Sunday 9th March was without doubt the warmest day of the year, and helpfully the RSGB had arranged a 70 MHz contest for the morning 10am till 12. Using the Icom 7100 and 50w into the homebrew 6E beam we set off for a new operating location. The usual location Rainham summit around 14m ASL is fine for evening expeditions, but it had been suggested that I could try a new park location close to Brentwood and the M25.
The area had off road parking, but I was aware all the equipment would need to be walked 500m or so up the hill to the operating position. Thankfully I was ably assisted by John M0UKD and Wayne M0MPG and so we set off up the hill with the following.
Mast 6m telescopic, Beam 6E homebrew (4m boom), 8m RG213 coax, Icom 7100, 20Ah battery.
The area looked ideal, it was some 80m ASL with good views all around. The local authority had the forethought to place a wooden picnic table at the top of the hill, ideal for /P operating.
The band seemed particularly busy, and for the first 30 mins we had a run rate of around 1 QSO per minute (much better than the usual 4m activity of 1 QSO per week). Best DX was into G4AUX @ 370km Bishop Auckland, CO Durham.
We did hear and could almost work GM4JR (at 460 km) but alas he was the one that got away.
The QSO map is here
A short view is available here
Operating in the sun /p
1 Response to 70 MHz Cumulatives # 2