The Naze Tower Activation On August 19th / 20th 2017 Colchester Radio Amateurs activated the Naze Tower, near Walton on the Naze during the International Lighthouse and Lightship Weekend (ILLW). In everyone's opinion the event was a great success (especially the Saturday evening meal,) and a lot was learned which will be put to use during the activation again next year. Quite a few things will be done slightly differently next year, plus there'll be a change to the antenna's used in a bid to improve coverage. HF & VHF stations were on the air from around 11:00 hrs. on the Saturday until around 15:00 hrs on the Sunday. Special thanks go to all those who helped erect, operate and dismantle the installation and to all those members, and others, who visited the site to show their support. Almost 70 stations were worked on PSK in quite poor band conditions. Conditions on 2 metres SSB were not at all good either, but quite a few stations were worked nevertheless! Unfortunately we did not have enough volunteer operators to keep the station going for long periods so we are really hoping for an increase in volunteer operators in future years.      The Call used during the event was GB6NT, lighthouse number UK0212, Locator JO01pu, WAB TM22, For those of you not familiar with the Naze Tower, it is an 8 sided brick tower some 87 feet high, built in 1720, over a ¼ of a mile inland, on the site of a former beacon in which a fire was kept alight all night every night. To read more on the history of the tower visit GB6NT on QRZ.com Three nearby cafes provided essential sustenance for the Special Event operation team. Equipment used : Transceivers :- Yaesu FT-1000mp Mk.V for HF Moonraker Mt-270 for VHF FM Yaesu FT-847 for VHF - SSB Yaesu FT-897 for Data modes. Yeasu FT-891 for JT65 Antennae :- 80 Metre Doublet for HF at 10 metres in height Watson W-510 for VHF at 10 metres high HF-360 for Data modes A G4YKB 5 metre vertical for JT65 on 20 metres A directional 9 element Yagi was employed for 2m, about 60ft above the ground. An Excel format spreadsheet is attached whiich illustrates the countries and stations worked by the special event station over the weekend! Well done guys! |
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