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MOTA (a report by Ken G1NCG)

Mills On The Air 2018 At Wilton Windmill,

with a Flyover by a Yak-52 or Yakerty Yak please talk back

We've activated GB1WW in 2018 for Mills On The Air week end May 12 & 13.

This is Wilton Windmill with the Supermoon behind it from 2018 with our special event callsign added to be used as a QSL card.(Photograph of the Mill supplied by one of the mills many helpers.)

The day started rather early on Saturday morning with the usual group volunteers putting up masts for the antenna and event shelter and gazebo to house operating equipment and operators. The gazebo as a mess tent and second operating shelter. We started radio operations around 09:15 – 09:30 and continued all day, with our main operator taking breaks at various intervals. The stations heard and contacted were from across the pond in Europe mainly to begin with, and working inter UK was changeable with Scotland, Northern Ireland being amongst our easier contacts.

We had a fare amount of visitors from several of the amateur radio clubs from around the area. Some even got into the spirit and operated for a while, for which I give them a big thank you and will list them at the end of this article. Around lunch time we had our fly over by the Yak-52 which is an ex-Russian trainer aeroplane and is owned by Dom 2E0WHQ. He said that he wanted to fly over the mill on his flight from Popham to Wales where he was taking the aircraft, to have it's yearly airworthiness certificate inspection. One of our SDARC club members (Jonathan M0ZGB) took a wonderful closeup shot of this aircraft as he circled around and gave us a wing wave before continuing his journey.

Dom flying over Wilton Windmill as taken by Jonathan M0ZGB.

The first day of the event was very successful in proving all our hard work of building and testing the antenna setup prior to using on the day was correct as it performed extremly well. We had a visit from Ian G0GRI from the Trowbridge amateur radio club with his portable 2Mtr setup which proved a useful addition to our overall tally of stations contacted. We had Phil M0PZT from SDARC setup an 80Mtr station and he made contatcts on CW & SSB on that band using a couple of different antennas bult by himself that worked very well. We had M1CJE bring along his portable data station and was succesfull in acheivinga fair few contacts on FT8 but got a lot of reports that he could be heard over a good part of the globe.The first day's operating ended around 5:30 PM as we had to pack equipment back into our vehicle's as it wasn't safe to leave them overnight.

The Sunday started a little early but not as early as the previous day, and the first thing to get up and running was of course the kettle and a cup of tea. We had our share of visitors during the day and we had another visit from a Newbury club member Norman M0JEC with the intention of videoing the mill. We operated for most of the day and our tally of contacts for the week-end was 225 so well done everybody who was involved with this special event station. We've received 44 eQSL cards from our contacts at the time of this article going to press. We've contacted enough UK MOTA stations to apply for the certificate from Denby Dale club to confirm that we have activated the station.

Please check out our gallery at the end of this article.

Let me say a big thanks to all the helpers involved with putting things up and operating plus all the other bits and pieces: - John G1OQV, Neil M6CUE, Bill M0TDW, Phil M0PZB,

Russell M0RFI, Mike M5CBS, Andrew M1CJE, Dom 2E0WHQ & of course his flyover.

Thanks to the visitors Roy G0VFS, Ian G0GRI who operated on 2Mtrs, Phil G6EES who operated for a while, Roy G4VWG, Jonathan M0ZGB, Matt 2E0WLF for his excellent drone footage of the event, and several others whom visited.

Please take time to peruse the small selection of pictures below, Thank You.

Dom's flyover in YAK1 at Wilton Windmill

Rear view of Bill M0TDW with John G1OQV operating & Neil M6CUE logging in the main op shelter.

Andrew M1CJE operating under a cloth for sun protection.

BiWOTA (a report by Ken G1NCG)

British inland Waterways On The Air 2018 August 25, 26, & 27

This was the first year we have put on this event and it really pushed our skills into overtime as we had to plan for an event that had no connections to power and water.

First things were to organise power arrangements, this meant finding batteries how many and what amperage would be needed plus methods to charge them over night during the even. Then ensuring we had equipment for providing refreshments. All these things were added to the normal equipment we use to put on special event stations, all I can say is it was a very interesting experience and a fruitful one as it all came together at the location by Wilton Water opposite Crofton Beam Engine on the other side of the canal to Crofton. We were granted permission by the landowners to use this location for the event. Saturday arrived and we loaded up all the gear and arrived early to install the masts and shelters that we used. The weather was very kind to us as the sun came out and stayed out all day which provided with a very good start. We were present on 40 M, Network radio & VHF. Unfortunately on the Sunday, the wx took a turn for the worse & we had water ingress through the roof of the operating tent, after having made only two contacts, we packed up all vulnerable kit & went home, on the Monday however, the wx & propagation were kind to us, we had very good sunny weather & had loads of contacts. We had many passers by enquiring what we were doing to which we explained about the British inland Waterways on the air event that we were running and some gave nods and wished us well in what we were doing and others didn't seem to really understand what we were doing. I want to thank G4VWG for his assistance in setting up our installation very much appreciated and the visitors that managed to find us as it was good to see them:-

Bryan M0RLK, Colin G4GBP and Richard G4MUF and his XYL Judy.

Main op shelter with John G1OQV operating & Neil M6CUE on logging & Network Radio

Mess tent & secondary operating shelter

Crofton Beam Engine shed, GB1CL operated from a spot 100 yds left of picture.