GB0SNB - Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker

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LEFARS Bank Holiday Radio Weekend

Posted: 03 Jun 2016 09:24 AM PDT
http://www.gb0snb.com/wordpress/2016...radio-weekend/


Everyone loves a bank holiday weekend (unless you happen to be working) and
last weekend was a 3 day radio event run by LEFARS. The event is based at
the Rainbow and Dove PH, yes really a radio event in a pub garden !

The event used the special event call GB2LRS on 7 and 144 MHz, while 21 MHz
used the Secret BunkerÂ*Club call M0SNB. On 7 MHz the club used a doublet
antenna, on 21 MHz we used 400w and 4e home-brew beam aerial. The beam was
mounted on a 10m Clark pump up past, with a recently purchasedÂ*Yaesu G1000S
rotator. The linear amplifier was a solid state by Expert 1.3KÂ*providing
flawless power on the Honda generator.



While the band conditions did provide a challenge, we did prove that even
on a quiet band its possible to work DX with some power and a good antenna.
We worked some nice DX including Uruguay, Brazil and Philippines to name a
few.



In the evenings we turned our hand to 3.5 MHz, and I made a simple dipole
to hang from the mast. We placed a 1:1 Balun at the feed point, and fed the
antenna with coax. The antenna was cut to provide a match on 3.7 MHz, so no
ATU was required. The addition of 400w allowed us to put out what many
described as a phenomenal signal. I checked the signal on the Hack Green
SDR, and from this screenshot you can judge for yourself. The signal
reported by Hack Green was -42 dBm.



Fred G3SVK also guest operated, working over 100 station on CW including
some USA stations. The total number of QSO over the weekend was 320 mostly
on SSB. The conditions at times did throw up a few surprises, at one stage
I could hear and worked stations in Ireland at 59 on 21 MHz !

It was also nice to see Charlie M0PZT and Peter G0DZB operating portable
both using Elecraft KX3s although both torturing their radios with some old
school on-off keying































Thanks to the LEFARS team for organising another great weekend of radio.