On 24hr HF voice exercise. A hot summer’s day July
The site: Friday woods training area Colchester
At least amateurs don’t have to cam up and go dark at night. The aerials are strung between trees and should be unobtrusive. The flag was for the visitors benefit. The equipment is a PRC320. No generators or mains power is allowed and the whole exercise must be run on battery power only.
The 60m band was used mainly during daylight hours and dropped to the 70 and 80m end of the spectrum some time after sunset. The aerials were ½ wave endfeds and counterpoises. This was quite a severe test of radios, batteries and operators, especially after hours of decryption and encryption of traffic. When I visited the unit in the field it made me feel tired just looking at all the activity, so I had to go back to the mess for a drink or two!!
73
John G0VEH (email: G0VEH@lefars.org.uk)
