IMW 2023

International Museums Weekend 2023

17th to 18th & 24th to 25th June

NHARG planned to run both weekends from two different locations initially the first was from Moira Furnace, Swadlincote, Derbyshire using the call sign GB0MFM museum number 5443.

Operators for the event Steve – M0OSI, Stefan – M0OSL, Derry – 2E0RRF & Ron – 2E0FBT

Hoping for an early start with some of the equipment taken up the day before, but still requiring the erection of the antenna system Tri-Band collinear & trapped dipole for 20/40/80m we had a feeder issue on the tri-band collinear, so we had to quickly resolve the issue before we could get the station up and running.

This took a little more time that we hadn't planned for, so we didn’t get active until mid to late morning.

The equipment used on this occasion was the Icom 706 MKIIG for 2m & Yaesu FT100D for HF & FT8.

Weather was a little overcast with threats of rain on the horizon, but with the forecast for the Sunday looking quite bleak with heavy rain and thunder storms, we made the decision that we would completely pack down and make it the event a one day only this weekend. All fun was had by the operators involved and as always we look forward to operating from the Furnace.

The following weekend the location changed to the Great British Car Journey Museum over at Ambergate Derbyshire using the call sign GB0CJM museum number 5485.

Operators for the event Stefan – M0OSL, Connor – 2E0EIY & Derry – 2E0RRF From this location we could only operate on HF bands has from previous experience VHF was a no go being in the Amber Valley.

So the planned activity was to operate one HF station on FT8 (using the Yaesu FT100D) and the other HF station (Icom 706 MKIIG) on Voice. Using a combination of antennas 20/40/80 trapped dipole and the R5 Vertical throughout the day.

The weather held out but again like on the previous weekend the forecast for the Sunday had issued heavy rain and thunder storms, so once again we cut the operation short. Overall the two days that we managed to activate we all had fun and enjoyed both locations.

Many thanks again to Moira Furnace & Great British Car Journey for their hospitality and allowing us to operate from these locations.