The rules state that no assembly
of the NFD station can take place more than 24 hours prior to the contest. So
at the allotted hour, G1OGY, 2E0BMG and myself G4ZTR rolled up to begin work of
assembling the hardware. We wanted to be certain that 23cms and 70cms would be
in a position to start on time, so these stations took priority. The ex army
tent was erected, and two Alumasts were constructed from their ten foot
sections. Giving precedence to 23cms, we used 50ft on that band and 30ft on
70cms.

The diesel generator and heavy
mains cable was laid out and an earth point was installed.

Eight 23 element Tonnas were
assembled for 23cms, together with a mast-head pre-amp. Sadly, this did not
pre-amp all the time, but more on that later.

The 50ft mast was roped up, a
falling derrick arranged, and the mast was pulled up by a car and pulley
system. Once the mast was made approximately upright and safe, it was time for
two of us to retreat – Bill to go abroad on holiday, and myself to get some
sleep and another car-load of equipment. This left quite a lot to do on
Saturday, but we felt that we were sufficiently advanced to meet our target
with 23cms and 70cms.

Last of all the site was made
tidy and safe. We occupy public open space and there are numerous requirements
in the risk assessment although most are just plain common sense.

Work continued on Saturday
morning with the four 21 element Tonnas for 70cms (in a vertical stack),
populating the tent with transceivers, amplifiers, power supplies, logging
laptops, lighting and eventually commissioning the set-up on 23 and 70cms.

As an aside, people sometimes ask
me why we don’t use yagis from I0JXX for our outings – after all, my business
is the UK
importer. The simple fact is that we are using aerials that we have had for
quite some time, and they still work. If they wear out or we happen to
accidently lower the mast far too quickly (if you get my drift), then would be
a good time to change.

On Saturday the team comprised
G1OGY, G0JJG, G0JBA and G0DVJ plus myself. Also for his first outing on VHF NFD
we were pleased to welcome M6EIO.

We started on time on 23 and
70cms. Not only that, but conditions seemed “up” and OZ appeared in the log on
both bands within a few minutes. There seemed a good possibility that Mr
Hepburns predictions would be spot on. There was no time to sit back and relax,
and those of us who were not behind the microphone took the opportunity to put
together the 4m aerial and mast. But all was not well; ‘OGY was wandering
around the mast and I could tell that something was afoot. Indeed that was the
problem – a stabiliser foot for the trailer mast was missing, presumed still on
the farm where we store the mast. Eventually we put together a bodge to get us
up and running, but it was an awkward moment as there is a lot of pressure on
those feet until the mast is guyed.

A late addition to our metalwork
in the sky was a small 2m beam, all five elements of it, fed from a barefoot
Icom transceiver. We installed this as a means to work people on 2m and then
shift them up band by band if we could, and also to keep people occupied if the
UHF bands got too quiet. As it turned out it was quite fun to work stations
over 1000km away on “that little thing up there”. I will quietly gloss over the
fact that I had managed to leave the aerial behind and had to make yet another
trip ohm …………..

Operation on 23cms was
significantly hampered by radar interference from the east and north-east. It
was very strong indeed and I thought some respite had come at around 6pm when
the signals dropped a little. Sadly the truth soon emerged that our 23cms
masthead preamplifier had decided it no longer wanted to take part in the
contest. On reviewing matters later, it seems that our sequencing was not as it
should have been. This was the only real “issue” during the contest.

I tell a lie, another issue was a
lack of chairs despite our best made plans. I spent a little while on the 4m
station towards the end of the contest, and can assure readers that sitting
perched on a small stepladder while sending CW is less than ideal !





A few facts and figures, band by
band:-

4m: Approx 100 QSO’s with a best
DX of 2159km into KN20. Best tropo DX was 761km which is very pleasing; tropo
enhancement on 4m is relatively unusual. The rig was an FT-847 driving a
Discovery amplifier to 150w, feeding a 7 element LFA at about 60ft.

2m: Our last-minute-just-for-fun
station produced a best DX of 1130km, running around 100w into a 5 element
h/brew yagi.

70cms: We were somewhat more
serious in our approach to 70cms. Best DX was 1130km into IN91 square, with a
top ten QSO’s over 950km. The rig was another FT-847 driving a K2RIW amplifier
to 400w. The four-stack of Tonnas was around 40ft above ground.

23cms: We managed over 100 QSO’s
on this band which reflects good conditions to the east and north-east and in a
more limited fashion, to the south. Best DX was over 1000km to JO77 square. The
transceiver was (you might be ahead of me ….) an FT-847, LT-23 transverter and
solid state amplifier from DB6NT. The preamplifier only worked for the first
few hours and will not get paid for the remaining hours on site.

These results are preliminary and
have not been “idiot checked”.

All the equipment for four bands
was in one tent and it was a bit noisy at times. Inevitably, someone getting a
bit excited with the DX on, say, 70cms, will also be heard modulating the 23cms
microphone. There’s also a problem of keeping harmonics and spurious emissions
at bearable levels. To this end, the 2m station was equipped with a W6PQL low
pass filter, and the 70cms station ran through a coaxial low pass filter. Both
of these were largely successful. We also employed a significant height
difference between 70cms and 23cms.