Armed Forces Day 2019
Saturday 29th June
This is our second time we have operated for Armed Forces Day from Ashover Rock Royal Observer Corp Bunker.
It was a very early start and meet up at 6:30am to get all the members and equipment together. Whilst travelling Stefan had his 2m transceiver tuned to GB3DC the local Derby repeater and kept hearing all other repeaters across the country so we knew there was a lift on and was looking a good day for radio.
We all arrived at pretty much the same time at the lay-by and set to work off loading the equipment for the portable location. A few short hikes up the hill got all of the equipment to the location.
We all then set to work erecting tents and antennas, and wiring up the generator to power each tent. Due to the location we decided that VHF would be our main operation station and set up a 4 element 2m beam along with X30 collinear.
Initially when we got the 2m station running, the lift was definitely apparent as all of 2m FM was occupied, including the calling frequency with multiple German stations talking.
We then set work, with the sun beating down on us and the temperatures starting to rise, we knew it was going to be an interesting day. At several points during the day we had to give the FT-100D chance to cool down due to the heat we were experiencing. However despite the breaks we had to enforce, we did have quite a good quantity of contacts.
The temperature peaked at 41.9°C in the main HF tent, but we had come well prepared with plenty of fluids to keep us all hydrated.
At mid afternoon our Honourable Secretary Adrian (G1OXH) came along with his daughter to see how things were going on and give us moral support.
Time passed and we eventually called it a day around 5:30. We started to take down equipment but had to leave the 2m collinear erected. Connor was still in the middle of a pile up. But it wasn’t long before radio started to suffer again from heat stroke.
All in all a very good day and thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part.
Equipment used:
Kenwood TS-480SAT
Yaesu FT-100D
Trapped Dipole (80/40/20m)
X30 Collinear
4 Element Beam
Operators:
Peter (G6KUI)
Connor (2E0EIY)
Stefan (2E0VKM)
Richard (2E0ZDY)
Derry (2E0RRF)
Ron (2E0FBT)
