Recent News and Events
RAF Burtonwood Military Weekend: 24-25 September 2011
The Old Hall museum (Burtonwood Heritage Centre) located in
the grounds of Gulliver's World Theme Park held its annual
Military Weekend over the 24th and 25th September. Visitors
were able to enjoy military re-enactments, films, displays,
memorabilia and props at the centre, which was built in 1987
on part of the former RAF Burtonwood Air Base.
Warrington ARC club members setup HF and VHF stations alongside
the other exhibits and re-enactments also taking part in the
weekend's events.
The HF and VHF stations were operating the special event
callsign GB0BAB for Burtonwood Air Base and the club callsign
G0WRS/P also operated in the Practical Wireless 70MHz Contest
during Sunday to add some variety to the weekend's radio
activities.
Some pictures of the event are below.
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Assembling the Aerials |
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Mike G4VSS attaches the aerials to the mast |
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| The Mast is Raised |
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Mast and Tents |
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Distant View of Mast and Aerials |
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Alan G8WQE and Paul G7ODJ Operating HF |
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Inside The Museum |
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Keith G8MKO and Steve M6NLW Operating HF |
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Martin M0RAN and Bill G0PZP Take Their Turn on HF |
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Tom G0MYN Operating the Second HF Station |
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Part of the Outdoor Military Display |
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Not What it Appears to Be! |
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Photos by Mike, G4VSS and Vincent M0LCR.
GYCA Fun Day: September 2011
The Grappenhall Youth and Community Association put on its annual
Open Day Fair with childrens' rides, an art exhibition and many
arts and craft stalls including books, gifts, jewellery,
handbags, home made preserves, hampers, knit wear, cards, cup
cakes etc.
Warrington Amateur Radio club also put on their own club
exhibition to promote and demonstrate Amateur Radio. It had many
visitors through the day who were interested to hear more about
amateur radio. The recently appointed 128th Mayor of Warrington,
Cllr Mike Biggin also visited the club and met with club
chairman, Alan G8WQE.
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Setting Up the Exhibition and Data Station |
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Mike G4VSS and Paul G1DVA Operating the HF Station |
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Warrington Mayor, Cllr Mike Biggin, Visits the Club |
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Photos by Jeff, G1DYN.
Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest: June 2011
2009 had been great weather. 2010 was overcast but acceptable.
The weather's downward trend continued and the forecast for the
2011 Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest had not looked promising.
After arriving on site, we had hoped that the rain would hold off,
at least until after the station was set up but unfortunately it
didn't.
Club members were treated to a constant, fine drizzle that seemed to
get in everything and slowed the progress of the station build. It
was 10 minutes past the start time before the first CQ calls were
put out and we started our entry in the wettest contest for some
time.
The gazebos we erected were better suited to garden parties on warm
summer days and the punishment they received at the top of Raw Head
(IO83pc) had us wondering whether they would last the contest.
The rain was pretty relentless and varied from blowing drizzle to
torrential rain accompanied by high speed gusts of wind. There were
a number of occasions where the "crew" tent was lifted by the wind
only to be saved from blowing away by the quick reactions of the
team grabbing the tent frame and clinging on until others could
safely stake it down again.
Sitting in the operating tent was not much better as the side walls
were constantly bowed inwards by the wind pushing things off the
desks and letting in rain at the corners and the tops of the walls.
Equipment, log books, the radio, batteries and operators; everything
got wet. Sitting operating for more than an hour at a time was
unpleasant and had several people shivering with cold at the end of
their session.
One of the major changes to 2010 was the use of Dave's M0TUB,
12m Clarke pneumatic mast. It had a rotator fitted to the top
to give the operator more autonomy in aerial direction but this
failed less than an hour in to the contest and the armstrong
method had to be employed as in previous years along with shouts
of "back a bit", "no the other way" etc.
At the end of the contest we had worked 136 with one dupe. There
were a couple of unknown locator squares which we had to deduce
post-contest from their Post Code. A total of 22 multipliers (squares)
were worked.
Post-contest log checking seemed to indicate a higher number of QSOs that
needed fixing compared to the previous year. We are still suffering from
inaccurate logging and typos which really hurts our score. Maybe this year's
weather had its part to play in the lower overall QSO count compared to last
year.
The final country breakdown was 11* GW, 6* GM, 3* GD, 1* GI, 1* F,
2* ON. The rest were G.
Non-UK stations were TM7T, ON8DM and best best overall DX was ON4POO in
JO20dp (approx 14 miles South of Brussels) a distance of 553 km (344 miles).
Best UK DX was GM4JOJ in IO97an (near Peterhead, approx 30 mi North of
Aberdeen) a distance of 499km (309 miles).
This year's operators were Bill G0PZP, Mike G4VSS,
Paul G7ODJ, Dave G7SKR, Alan G8WQE,
Dave M0TUB and Steve M6NLW. There was additional help
from Ron G0WJX and Ken G3VBA with station assembly,
disassembly and generally holding the place together.
SUCCESS! After adjudication, we came second place overall and were the
leading UK Station. We lost one multiplier and 12 QSOs leaving us with
124 QSOs (the highest count from all the stations that entered) and 21
multipliers. Final score 2604.
Persistence through the dreadful weather conditions to the bitter end
of the contest certainally paid off.
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Assembly of 12m Clarke Mast |
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The Rain is Coming... |
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Ready to Raise the Mast just as the Rain Arrives |
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Dave G7SKR and Dave M0TUB Start Raising the Mast |
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Problems with the Compressor So Out Came the Hand Pump |
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Putting Up Antennas in the Rain Isn't Fun |
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Bill G0PZP Takes His Turn Operating in the Cold Wet Conditions |
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Water Gets in Everything |
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Sides of the Tent are Constantly Blown Inwards Pushing Things off the Desk |
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Photos by Ron, G0WJX.
New Club Radio Arrives
After a well supported drive to raise club funds for a new HF radio,
presentations were given by three club members in support of the three
radios chosen for consideration.
Keith, G8MKO, was first up to recommend the Elecraft K3
alongside its matching panadapter and gave a good presentation including
a demonstration of his own equipment. George, G3OGQ, had
carried out considerable research to pitch the new Yaesu FT-DX5000
against the other radios and backed it up with summarised specifications
and test results. Mike, G4VSS, presented the popular Icom
IC-7600 as the radio to choose noting its heritage from the excellent
IC-7800 and IC-7700 radios.
A Question and Answer session followed where the panel were quizzed on
the merits of the various options before a secret ballot was held to
decide which radio to buy. The FT-DX5000 won hands down with 28 votes,
the K3 was second with 8 votes and the IC-7600 was third with 3 votes.
The club's equipment manager Paul, G1DVA, chaired the evening
and was quickly on the phone to order the radio the very next day.
Braving winter weather, Paul and Mike collected the radio from Lam
Communications and were quick to install the radio and interface it
to the SteppIR and shack's logging computer.
The inaugural QSO was conducted by Mike and was videoed and uploaded to
YouTube. You can view it here: New Radio QSO
GB0BAB Battle of Britain Commemoration
GB0BAB was again operated from RAF Burtonwood Heritage
Centre by club members to commemorate the 70th anniversary
of the Battle of Britain during World War II. The
conditions on the bands were considered poor but a good
mix of HF and VHF contacts were made totalling 78 and 71
respectively.
During the weekend, there were a number of attractions on
display including military vehicles and equiment.
Photos by Jeff, G1DYN.
Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest: June 2010
Last year's PW Contest entry had proved that the site we
had chosen was suitable for 2 metres and by building on
the experience gained we hoped to put in an even better
score this year.
An early start saw the station set up and ready to operate
with almost 20 minutes to spare before the start of the
contest. The main differences to last year were that the
mast-head preamp had been wired for RF/VOX (it was hard
switched last year) and the rig used was an Icom IC-7400
in preference to a Yaesu FT-817. There was no spotting
station used this year.
There was a good start with several local stations being
worked but the signal strength reports we received seemed
rather low. This caused some concern that 3 Watts wasn't
enough to switch the preamp out when transmitting but
after checking the current drawn by the preamp, it was
found that as long as the operator "talked-up" the
compression, the preamp would switch reliably. Softly
spoken operators were reminded to speak up and make the
most of the miniscule power feeding the 20 metres of RG-213.
Station operators were rotated between operating, logging
on computer, logging on paper and check-logging locator
squares on a map in an attempt to improve our logging
accuracy over last year's 11% of QSOs lost due to errors.
Attendees were:
Bill G0PZP, Ron G0WJX, Jim G3NFB, Ken G3VBA,
Paul G7ODJ, Dave G7SKR, Alan G8WQE, Ian M0BXR,
Owen M3RZI, Leigh 2E0LDJ.
VHF conditions seemed pretty flat and some light rain
that appeared later in the afternoon didn't spoil the
day and we ended with 153 QSOs which included 1 dupe.
We worked 23 unique squares, a step up from last year's
18 to give us a final submitted score of 3496 points.
ODX was down on last year, but still a reasonable 434km
(270 miles) to MJ0RZD in IN89xf. Other non-UK
stations worked were ON4ZN/P in JO11id, 429km
(267 miles) and TM7T in JO00uv, 389km (242 miles).
Countries summary: G GW GM GD ON F GI GJ.
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The Contest in Full Flow (L to R) G0WJX, G8WQE, M0BXR, G3VBA and M3RZI |
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Operator and two Loggers Alan, Ian and Ken |
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Alan Logging on the Laptop using SDV |
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Owen Logging Locator Squares and Multipliers |
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View and Take Off to the North West |
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Beaming South West to Chase More Multipliers |
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Photos by Dave, G7SKR.
NARSA Rally, Blackpool: April 2010
The 2010 NARSA Amateur Radio Rally was held on the 11th April
at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool. The Club Stand was
showing the latest developments on the CDG 2000 Transceiver
developed by Colin G3SBI, Dave G8KBB and
George G3OGQ. Alongside was a practical
demonstration of a homebrew N2PK Vector Network Analyser (VNA)
and PC control software by Dave G8KBB.
This year we were again successful in the club competitions
and were awarded the Construction Award Trophy and Best Club
Stand Trophy.
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The Club Stand Attracted Considerable Interest Throughout the Day |
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Fred Jones G2IV NARSA Chairman Chats To George G3OGQ as he Inspects The Club Stand |
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Alan G8WQE, WARC Chairman, Accepts The Constructors Cup from Dave Wilson M0OBW on Behalf of The Winner Club Member Dave Roberts G8KBB |
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Mike G4VSS Receives the Best Club Stand Trophy from RSGB President Dave Wilson M0OBW |
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Photos by Ron, G0WJX.
Contest Trophy Arrives in Warrington
This year's RSGB Convention was held over the weekend of 10th to 11th
October at Wyboston Lakes Conference Centre was a good mix of technical,
DX, operating and contesting seminars. It was a well attended event with
many UK and overseas visitors in attendance.
The HF Contest Trophy Presentations were held on Sunday morning for HF
contest awards that had been won during the preceding year and a member
of Warrington ARC picked up their first piece of silverware for winning
a category in the prestigious IOTA Contest.
The David King, G3PFS Trophy, is awarded to the leading UK entrant in
the Single Operator 12hr SSB category in the IOTA Contest. The 2008 winner
was Dave, G7SKR, who collected the trophy in person from Don,
G3XTT, the RSGB Contest Committee Chairman at the convention.
Prior to the 2008 IOTA Contest, Dave had started taking part in the RSGB
Club Championships in the same year to support Warrington ARC's entry and
decided that a 12 hour category in one of the bigger international
contest would provide some good fun. The IOTA contest was the first one
that came along where the timing was right and so that was the contest
chosen.
He was delighted to find that he had won the UK SO 12hr SSB category and
be awarded the trophy. The problem is that now the bar has been set,
Dave only hopes he can keep up the momentum and add to the contest awards
in the future.
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Don, G3XTT (left), presents the G3PFS Trophy to Dave, G7SKR (right) |
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Dave is happy to receive his first contest trophy |
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Photos by Mike, G4VSS.
Sport Radio - ARDF Practice Evening: September 2009
Over the last few weeks, club members have been building 80m ARDF Receiver
kits in preparation for a club ARDF mini-contest in a few weeks
time. To give everyone a chance to become accustomed with their
receivers, a practice evening was arranged by Paul, G1DVA.
Transmitters were hidden in the vicinity of the club and the hunt
began. The early evening darkness added to the amusement as members
disappeared into various corners of the car park, trees, hedges and
other herbaceous undergrowth in search of the transmitter.
Although nearly everyone converged on the approximate location
quite quickly, spotting the small transmitter in the darkness was
a little more tricky. In the end, only one transmitter was found
without additional "non-radio" assistance when Tony, G0YSS,
found the transmitter above the old meeting room door.
The other transmitters were almost trampled on but remained
undiscovered even though they were in plain sight and despite having
a torch shone on them on more than one occasion. The darkness
certainly added an interesting twist to the evening.
The real event takes place in a few weeks time... In daylight.
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L to R: Dave G8KBB, Mike G4VSS, Dave G7SKR and Paul G1DVA |
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Dave Looking Puzzled |
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Paul G7ODJ and Bill G0PZP continue searching in amusement |
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Photos by Jeff, G1DYN.
Practical Wireless 144MHz QRP Contest: June 2009
It was an early start and club members were on site before 9AM
local time getting the station set up ready for the 10AM (0900 UTC)
start. Recent practice runs were put to good effect and the main mast
was up and ready to go with no major issues. Final station assembly was
completed and tested with almost 10 minutes to spare!
The contest was started on time and we were underway. The band was
busy and QSOs were being logged at a good rate. Everyone that wanted to
operate the station took their turn and good fun was had by all.
The weather stayed warm thoughout although it did cloud over later in
the aftenoon.
Attendees were:
Bill G0PZP, Paul G1DVA (not operating), Jim G3NFB, Paul G7ODJ,
Dave G7SKR, Alan G8WQE, Ian M0BXR, Dave M0TUB,
Owen M3RZI.
The final log had 100 QSOs which included, 1 dupe, 1 no locator, 2 FM
contacts, 3 club members worked (G4VSS, M0ANM, M0TUB) and
18 unique squares. ODX was 574km (357 miles) to OQ4U in JO20KV. ODX UK was
421km (262 miles) to GM7PKT/P in IO76LP on the summit of Bidean nam Bian,
SOTA reference, GM/WS-007.
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Bill, G0PZP and Jim, G3NFB Start of Aerial Erection |
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Putting Up The Shack |
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Ready to Push? The 12el Yagi and Masthead Preamp |
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Bill, G0PZP and Paul, G1DVA Pushing Up The Mast |
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Tying Down The Top Guy Ropes |
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The Latest Yagi Design Technology |
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Ian, M0BXR, With The Spotting Aerial |
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The Main Station 12 element Yagi |
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Jim, G3NFB and Dave, G7SKR, Start Assembling The Station |
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Owen, M3RZI, Checking the Antenna Bearing |
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Is That Another Contest Station Over There? |
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Final Tweaks to the Yaesu FT-817 |
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Ian, M0BXR and Alan, G8WQE Setting Up The Spotting Station |
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We're Off! Dave, G7SKR, Starts... CQ Contest, CQ Contest, G0WRS/P |
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Alan, G8WQE, Operating |
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Jim, G3NFB, Logging Station Using SDV by EI5DI |
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FT-817, Speaker, 12V Car Battery and separate 12V SLAB with Homebrew PreAmp Sequencer |
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| The Contest in Full Swing |
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Photos by Dave, M0TUB and Dave, G7SKR.
NARSA Rally, Blackpool: April 2009
The 2009 NARSA Amateur Radio Rally was held on the 5th April
at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, Blackpool. The Club stand had a
D-STAR theme again, this time with the emphasis on non-ICOM
equipment. Two Yaesu FT-817s were used with a Satoshi D-STAR
board to demonstrate a store-and-forward digital voice
repeater.
Paul, G1DVA, in conjunction with UK FM Group (Western)
demonstrated D-Star between their stands and used the data
capability of D-STAR to transfer live web cam images.
The WARC stand also offered rally visitors the opportunity
to have their newly purchased D-STAR radios programmed with
the UK's D-STAR repeaters.
This year we were again successful in the club competitions
and were awarded the Construction Award Trophy and Best Club
Stand Trophy.
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| Setting Up the Club Stand |
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| Door Duty |
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Albert, G3ZHE, Giving Directions on the 2m Talk-In Station |
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The First Visitors Enter The Rally |
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| WARC Members man the Club Stand |
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| Paul, G1DVA, Takes to The Stage |
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Paul, G1DVA, Receives the Construction Award Trophy |
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Mike, G4VSS, Takes His Turn on Stage |
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Mike, G4VSS, Receives the Best Club Stand Award |
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Photos by Ron, G0WJX.