Amateur Radio Station G4LXU

Station details

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Contest operation

Under my own callsign I operate in RSGB VHF contests, Worked All Britain contests and occasional contests on the HF bands. I only actually enter the contests if I have operated for a reasonable length of time during the contest. At present contest activity has been suspended due to antenna problems.

In addition to entering contests myself I am part of the Queen Mary Contest Group who operate the callsign G6QM. In the main the Queen Mary Contest Group is operated by myself, my wife, G4JKY, and my wife's father, G4IEY. The main contest we enter is the restricted section of the RSGB SSB Field Day in September. We operate from a field next to my house and our station for 1999 is shown below.

Operating Environment	G4IEY and G4JKY in action	The antenna system

We have a 1.4KV generator that powers a Yaesu Ft101Z transceiver running 100W, the lights and the computer system used for logging. The computer is an IBM PS/2 Model 80-A31 running Dos 6.22. Heating is provided for by a calor gas heater.

The antenna is a trapped dipole fed with coax and matched with a KW EZMatch. It is held aloft on 2 40ft sectioned masts, one at the centre and one at the bottom end. The top end of the antenna is connected to a dog retainer in the ground on a mound at the top of the field. The severe slope of the field means that the antenna, although not perfectly straight, is somewhat straighter than it would be if the same system was used on level ground. The third pole in the picture above is used with a pulley system to haul the masts into place and is not part of the antenna support system

For logging we use SupaDupa. With only 3 operators the ease of use allows for single person operation of both transmission and logging. In general we all do some operating on Saturday afternoon until about 11:00pm when I take over for the night. Frank, G4IEY, usually relieves me about 6:00am and he and Libby, G4JKY, then operate until about lunchtime when I reappear having, hopefully, had a bit of sleep!

We have now been entering the contest for about 11 years. We had a couple of problems in 1999 the main one being when the generator engine oil dried up at 2:00am and, on finding I had no engine oil in the house, I drove 14 miles into Harrogate to our nearest 24 hour petrol station to buy some!! Despite the loss of time from this and some antenna problems, compounded by what we felt were poor radio conditions, we felt we had done reasonably well. In fact, on perusing the RSGB Contest Claimed Scores Page we found that before any adjudication we had come 9th in the restricted section which is our best ever result.

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Worked All Britain

Worked All Britain information

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QSL sub-bureau

I am the QSL sub-manager for the G0LAA-LZZ and G4LAA-LZZ series of callsigns. I last processed a box of cards in the April 2006. I expect a further box of cards to arrive in mid-July. I usually receive a box of cards from the QSL bureau about every 4 months. If your callsign is one for which I am the QSL sub-manager then please contact me if you would like to know anything about the workings of the bureau or your current position regarding envelopes lodged with me.

Radio Society of Great Britain

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Copyright Chris Lennox, G4LXU
Last revised: January 24, 2000.

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