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Chelmsford Amateur Radio Society
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GB1JSS Summer Solstice - 2015


June Summer Solstice
Special Event Station GB1JSS

Sunday 21st June, 7am - 9pm
Galleywood Common - JO01FQ, Wab:TL70

CARS members celebrated the longest day of the year, the Summer Solstice, with a field-event at the usual "portable" location of Galleywood Common just south of Chelmsford. In all, there were NINE fishing-poles in the air for most of the day and this is what we had up:-

The above made for an impressive array - and this image omits the far-right-hand pole that was supporting our 40m Doublet...

Charlie M0PZT and Peter G0DZB arrived on-site at 6:15 and 80m was on-air by 7am which gave us a number of QSOs including down to Brighton, Tewkesbury and up to Stockport. The use of a Doublet 42m in length was a first for Galleywood location so it was a fun experiment and it took five fishing poles to support it: 10m centre and 2x 10m in the middle with a 7m at each end supporting a back-guy. Around 9am we dropped the poles, removed the two far-end poles and supports, and put my 40m Doublet up ready for the "main" station. This allowed G0DZB to raise his 30m Doublet and also give us a mounting arrangement for a 2m Slim-Jim.

Paul G4IJE brought his 4m Anytone transceiver and a simple dipole; and made a number of contacts on FM through the morning.

Making the trip down from Nuneaton (for a 2nd year running) was Ben M0GKY (former Chelmsford resident who obtained his licence from CARS). He got stuck into 40m for a bit...

We were lucky with the weather as it stayed warm and dry through the day with fits and starts of sunshine, but when it was out, the sun wasn't too intense. Here's our acting-Chairman, Chris G0IPU on 40m SSB with James 2E1GUA on 2m FM - and Steve M1ACB our regional RSGB manager.

 

Being event co-ordinator didn't get M0PZT out of operating duties - Not content with starting on 80m at 7am, he had a couple of stints on the 40m station running both PSK31 and SSB. Pete M0PSX is seen operating on 2m. Note the two large batteries under the operating table!

Peter G1FOA came armed with a new FT-857 to operate a 6m station with a full-wave loop - the 50MHz Trophy Contest helped us to make good number of contacts on the Magic Band and there was good Sporadic'E into central Europe for most of the day.

The bands were in good shape and provisional log stats show just short of 300 QSOs across 7 bands and 4 modes - including a 2m SSTV contact. Thanks to those who visited, brought equipment or simply came along to enjoy the atmosphere.

Coordinator: Charlie M0PZT

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