G3VFC with his 70th birthday cake

G3VFC’s 70th birthday party at GX5MW

This weekend I was fortunate to be invited to Terry G3VFC’s 70th birthday party with a difference. Planned by his sons Richard 2E1EVK and Rob M0VFC, the object was for a group of us to set up stations in a local Scout hall and to make QSOs with 70 DXCC entities. In the end, we…

Paths splitting

SOTA G/DC-001: High Willhays

A trip home to visit my parents in Devon gave me the opportunity for my first SOTA activation of 2018: High Willhays, the highest point on Dartmoor. It’s also the only SOTA summit on the moor, as most tors don’t have sufficient prominence to meet the P150 rule. This is a nice easy way to…

Gavin trying to fix the pre-amp mid-contest

RSGB 432MHz AFS from M1BXF

We always aim to have at least five stations on from the Camb-Hams for any of the AFS events, because it’s the top four scores in the team that are counted for the Super-league, and you never know when failure might befall one of the stations. Today, it was our turn to suffer from equipment…

SOTA equipment on a table

SOTA Equipment demo at Suffolk RED

I was invited to Suffolk RED last evening for the opportunity to demonstrate the sort of equipment I take up hills for SOTA purposes. For those who don’t know, Suffolk RED (Radio and Electronics Development) is a monthly supra-club event, now into its fourth year, which has proved very popular in East Anglia. The premise…