Cray Valley has entered contest field days on and off, for many years. The field day held on the weekend 19-21 July in Crockenhill was rather different, being held on a weekend when there were no major contests and the idea was that club members could come and go, and also bring their own kit and antennas and just ‘play radio’ over the weekend without the pressure of being in a contest. It was also a chance to use some of the club’s field day equipment which has
been woefully under-used in recent years.
The weather was kind, with just two sharp showers. Around 30 people were on site, and there was a good crew to help set up on Friday afternoon. Thanks are due to Trevor M1TAD, Iain G4JMM and Dave G8ZZK for bringing a lot of equipment from the club’s lockup, and special thanks go to Emma 2E0LEH and Paul M0WPG for setting up the catering tent and keeping everyone at the site supplied with tea and coffee. They also brought a slightly smaller gala tent which ‘mated’ with the club’s tent to provide a very large operating area.
Various members brought antennas or masts on site in addition to the main club masts. This included Rich 2E0RHW’s vertical on top of a 40ft army mast, which was also used by Kieran G8CHB to test his homebrew end fed longwire. Paul and Emma put up their 18m Spider Pole for the first time, and with the loading wires it was initially resonant LF of topband. Some adjustment brought it closer to resonance and Paul was able to make a couple of FT8 QSOs on topband on Saturday evening. Toby M0TBS brought a homebrew mast which was very well set up and could be raised and lowered single handed using a gin pole. It first supported a 2m homebrew yagi and then on Saturday he changed to a homebrew 4-element for 4m, which he used to good effect in the RSGB 70MHz Trophy contest using the club’s callsign M8C/P. On Sunday Frank G3WMR brought a mast on-site to test it in a field location.
What in the UK we call a ‘gin pole’ is really a ‘falling derrick’. Having talked about this in his presentation at the club two days before, Dave G4BUO was able to give a demonstration of how to set it all up. One of the club’s 30ft masts was used, and it made a huge difference to those taking part to see the technique in practice.
Using the pulling line on the gin pole, Tony 2E0OPL was easily able to pull the mast up, and let it down again in a controlled way.
The club’s newest member Dan, who has yet to get his Foundation licence, had a great introduction to practical amateur radio and the new licence regulations meant he was able to make a number of contacts under supervision using the main field radio, which was the club’s FTdx10 and KPA-500 amplifier. His best DX was a chat with VK2BW, and on both mornings we worked several VKs on 20m long path. The main HF antennas were supported on Dave G4BUO’s 80ft trailer tower. Ewan 2E0HOE also made a lot of contacts but it was a shame that there were long periods when no-one picked up the microphone and operated. Richard G8ITB was the last to operate, with a nice ‘run’ on 40m on Sunday afternoon as we started to dismantle the station around him.
