GB2JAM ... the Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club

JOTA Weekend 18th & 19th October 2008

This year, rain was all around us but fortunately it stopped just before the weekend itself and started again just after on the Sunday evening .. so really we were very lucky.  However, during the weeks before .. it had well and truly water-logged the ground.  The result was we were advised against taking the Versatower and trailer some 100 metres onto the outfield to it's usual position and had to find somewhere else to locate it.

Luckily there was an ideal spot at the rear of the pavilion, and the only hardship was that the antenna did pick up some local noise from systems running within the pavilion.

The bands were not in particularly good shape, although we did make contact with a number of DX stations including Australia, a UK DXpedition in Swaziland and ZS6WRS for the final year of operation of the White River Scouts at White River in South Africa.

Scouts from the 10th Birkenhead Scout Group joined us for a few hours and all of them had the fun and excitement of speaking to scouts around the UK via amateur radio.

Simon G6XHF and I thank Irby Cricket Club for their hospitality in making the pavilion and real-estate freely available for our use and for the support of the many Wirral & District Amateur Radio Club members who gave up their time from Friday lunch time until Sunday afternoon to come along and help in erecting and dismantling the antennas, setting up a Wi-Fi link for the webcams, operating, logging, making cups of tea and generally helping out all round.  Also our thanks to the small group who stayed overnight to ensure security of the site and equipment, which all contributed to another successful weekend.

Finally my thanks to Steve G7BBF, Simon G6XHF and harmonic Daniel for the selection of photos below.

73, Neil G4OAR

Irby Cricket Club ©g7bbf 2008

 

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