Following an 08:00hrs start at the RAF Wyton Guardroom where all the passes were issued the HARS (Huntingdon Amateur Radio Society) Team descended into No 2331 (St Ives) Squadron ATC Headquarters.
After a safety brief, the plan for the day and introductions to the personnel attending, the Team set up the Society’s equipment comprising of a G5RV antenna mounted onto three extendible masts connected to there HF radio – IC-7200. Two other set-ups followed with a FT-897 into a 6Mtr Vertical Whip antenna and a KX3 into a 10Mtr Whip these being used for carrying out a listening watch and for operating on low power (QRP), all stations were set-up and ready to run from 09:00hrs.
Once testing and shakedown had taken place the first station entered was at 09:08 ON3GTV then followed a continued stream of callsigns with manageable pile ups until 16:00hrs when the final station GM6VCV was logged and the station ‘Closed Down’. A total of 125 calls logged of which were RAF Stations and RAFARS Members; the main station was able to work UK and European stations with contacts to Poland, Croatia and the Ukraine this total was double the amount of 65 callsigns from 2014!
The Team took it in turns to operate or log whilst the others took refreshments which flowed all day or engaged with ATC Personnel talking about their own radio experiences.
During the day cadets and staff attended from No’s 73 (Huntingdon), 2331 and 1094 (Ely) Squadron with four cadets successfully completing the appropriate number of Logged Callsigns and passed a Theory Assessment for their HF Listener Module which is part of the Air Cadet Organisation Communicators Award. Cadets also received tuition on using Amateur radio and use of www.QRZ.com which allowed some of them to operate under guidance which they enjoyed. The weather was even kind compared to the following day when high winds and rain effected other planned SES activity, some cancelled, some cut short their operation and de-rigged their station in between showers and the wind.
Feedback so far from the Team – ‘Hi David – a really enjoyable day yesterday – conditions were just right and the company – just worked well ! I hope the cadets enjoyed themselves and achieved all that was required’, Hi David, thank you very much for a most enjoyable day at RAF Wyton….. and working with all the Lads as well as helping the Cadets. It was great to work with you all and very pleased that you managed to get so many contacts for “Airfields on the Air”.
The HARS Team consisted of G1KWF, MOVTG, G3NKQ, for the first time G4KLE and G6LSB with the support of all of the Team made the day very worthwhile, also present for the Air Cadet side were Flt Lt David Webb, Regional Radio Officer -2E0DIP (Event Team Leader), CI John Shere, Comms Instructor, 73 Sqn – M0JWS (NoV Holder & 2i/c) and CI Richard Parsons, Comms Instructor, 1094 Sqn – 2E0GRU. Thanks go to all attendees for their time and effort and also to HARS for allowing the use of the Club Equipment for this event.
David Webb – 2E0DIP