Boultham Park Summer Fair 2018

 Portable  No Responses »
Jul 172018
 

This weekend was the Boultham Park Summer Fair and the LSWC was there as usual with a demonstration station.

G5FZ/P

out portable… again? Yes it is.

 

With equipment being collected during the week, Les G1LQB, Steve M5ZZZ, Ian G4EVK, Barry G4DBS, Tom G4OSB, Fred G4HNQ, Peter 2E0FGA, Roger G3PVU & Jackie were on site early Saturday morning. Soon Stephen 2E0SSM arrived to help during the day closely followed by Peter, M0EJL and Pam, G4STO with the tables and radios. All then helped in getting the station set up before the Public arrived.

Once everything was set up Pam got the bacon out and made us all some bacon butties for breakfast. Pam was also well prepared at dinner time with a large supply hotdogs which she kindly cooked for us all. A big thankyou to Pam for the effort she puts in keeping us all well-fed in addition to the many other things she does.

 

Boultham park summer fair station

Boultham park summer fair station

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the station up and running it didn’t take long before it was agreed that the new antenna, the Gap Eagle in the images above, was a worth while purchase as we were soon making good distance contacts on HF. A good contact to Bolsover on 2m was also made using Les’s small collinear.

Boultham park summer fair HF Station

Boultham park summer fair station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With temperatures rising any piece of shade was a needed place to be with the rear door of Les’s van providing just that.

G4EVK trying to check his camera in the bright sunlight

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were also joined by two SWL’s, Lyon and Liz, who are currently studying for the Foundation course. Les, the clubs trainer, took an opportunity during a quite period to start some of the practical’s required for the foundation exam. With the help of Stephen, 2E0SSM, who was out wandering round all the stalls with a handheld, their first supervised 2m QSO was made and signed off.

Liz and Lyon listening and learning with their Baofang’s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

At about 3pm the show was treated to a flypast by one of the BBMF’s Hurricanes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

By 4pm it was time to get packed up and squeeze things back into the van.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fir Park Wings and Wheels

Reminder to all, LSWC will be out again for the August Bank Holiday 3 Day, 25th – 27th, Fir Park Wings and Wheels event. In the mean time remember the club meets every Wednesday evening and Saturday mornings.

 

So until next time….

VHF National Field Day

 Contests  No Responses »
Jul 142018
 

Last weekend, 7th-8th July, the club put on a station for VHF National Field Day.

The intention of this weekend was to have a social weekend for all members and to allow those who have not participated in a contest, me being one of them, to try things out in a relaxed and chilled manor.

 

Setting up G5FZ/P

After Preparing equipment on the Wednesday before, Les G1LQB, Stephen 2E0SSM, Alistair M0TEF & Steve M5ZZZ were down early on the Saturday morning to load up the equipment.

 

Les Ready with the Trailer mast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once ready, the team headed up to the old RAF Scampton bomb dump where most of them would be stationed for the remainder of the weekend.

Fitting Antennas to the mast

Fitting Antennas to the mast

Fitting Antennas to the mast

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On Arrival we were soon joined by Fred G4HNQ & Peter 2E0FGA. The first task was to get the antennas mounted on the mast and the mast winched up into position. One thing that should’ve been done before raising the mast would have been to test the rotator. Unfortunately we all forgot until the station was set up, only to find the controller we brought didn’t work. Fortunately, with the shack only being a few minutes away, Stephen rushed back to search for another one. Returning a few minutes later with a replacement and the station was ready for TX testing. It was found that the log-periodic that was brought gave a high SWR on all bands and it was suspected the Coax to be at fault as it had not been used for a while. The 2/70 beam however worked perfectly.

 

Les Setting up the Camp

Les Setting up the Camp

The Portable station for the weekend

The Portable station for the weekend

The setup Team

The setup team, minus me behind the camera

The Whole Station

Time for Operating

After a few QSO’s were made to test the setup all was ready for the Contest to start.

The contest soon got underway with various people taking the hot seat in front of the radio.

2E0SSM operating the station M0TEF operating the station

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the day progressed the contacts started to come in and as the conditions improved one contact was made with a distance of 700km on 2m. Who says the 2m band if for local contacts only?

Night Shots Night Shots Night Shots Night Shots Night Shots

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As the sun set the radio was kept in use until late into the evening. It was at this time that Stephen & Peter had to head home leaving Alistair and Les to man the night shift.

 

After some sleep in cars and tents Pam G4STO stopped by to provide breakfast. before heading off. Switching on the radio Alistair heard a station calling DA0FF. After checking the logging software to find we hadn’t had them before he started calling back. After battling the conditions the QSO was completed at a grand total of 786km. During the morning Fred G4HNQ returned and helped pack away.

Throughout the weekend there was a constant battle against the flies and bugs especially while we packed up on the Sunday.

After getting the equipment back to the shack everyone headed home worn out and sleepy from the enjoyable weekend.

 

The Grand Total at the end of the weekend was:

2m, 62 Contacts with a total of 21,675 points.

70cm, 15 Contacts with a total of 4,408 point.

The log submission deadline is in a few days so we will have to wait and see where we end up in the tables.

 

2m QSO Map

70cm QSO Map

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With Such a successful weekend the club intends to put on more events like this in the future so keep your eyes pealed.

More Antenna Work

 Antennas  No Responses »
Jun 192018
 

This weekend members undertook more work on the clubs antennas. After the work done previously installing the HB9CV, when the mast was put back up it was found to have a high SWR. The coax used was an existing run that was previously used for 23cm which was taken down that same day with suspected antenna problems. With this coax now being used to feed the HB9CV which was also showing a high SWR the coax was now also suspected as faulty.

 

This Weekends Antenna Work

Stephen (2E0SSM), Les G1LQB, Peter (2E0FGA), Roger (G3PVU) & Steve (M5ZZZ) arrived on site Saturday morning and soon had the mast lowered.

Antenna Mast Lowered

Antenna Mast Lowered

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With the mast now down again a new run of coax was installed and connected to the HB9CV. The spacing between each of the antennas was also improved.

 

2E0SSM Working on the Mast

2E0SSM Working on the Mast

 

 

 

 

 

 

2E0SSM Working on the Mast

 

 

 

 

 

 

With this done it was decided to remove the connector from the end of the suspected 23cm coax to check for water ingress. What was found was as predicted, water had got into the coax and had started to corrode the braid, center core and the pin of the N-type connector.

 

Corroded Coax Corroded Coax Corroded Center Pin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

About 2ft was cut off the end to try and find some ‘good’ coax. A new connector was fitted, The 23cm antenna refitted with a second hand dipole and the mast was lifted back up. Both the antennas were tested, the HB9CV worked perfectly and its front to back performance demonstrated with an S9 signal completely gone when turned even 90 degrees away. The 23cm unfortunately still didn’t work and so further investigation is required. Next plan it to test the full length of coax with a dummy load to see if it all needs to be replaced.

SDRplay RSP2

 LSWC Shack  No Responses »
Feb 112018
 

SDRplay RSP2Lincoln Shortwave Club is delighted to announce to members that with agreement from the committee it has just purchased an SDRplay RSP2 SDR receiver for the club shack.

The RSP2 receiver covers 1KHz to 2GHz (VLF > Microwaves> and besides having three software selectable antenna inputs it also has an amazing 10MHz bandwidth.

Using a large number of readily available software applications with the RSP2 makes this an extremely capable general coverage receiver.

The receiver will be installed in the shack in the next couple of weeks and we will organise some training sessions for club members who are not familiar with the hardware & software but wish to experience it.

If you want any more information about the RSP2 from SDRplay please see the link below:

SDRplay RSP2

You may also be interested to know that SDRplay featured in episode 20 of TX Factor. Click here  to watch on YouTube.

Adrian M0NWK
LSWC Committee