Several of us had a dabble in the contest this year. The main station was M0DWK and much fun was had with 417 Q’s and 75 IOTA references using 100W. This was achieved with simple quarter wave verticals using raised radials and a wire dipole for 80m. As the aerials were literally put together at the last minute (including work actually during the contest), this was a fine achievement.

10m opened of course as there was no aerial for that. A lesson for next year when of course, the band won’t open 🙂

I operated from home using 100W and only dabbled for a few hours. I managed 70 contacts including Reunion Island and Newfoundland. I was heard once through an almighty pileup by a station in Hawaii but was swamped immediately and did not manage to get through again. The station here was my trusty K3s into a Cushcraft R6000 vertical with the base at about 10 feet.

Other members had a go as well and the main thing was that we all had fun! Every aspect of our hobby has its challenges and I like to try them all :). The whole point of Bay Amateur Radio Group is to have fun with radio. It doesn’t matter whether it is a QRP portable station, A DXpedition, a contest, a special event station or simply going out to play with aerials. Just the joy of having fun in this marvellous hobby is what it is about.

I will leave you with a few images from the weekends activities.

Ian (G0VGS)