MOTA 2017
13th & 14th May 2017
It was a grey morning on the 13/05/2017… The weather report was promising wind and rain… It did not bode well for a band of Hams wanting to transmit from a windmill on a hill in Derbyshire.
The Nunsfield House Amateur Radio Group have been transmitting from Heage Windmill in Derbyshire since 2003 and have not missed a Windmills On The Air event since! The callsign used here was GB5HW.
This year they had a number of new members on the radios as well as the long time members.
The weather steadily improved and by 1430 on the Sunday, the group were gasping for a cup of tea, throats were parched, there had been 25 stations contacted on 2m since the morning and the poor operator who had taken the brunt of the pile up was desperate for the loo!
The group operated on 2m, 20m, 40m and 80m and although band conditions were not ideal, the inter G contacts made it very difficult to reach many mills. We did however manage 12 over the course of the weekend. The best contact over the weekend was made by Connor (M6HZH) who managed to get all the way to Russia! Please note this was not a Mill contact.
The group would like to thank all of their 107 contacts over the weekend who all took the time to give full reports. It really was appreciated.
Equipment operated over the weekend was:
Yeasu FT 736-R on 2m
Kenwood TS870 on all other bands
Aerials:
R5 – 20m
Wire Dipole – 40m and 80m
Tri Band Co-Linear
Operators:
Ken Frankcom – G3OCA
Pete Walker – G6KUI
Paul Gamble – G1SGZ
Ken Clarke – G0JKC
Derry White – 2E0RRF
Stefan Latimer – 2E0VKM
Nigel Butler – M6ISK
Lyndsay Latimer – M6YMB
Connor Reeve – M6HZH
About the Mill
Heage Windmill is the LAST Stone built, Six Sail Windmill left in the UK and the renovations began in 2002 and the building saved from almost certain collapse. The renovations have taken the team over 15 years so far and with many donations from the public the Mill is fully operational once more having recently had the main beam replaced. If you would like to know more about the Mill please visit their site at http://www.heagewindmill.org.uk/
We would like to give our gratitude to the Heage Windmill Society and the Friends of Heage Windmill for their years of hospitality to all of the members of Nunsfield House Amateur Radio Group.