Activities in 1994 1993 1995
On this page you will find illustrated reports of some of our activities during 1994. These were in addition to our main meetings.
The Shack
This was the year that we obtained permission to use the shack. It transformed the club, from a once-a-month talk, to weekly meetings.
Fun Quiz
Poole Radio Society won the local inter-club Fun Quiz.
Open Door Invitation
One weekend we ran a Open Door invitation for local amateurs to visit the club and see our new shack. As you can see below, we ran several stations on various VHF bands over the course of the weekend.
144 MHz Packet
On the Saturday afternoon, we set up a packet station on 2m, using Owen's gear. This worked well, allowing contact to be made with GB7SIG at Blandford, one of the local Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) in the area. We caused some QRN to the HF station when the VHF antenna was connected, which curtailed operation somewhat.
432 MHz fm
Also on the Saturday afternoon, we had a novice visitor, who had recently purchased a modern 70cm hand-held. He was having some difficulties with the rig. After some frantic button pushing, we discovered that the wrong repeater shift had been set (-7.6 MHz, instead of +1.6 MHz). Once corrected, we were able to get into the Weymouth repeater GB7SD and had a brief contact with Ed, G3VPF/M, through the box.
10 years ago, these problems would not have arisen. The repeater shift was clearly set by a switch (either rotary or sliding), and easily seen. These days, modern handhelds are operated by a range of buttons held down in various combinations, I don't think they are as easy to operate for most operators.
70 MHz Contest
On Sunday morning, we set up the 4m station. The 5 element G6MXL/Tonna was assembled and mounted using RS cable ties to a concrete pole, with the feeder fed through a window to the far end of the building from the HF station. The gear consisted of a Yaesu FT290 2m rig, connected to a Microwave Modules transverter to 70MHz, followed by a Spectrum Communications linear and pre-amp giving about 30 Watts output.
Activity was low for several reasons, not least the 2 other VHF contests taking place on other bands at the same time. The UK Six Meter Group had the last of their 6m cumulatives, whilst the BATC had an ATV contest. In addition there was the Pickett Lock Rally in London, and a Microwave Round Table near Oxford. The band was plagued with QSB. The site also left something to be desired. The gear lacked some selectivity, making operation within 20kHz of another local station somewhat difficult, not helped by having to make a round trip of about 200m to rotate the antenna!
CQ-WW SSB Contest
This was the first proper activity from the new shack. It really proved how easy it is to get on the air and make a lot of QSO's. The antenna system really proved itself on 20m and 15m, although contacts were made on all the other non-WARC bands including Top-Band. 364 contacts were made in 5 different continents.
|
Band |
10m |
15m |
20m |
40m |
80m |
160m |
Total |
|
QSOs |
32 |
101 |
149 |
43 |
34 |
5 |
364 |
|
CQ Zones |
8 |
14 |
9 |
7 |
3 |
1 |
42 |
|
DXCC |
|||||||
|
Europe |
11 |
27 |
31 |
20 |
17 |
4 |
110 |
|
Asia |
3 |
4 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
10 |
|
|
Africa |
4 |
4 |
3 |
1 |
12 |
||
|
N. America |
1 |
4 |
2 |
7 |
|||
|
S. America |
2 |
2 |
|||||
|
Total |
19 |
41 |
37 |
22 |
18 |
4 |
141 |
|
Multipliers |
27 |
55 |
43 |
29 |
21 |
5 |
183 |
|
Overall |
85,095 |
Special Event GB2LHQ & Barbeque
When the Worked All Britain Awards Manager approached Poole Radio Society regarding the running of a special event station, it seemed like too good an opportunity to miss, as Poole is the headquarters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (R.N.L.I.).
Over
the weekend of Saturday July 16th to Sunday July 17th, members of the Poole
Radio Society set up and ran one of a series of successful Special Event
Stations as part of the Worked All Britain group's Lifeboat Station Award.
Using the callsign GB2LHQ (Lifeboat Head Quarters), over 400 contacts were made during the period the station was operational. Most contacts were made from the main station on the 80m band. A number of contacts were also made on the 40m and 70cm bands using portable equipment.
Poole Radio
Society Chairman, David Mason G3ZPR, said that every member of the Society
contributed towards the successful running of the station. "It was a
wonderful way", he commented, "to involve all club members, and to
give those who do not operate very often, a chance to get on the
air". "It also gave many members their first experience of
being on the receiving end of a pile-up", he added.
There was hardly a moment on 80m when there wasn't at least one station waiting to work the Special Event Station. At one point, Colin Redwood G6MXL, used to the quieter VHF bands, found that it took several attempts to extract a full callsign from just the Scottish stations operated by ladies!
The station was also an introduction to HF operating for novice licence holder Natelie Doherty 2E1CSF, operating under supervision. "Any one who doubted the effectiveness of Novice licence training would have quickly changed their minds, having watched and heard her operating", observed Phil Mayer G0KKL, the Senior Novice Instructor for Dorset.
We received a Lifeboat Awards Certificate from the Worked All Britain Awards group for running the station.
Hamfest
On Sunday 14th of August 1994 we had our usual stand at Hamfest in August.
Activity Weekend
Earlier in the year we ran an activity weekend. This was the first time we had put the club's pump-up mast to use for a club activity. It proved how easily we could get an antenna up. It is so much easier when you have the right gear! It was also the occasion when we spotted the virtually empty building that became our shack, and started to consider its possibilities.