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Operating from Pembrokeshire (IO71NP)
- Went to my holiday home in south-west Wales for a week and took the
LF station with me. The intention was to fly a kite antenna on Sunday,
but I had a 50ft mast with me as well. A generator was hired for the weekend
to run the 200W BK Electronics amplifier.
- Friday 29 October
- Spent the evening threading a thin wire along the kite twine and making
a winder (a bit like a large fishing reel).
- Saturday 30 October
- Tried the kite out in my preferred location, a large empty car park
near the beach, just inside a steep sided valley.
- No luck, like the two previous attempts at this location the kite was
all over the place and kept coming down.
- Sunday 31 October
- Weather was very windy but dry. Took kite and mast with me, and all
the gear. Plenty of time available as the clocks had just changed.
- To my surprise, the kite flew immediately. Held by a bungee cord (thanks
to G3YXM for that suggestion), it stayed up at an angle of between 45 and
60 degrees for over two hours. I ran out 100m of wire along the ground
as a counterpoise.
- It took over 45 minutes to get the tuning right, start the generator
and get some current into the antenna. Only 1 amp compared to the 1.7A
I get at home (possibly because I force cool the amplifier at home).
- Sounded good on receive with the Greek RTTY at S7 and Loran clearly
audible. By 0956, I was ready to put out a CQ.
- Worked everyone I heard: GW4ALG (gave 579, got 589); GB2CPM (589/589);
G0AKY (incomplete); PA0SE (559/259 incomplete); G6RO (559/579)
- I put out one callsign "GW3XDV" on QRSs
on 137.7kHz in case OK1FIG was watching, but I had no receive
capability.
- At 1100 part of the antenna brushed against the car, sparked across
and melted the insulation on the thin wire. Worse, the nylon cord melted
and broke. I came very close to losing the kite as it was held only by
the few strands of wire. Fortunately they held and I was able to make repairs.
- This was even more fortunate as the next QSO was SM6PXJ at 1407km (my
previous best DX from that site wasa 420km). I finally worked G3AQC (569/579)
and packed up, well pleased with the expedition.
- Next time, I will make sure the antenna is well clear of the car, but
you can expect some more kite operations from Pembrokeshire.
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