MW6MQW. The club Icom-7300 made another outing and worked flawlessly, a truly ‘big’ small radio.
A camp fire was kept going all through the night by our resident pyromaniac Ken. The communal cooking tent produced burgers, bacon butties and cider a plenty throughout the weekend.
Our error percentages were about the same as previous years, something that can still be improved to gain those points, but we were better than the contest average. I did notice that we missed some contacts on 40m this year so perhaps that can be worked on. Our qso rate is very similar to everyone else in the top 5 (if you ignore G4FNL/P).
What a fantastic event hopefully to be repeated next year.
73 MW0LGE.