Lighthouses and Lightships Weekend GB0NFL 2015
We set up as usual in Joss Bay car park overlooking the beach.
The usual dipole antennas and a 100W HF SSB transceiver powered by a 12V - 110 Amp-hrs battery were used of which the Club owns two. A fully charged battery provides approximately six hours of operation. The silvery-fronted box atop the transceiver provides separate volume controls for the earphones of operator and logger and a speaker for bystanders.
Operating with the Northforeland lighthouse in the background
In two days of operation we only managed fifty 7MHz QSOs. That was not for lack of operators. To blame were the poor conditions on both 7 and 14 MHz which have prevailed most of the month but at least the weather was fine both days.
Matt M0LMK was seen repairing a broken plastic piece of a Sotabeam Link Dipole. He, Clive G1WCR and Len G0GNQ then installed it as an Inverted-V dipole above the long wire fence separating our site from the steep slope down to the beach.
Using the new antenna analyser, they found that on each, 7 and 14MHz, the best SWR was obtained with the properly set link and the dipole centre a quarter wave above the top fence wire which probably has acted as an effective counterpoise.
