Many club members were able to participate in the enormously popular "Islands on the Air" contest on the 27th July 2013 but there was a lot of work behind the scenes to make it happen. We made some amazing contacts for a few hours until the lightning arrived and the antenna was hastily taken down. Read on for details and photos.....
A great deal of preparation was done by Martin and Mark with help from the rest of the group. Earlier in the month, Martin put up lines in the largest trees at the field and tested the Superloop antenna. Mark assembled the accommodation, which consisted of his tent and gazebo. Martin's caravan was not available this year, which made things tricky when the rain came on the day.
Note our new club banner, explaining what we do. There is one omission; it doesn't seem to mention barbeques or fry-ups!
The antenna was very large and extremely quiet. It was easily tuned on 20m and, when the signals dipped on 20m, 15m. These were the bands that gave us such exciting results in the afternoon of the first day. We had long distance QSOs with Indonesia, Malaysia and Brazil as well as 50 others. We contacted 22 different IOTA entities (island groups).
We are indebted for the use of the field. Because the antenna and location are so quiet, we could easily read S1 signals. With the power of the linear restored by Richard we were able to make ourselves heard right around the world.
We had all been concerned about the weather and our worries were confirmed when Mark tracked thunderstorms across the channel. We held off the worst of the rain....
But when the first crash of thunder was heard in Angmering we switched Paul off in the middle of a rare contact and rushed to lower the antenna. No-one wanted to be holding the wire when the lightning arrived.
We were all disappointed that our Saturday was cut short. There had been genuine excitement in our operating that afternoon. I hope that everyone else enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope we can try again soon. David M0HVD