So the 144 UKAC at the start of May had dreadful weather - gale force wind and lashing rain. Putting the aerial up was fun, it's surprising how much pressure the wind puts on a 2 inch wide pole and the getting the pole into the clamp was rather scary!! The clamp keeps the antenna fixed but it's not nice jumping out of the car and getting soaked to change antenna direction. Still, the weather was no better elsewhere in the UK so the final result of third place was pleasing.
June's 144 UKAC was little better, the weather forecast was again very windy so I was prepared with ropes and pickets borrowed from G4ZAP stock. This time, I couldn't even get 2 x 12' poles vertical - without the aerial!! So had to drop back to 6' + 12' and ropes. For this leg, Erik turned up in 93AD and naturally won with almost twice the points of second placed G0EAK. I finished a reasonable 4th.
Then at the end of June was the second 70 UKAC and a chance to try out the new transverter feeding a 5ele Powabeam. I couldn't get on top of the hill so operation was from the side of the road:
The little white dot to the right of the mast clamp is the moon.
First time on 4m for years so this was a bit of a learning curve but 4th place was a good result.
July - out with G4ZAP/G0VHF doing VHFNFD at Walton on the Naze for the first weekend - radioed out for the UKAC!!
4 x 12 ele, top at 60'
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