Events during 2018 of the Dengie Hundred Amateur Radio Society (DHARS)

Previous events

Some of the clubs events during 2018

17-06-2018 Dad's Day at Stow Maries Aerodrome

Dad's Day at Stow Maries Aerodrome

It is fair to say this was not one of the club's best events. The fact the day was a Saturday, rather than the Sunday, which was Father's Day, meant only around 60 people paid to get into the Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome!. Only one visited the DHARS group who were operating. Just to make matters worst, there were technical problems too!

19-05-2018 -20-05-2018. 144 MHz May RSGB contest

2m May 2018 VHF contest

The club entered the 144 MHz May contest, which was a 24-hour event from 14:00 UTC Saturday 19th to 14:00 UTC Sunday 20th May. There were only two operators - Dave (G8WRB) and Maurice (G6AHD). The open section was entered, which allowed for operation over the full 24 hours, either at the fixed location or portable, and multiple operators.

A laptop was borrowed from Alan (G3ZES), and the open-source Minos Contest Logging Software software was used. The following data was required for a contact.

The results showed DHARS were placed 8th in the open section out of 9 stations. (A PDF copy of the certificate of the G0UTT entry can be downloaded. Although 8th from 9 was not great, we could takes some positives from this event.

  1. There was plenty of C2H5OH consumed, especially by G8WRB as he was not driving.
  2. DHARS was the lowest powered station. Of the 9 stations in this section, 7 had 400 W, one had 350 W, and DHARS only had 100 W. It is impossible to compete with other stations that have much more power.
  3. DHARS was the only station to have a single antenna. The winning station (G8T, The Black Sheep Contest Group) had 2x14 element, 4 x 10 element, and 4 x 3 element, plus a pair of vertically polarised 3-element antennas.

Some statistics from the contest

  1. 122 QSOs.
  2. The best DX was EI3KD in IO51VW at 620 km
  3. 1,544,334 points (the winning station, G8T had 17,782,696 points)

17-05-2018 Visit to the National Physical Laboratory

The National Physical Laboratory opens its doors to the public every two years. Doors open at 14:00 and close and 20:00. Roger (G7RGR), John (G0IJN) and Dave (G8WRB) visited NPL. A large number of the laboratories were open, but not all of them. A copy of the Open House 2018 visitor guide has been put on the DHARS website in case anyone wants to read it.

Both John and Roger went to see the Liquid Nitrogen Show, but both thought it was more aimed at children. There's a short writeup in July 2018 RadCom about the event, by Giles Read (G1MFG), RadComs Technical Editor. Giles thought the Liquid Nitrogen Show was the best part, so obviously different people found different things particularly interesting.

There are far too many laboratories open than it is possible to see in one day, so one needs to be choosy.

Dave, G8WRB arranged in advanced to visit a lab where the properties of dielectrics are measured. He would like to thank Andrew Gregory and Bob Clarke for the opportunity to visit a lab which was not open.

NPL do an excellent job of making things interesting for a wide range of audiances. Although younger children are permitted entry, NPL advise that the events are not aimed at children under 8. A number of the visitors to NPL will have Ph.Ds, so it must be a real challenge to make things interesting for an audiance with such a wide range of backgrounds.