INTERNATIONAL MARCONI DAY - 2002
A brief report by Jon, G2FHF
Click here for pictures of this years events.
The weekend was a great success with the majority
of the traffic on 80 and 40m. We had a few excursions to the higher bands
but conditions were poor. Mark, M5MKW did a lot of SSTV, which was very popular,
on 20M.We used two shacks this time, with HF and 2m in the mud hut and two
HF stations in the caravan. The wind caused us a few problems with getting
the antenna line over the trees, Bill, G3EAT and Richard, M5RIC spent a couple
of hours looking skywards for the near invisible fishing line with a weight
on the end which I had fired over the tree. Eventually we were successful
and proceeded to erect a 40' mast, which was suprisingly easy to do.
The bands were very noisey which made
things difficult. Richard and I operated in an almost contest style, making
lists of four or five calls then working them in turn. We were not giving
all the information on the site but most users didn't want it, they just
wanted to get the contact. It was nice to talk to Mike, G3MRZ at 2345 for
ten minutes or so, he commended our style, saying that other Marconi stations
had given up early or not controlled the inevitable pile
ups.
The high points were me nearly losing
my eyebrows when trying to light the gas lantern, there was a rather large
woof, also Owen, while cooking sausages, managed to pour a cup of tea into
the frying pan instead of an egg in the other mug. We nearly had to call
the fire brigade. The low point for me was returning to my tent at 0130 Sunday
only to find it in pieces by the wind and all my clothes and sleeping bag
soaked. I then decided to go home to bed and fought the gales in a borrowed
Bedford Rascal van. I swear I went over the Causeway on two wheels! When
I got home I found that one of the guys on my new HF vertical antenna had
snapped and the antenna was in danger of going the same way. The mast was
hastily lowered at 0300hrs.
Overall we had a great time and are looking forward
to next years IMD - Jon, G2FHF
Click here for pictures of this years events.