The results are in, and the club scored a respectable third place in the Restricted section of the RSGB’s VHF National Field Day. We were a way behind the almost unassailable scores of the Warrington and Windmill Contest Groups in first and second place, but comfortably led the rest of the pack.
Our home for Field Day weekend was Donkey Down Camp Site on the ridgeway between Dorchester and Weymouth, locator IO80sq, around 150 metres above sea level. We had a good turn out of club members with around a dozen operating across the two days of the contest, and five camping Friday and Saturday nights.
We operated across all bands during the allotted times, with 2m and 70cm antennas on 10m poles, and more modest arrangements for 6m on Saturday, 4m on Sunday, and 23cm throughout the weekend.
2m was by far the best operating band, with our best DX of the weekend being Madeira (CT3) at a distance of 2300km thanks to excellent tropospheric conditions to the west of Europe. 6m was relatively quiet on Saturday afternoon with little DX, until conditions opened up towards the evening allowing for a QSO with Ukraine.
Fish and chips from the shop in Preston and a few cans of cider rounded out the evening!
A chorus of skylarks and and several cups of coffee got us started on the Sunday morning, where after a brief bout of equipment trouble we got our 4m station on the air. Sadly the band was rather quiet for us, as was 70cm, but a few more contacts came through on 23cm as well to round out the contest weekend.
Most importantly we all had a good time up on the hill, equipment went up and came down without too much trouble, and operating went smoothly, so all in all a great weekend!
