The North West Radio Camp 2023 took place over the extended weekend of 4th to 6th August. Campers from many clubs around the region were booked to attend the event held at Charity Farm near Wrightington. The callsign to be used was GB9NWC for the main HF, VHF and HF FT8 stations. Sadly, as the event got closer, the weather forecast degraded as each day went by. However it didn’t put everyone off thankfully and the event went ahead as planned.
Setting up North West Radio Camp 2023
Being a work day there were only a few campers on-site during the Friday. By early afternoon both the FT8 station and crafting tent had been set up and were fully operational. The crafting tent was a new feature for 2023 for those campers that wanted to undertake a different activity. The weather was good and HF band conditions were very good. On the first day 100 FT8 contacts had been made in to the States, South America, Africa, Europe and Asia.
Unfortunately, due to a prior engagement, Ali and I had to disappear in the early evening. We returned early Saturday morning, with plenty of precipitation had fallen overnight the field was noticeably wetter. Sadly many of the campers that had booked seemed to have been put off by the impending poor weather. This was a bit disappointing, but everyone got on with operating the main stations and socialising. Some day visitors did brave the weather and turned up, they were made very welcome by everyone. Spirits on site were definitely not dampened by the weather and the site was buzzing.
North West Radio Camp 2023 and rain – not a problem
Band conditions were appalling on the Saturday morning, even the FT8 station struggled. As time went by it picked up but the DX we’d experienced the day before was few and far between. Sadly the petrol generator let go early on the Saturday evening and threatened further FT8 operations. However, Phil (Willets) came to the rescue with a replacement and operations resumed very quickly. Despite all of this, around a hundred more contacts were added to the log; mainly in Europe with a few further afield.
Weather looking up – band conditions back to good
Sunday dawned a better day weather-wise. The ground had taken a battering and was quite squelchy down by the FT8 station. It been kept as far away as possible from the main voice HF station to minimise interference between the two. This separation worked really well with no interference noticed, despite the FT8 station running 50w and the voice station 100w.
It was a slow start to the day with breakfast not served at the excellent on-site cafe until 09:00. We planned to start shutting down the station around midday-ish with a view to departing the field at around 16:00. This didn’t give us much time to achieve the self-imposed 250 FT8 contacts for the event. Fortunately band conditions were once again on our side. Several Japanese contacts were welcomed, but sadly Oceana eluded me resulting in me failing to achieve contacts into ‘all continents’. The 250th contact was made with YL2GJX at 11:56 (10:56 UTC) and as I went to turn off a Stateside station called. So the total for the weekend was 251.
Craft tent at North West Radio Camp a success
The craft tent went down very well with those that used it, despite a water ingress issue damaging some of the paper craft that was stored within the tent. However, it was lesson learned and plans are already afoot to provide a larger facility for next year which will also afford its users with a little more weather protection.
North West Radio Camp a success – despite the weather
All-told, those that attended the camp had a great time. The water, as we have already indicated, did not actually cause an issue. As we run more of these camps we learn and adapt. This means that we can now enjoy a weekend of camping and amateur radio in the rain with few problems.
Ali and I can’t wait for next year and propose that it would be nice to see a slightly larger contingent from the Quantum technology Club. Theree we will hopefully be some additional and diverse activities on-site to vary the programme a bit and make it an operating, learning and sharing event (in a field).
Going forward
The usual shack-in-a-box was deployed for this event, the venerable Yeasu FT-857 and SCU-17 data interface worked faultlessly. The SRC (Snowdonia Radio Company) HF-360 vertical antenna was also a solid performer – despite many a nay-sayer claiming these antennas would never work when they were launched. Use of this setup resulted in the establishment of the station itself remaining as quick as ever.
The petrol generator seems to have undergone a terminal failure having ceased solid. Oil was topped up before we left for the event, so I am assuming that a piston ring has give up the ghost, especially considering the amount of smoke that it generated prior to its expiry. I am now changing the method of powering future stations were we do not have access to mains electricity. A leisure battery and 200W solar panel had already been secured but never used in anger. Another leisure battery will be purchased so that one can be on charge whilst the other is being used for longer events. This should also mean that we can operate longer into the evening without disturbing fellow campers – providing we have accumulated sufficient juice from the daylight. An endurance test for the batteries will be undertaken whilst away in Cornwall.
We’ll keep you updated on this.