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13 Jul 2008 - CASTLE RISING FIELD DAY & PICNIC

On the early morning of 13th July 2008 a few members of King's Lynn Amateur Radio Club met at the castle at Castle Rising, near King's Lynn, West Norfolk. The aim was to set up a radio station in order to activate a special event callsign GB0CR in conjunction with CASHOTA (Castles And Stately Homes On The Air).

Within an hour a Gazebo was erected, the club radio and a laptop pc (for logging) was in place and a sloping variation of a 'Carolina' antenna had been strung from the castle flagpole on the top of the keep at about 65ft. The lower end passed over the gazebo and was secured to a fence on a high bank which positioned the feedpoint almost over the gazebo, power was supplied by the club generator suitably positioned for safety.

Tests on the antenna soon made it obvious that the built-in tuner on the Icom 736 was unable to bring the wire onto resonance for the 80Mtr & 40Mtr bands, therefore Peter G0IJU dashed home to collect his own ATU. Further tests with this installed were succesful and we were ready to go.

Our choice of weekends wasn't the best as we clashed with the IARU contest and found it almost impossible to find an operating space, however we persevered and our first contact was logged at 06.55 UTC with F1RHS and by 12.00 UTC (the time the contest ended) we had managed 19 contacts. After the end of the contest the bands went virtually silent and we continued with our efforts. The problem now was that most of Europe had had enough of radio operating and had gone for a siesta or dinner.

From mid-day we only managed to get a further 10 contacts into the log but the weather was good all day and we enjoyed ourselves. Only eight club members turned up but a few members of the public showed an interest in what we were doing and Ted G4OZG was on hand to explain what we were up to.

We decided to pull the plug at about 15.00 UTC (probably as we had run out of food).

King's Lynn Amateur Radio Club extends thanks to Lord Howard Of Rising for allowing this event.

Photographs taken on the day courtesy of members present appear below

A copy of the day's logbook appears below

Date	Time UTC On	Time UTC Off	Call	Frequency	RST Out	RST In	Mode	Power	Country
13/07/08	0655	0657	F1RHS	14.250	59	59	SSB	100	France
13/07/08	0904	0904	GFB7HQ	7.060	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	0917	0920	G0CER	3.752	57	57	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	0930	0937	G3GLB	3.752	57	57	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	0937	0939	G4IMP	3.752	58	58	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	0940	0942	G3WGQ/P	3.572	57	57	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	0942	0944	G0GNW	3.572	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1000	1006	GM4FOZ	3.752	55	55	SSB	100	Scotland
13/07/08	1032	1032	9A0HQ	28.451	59	59	SSB	100	Croatia
13/07/08	1044	1044	SK9HQ	21.256	59	59	SSB	100	Sweden
13/07/08	1046	1046	9A4BB	21.252	59	59	SSB	100	Croatia
13/07/08	1048	1049	T77NM	21.282	59	59	SSB	100	San Marino
13/07/08	1055	1100	G0NKZ	3.748	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1101	1102	G0ETG	3.748	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1103	1109	M0GGR/P	3.748	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1121	1129	M3GJA	3.748	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1150	1150	OL4HQ	7.077	59	59	SSB	100	Czech Republic
13/07/08	1152	1152	E7HQ	7.074	59	59	SSB	100	Bosnia-Hercegovina
13/07/08	1159	1159	DA0HQ	7.050	59	59	SSB	100	Fed. Rep. of Germany
13/07/08	1203	1207	OZ8YP/M	7.062	59	59	SSB	100	Denmark
13/07/08	1208	1211	SM6XUN	7.062	55	59	SSB	100	Sweden
13/07/08	1238	1247	G3ZST	3.704	59	59	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1249	1252	GW6JNE	3.704	22	55	SSB	100	Wales
13/07/08	1253	1304	G7HNM	3.704	56	55	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1305	1310	G3HQH	3.704	55	57	SSB	100	England
13/07/08	1337	1342	EI4CN	3.750	57	56	SSB	100	Ireland
13/07/08	1430	1434	2E0CTT	145.713	59	59	FM	0.5	Via GB3KY
13/07/08	1444	1447	OK2WB	14.240	59	59	SSB	100	Czech Republic
13/07/08	1449	1452	G6XWO	14.240	59	59	SSB	100	England