Cray Valley RS took part in the RSGB Single Sideband Field Day contest on the weekend of 7th and 8th of September from Gosenhill Farmin in Crockenhill using its contest callsign M8C/P. Several club members were on site over the weekend to operate and to help out.

Operation was interrupted during the early hours of Sunday morning by lightning and heavy rain which forced the station to shut down for an hour and a half. There was also a technical problem with the TET HB33SP beam antenna tripping the amplifier when transmitting on the 20m band, but there were no issues on the 15m and 10m bands. This meant that most 20m QSOs had to be done on a hastily rigged dipole underneath the 80m dipole.

In view of this, the net QSO total of 1157 and 147 multipliers was a really good performance. HF conditions were excellent. In the final adjudication, after all errors and multipliers were taken into account, Cray Valley RS’ final score was 468,180, taking second place in the Assisted High Power section! The winner was Gordano ARG who scored 535,630 points.

Toby M0TBS also made over 120 QSOs in the 2m Trophy contest.

It rained a little as the station was being packed away at 2pm on Sunday, but with
dedication from everyone, everything was down and packed away in a little over two hours, which was a fantastic effort.

Many thanks to all members who were on-site at any time at the weekend.