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 was 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.
--
Mike, G3XDV
http://www.dennison.demon.co.uk/activity.htm
| 