Saturday the 2nd of September 2017 looked like a decent dry day, so a group of Essex Hams made a last-minute decision to get out in the fresh air for an impromptu field day.
The weekend was awash with contests. For the RSGB SSB Field Day contest, Charlie M0PZT gave away points on 20m and 40m, whilst Pete M0PSX worked a few stations locally on 2m FM, then on the 2m SSB 144MHz Trophy Contest.
Contacts made on 2m SSB, using a basic home-made slim jim up a 7m fishing pole, included G2XV (Cambridge), M0WGF (Sherness), G8T (Leicester), M0HRF (London), M4A (Cambridge) and G0VHF (Colchester)
Whilst Charlie and Pete were giving away points in the contest, Peter G0DZB was testing out some of the kit used at the recent YOTA event in Gilwell Park. He set up the SOTA antenna that youth groups from around the world were making last month, plus the excellent 17m QRP Labs QCX transceiver kit.
You’ll be able to find out more about both of these YOTA items in the next episode of TX Factor, due for release on 15th September.
Thanks to Colin, David and Dean for joining us for the day, which ended with a very pleasant trip to the Horse & Groom pub, just around the corner, for a wind-down post-event drink.
