Activities in 1998          1997  1999

 

On this page you will find illustrated reports of some of our activities during 1998.  These are mainly in addition to our main meetings and shack nights.  The most recent activities are at the top of the page.

Radio Amateurs’ Exam

Several members took the RAE on 7th December.

Novice Contest

We operated from Povington Hill on Sunday 20th September on 6m and 70cm to support the National Novice Contest.  On 70cm a multi-element beam was used, whilst on 6m a low half-wave dipole was used.  Best DX was into South Wales on 6m.   Entries for the contest itself were down this year with just 5 stations submitting logs.  Several entrants from previous years had passed their RAE and let their Novice Call lapse.  Activity was nevertheless good, with several stations making more contacts than in previous years on 6m.

 

Logging accuracy was very high, with no discrepancies in the reports logged noted during the cross checking. 

 

Hamfest

We had a very successful stand at Hamfest on Sunday 9^th August.

Practical Wireless 2m QRP Contest

Poole Radio Society entered the 1998 Practical Wireless 2m QRP Contest.  On Sunday 21^st June 1998 we operated from the first car park at the top of Creech Hill, by the start of the path up to Grange Arch.  Our preferred site at Povington Hill Car Park in the Purbeck Hills was in use by the military.

 

We were blessed with a warm bright sunny morning.  We soon got set up, and were up and running about 25 minutes into the contest.  We were amazed to find the band full of French stations.  We were soon making contacts.  We were all very pleased when our third QSO was with Réné, F6GZM/P, in JN02XR.  This turned out to be our best DX of the day at 933km (583 miles) - not bad for 3Watts on the 2m band.  We also heard Spanish stations working some of the French stations.  We decided to concentrate on the French stations, as we didn't know how long the conditions would stay.

 

In the event it looks as though the tactics were about right, as after an hour or so conditions started to dip.  Looking at the weather map, it appeared we were working across the northwest corner of a High Pressure Zone centred over the continent. 

 

A cold front brought an end to our DX.  As the cold front crossed, the wind picked up and we decided to take one of the sections out of the mast, as the antenna was starting to sway in a rather alarming way in the wind.  The temperature also dropped, and we were all glad that we had taken extra clothing with us by mid-afternoon

 

Equipment used was a Yaesu FT736R with it’s output power turned down to just 3Watts, feeding a 9-element Tonna Antenna.

 

We were placed 36th out of 70 entries, and the leading station in IO80 Locator Square.

 

10GHz

We operated from Povington Hill during the 10GHz cumulative contest.  5 stations were worked over progressively more obstructed paths.  The best DX was G3GNR in IO70 at 142 km.

 

Visit to Southampton Airport

12 members enjoyed a visit to Southampton Airport. 

 

We were given an interesting talk about the use of radio for Civil Aviation purposes, before seeing behind the scenes.

 

We noted that for a relatively quiet airport, there was still plenty of activity to keep the operators in the control tower busy during the early evening period.  Flights seemed to be arriving every few minutes from UK and foreign airports. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Activity from the Shack

Members operated on hf cw on Saturday the 9^th of May 1998 supporting Morse examiners weekend on the air.  Operation was on 40m and 80m.

 

On Saturday 6^th June we were any on the air using cw to give a few points away in cw National field day.  We also ran a 6m station for a while.

 

Annual Dinner

The annual dinner was held on 24^th January at the Quarterdeck Restaurant.

 

1997     1999