Saturday the 28th of November 2015 was the second Essex 2 metre Activity Afternoon.
This was a county-wide initiative organised by the Thurrock Acorns, with the intention of getting as many people active on 2m as possible. The last activity day was in March (See our March 2015 2m Activity Day report)
What Happened:
The event from 1pm onwards on the afternoon on the 28th of November 2015.
- Thurrock Acorns ran a station from Grays on 145.450MHz – Well done to Stella G0EKP for hosting and operating GX4HKO
- Essex Ham ran a simplex net on 145.550 from 1pm to 2pm
- Essex Ham ran a net on GB3DA from 2pm to 3pm (17 attendees)
- Essex Ham ran SSTV on 144.500 from 3:10pm to 3:40pm, and again from 4:40pm to 5pm
- Essex Ham member Steve 2E0UEH was active on CW and SSB as well as on FM voice
- GB0SNB was on-air from the Secret Nuclear Bunker at Kelvedon
Other activities were planned for CW and SSB, but no update on these yet.
Know a local group who were active for the event? Let us know! Also, any photos from today? Please send them over!
Voice Activity
The official event station GX4HKO was operated from Stella’s QTH near Grays on behalf of Thurrock Acorns. The station was working a pile-up for most of the afternoon. TAARC report making 47 contacts on 2m simplex during the afternoon.
Commenting on the afternoon’s activity, TAARC Chairman Nicholas Wilkinson G4HCK said; “The afternoon surpassed my expectation. The hope was that we would speak to 40 different amateurs. However we passed this target contacting 50 stations. This is the second time we have run this activity afternoon and the club is already receiving requests from amateurs in the South/East of England to repeat the activity early next year”
In addition to the station in Grays,, Essex Ham was active on the group’s club callsign on simplex, working several stations before switching to an impromptu net on GB3DA, which attracted 16 people in an hour.
Several members of Essex Ham got behind the event. Special kudos to members:
- Dorothy M0LMR and Charlie M0PZT – For working multiple frequencies throughout the event
- Ed M0MNG – For calling in on GB3DA from a high point near Eastbourne, East Sussex. Ed’s a keen supporter of Essex Ham, and made a special trip to his local high point to make contact
- Trevor M5AKA – For PR on Twitter
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Video of the 2m Activity Afternoon, from Ed M0MNG in East Sussex Note that Ed’s the video is dedicated to the memory of Clive G1EUC SK – Former Chairman of the Essex Repeater Group |
SSTV
As an experiment, some Essex Ham members sent a series of SSTV images, some of which follow. Kudos to the following members:
- Charlie M0PZT and Laura M6LHT for the successful two-way QSOs (and Laura’s first)
- George M1GEO, Richard G7OED and Chris M6EDF for SSTV reception reports on-air or via Twitter
Also to David G7UVW for sending an image from Romford, and Keith G7FFI in Rochford for the reception report
Stations Worked
The following list is of stations worked during the afternoon of 28 November 2015 by Pete M0PSX, or on Essex Ham’s club callsign of MX0SXA:
| Name | Callsign | EH Member | Frequency | Notes |
| Stella | GX4HKO | No | 145.450 | Thurrock Acorns, Grays |
| Nick | G4HCK | No | 145.550 | |
| Neil | G0RNU | YES | 145.550 | Tilbury |
| Dorothy | M0LMR | YES | 145.550 & DA | Basildon |
| Charlie | M0PZT | YES | 145.550 , DA , 144.500 | Voice and SSTV |
| John | M1DUC | No | 145.550 & DA | |
| Dean | M6NSX | YES | GB3DA | Witham |
| Tony | G6EEE | YES | GB3DA | |
| Bill | G7LAX | YES | GB3DA | |
| Steve | 2E0UEH | YES | GB3DA | |
| Laura | M6LHT | YES | GB3DA and SSTV | |
| Brian | M6UHN | YES | GB3DA | |
| Ed | M0MNG/P | YES | GB3DA | Eastbourne, E.Sussex |
| Gordon | 2E0IRX | YES | GB3DA | |
| Ray | M6GVE | YES | GB3DA | |
| John | G3ZJZ | YES | GB3DA | |
| Kristian | 2E0SSX | YES | GB3DA | |
| Peter | G1FOA | No | GB3DA | |
| David | M1ECC | YES | GB3DA | |
| Jon | M6WRO | YES | GB3DA | Visiting W&S |
| Kevin | G0PEK | YES | 145.575 | Hoo, Kent |
| David | G7UVW | No | 144.500 | SSTV |
| Paul | M6NFW | YES | 144.500 | |
| Keith | G7FFI | No | 144.500 | Recd SSTV Rochford |
| Bill | G4OAX | YES | 144.500 | Recd SSTV Frinton |
| Richard | G7OED | YES | 144.500 | Recd SSTV Basildon |
| Paul | 2E0DNQ | YES | 144.500 | Recd SSTV Southend |
Well done to Thurrock Acorns for a very successful 2m Activity Afternoon. It was great that so many amateurs took to the air in support of the event, and to support local use of 2m. Perhaps a shame a few more clubs in the area didn’t get behind this and rally their own members – It was promoted well in advance, and local clubs (including us) were informed weeks ago – At Essex Ham, we were proud to take part and show support for this initiative by TAARC, but we didn’t see much PR or support from many of the other local groups. If the club you’re a member of didn’t take part… why not? Perhaps drop them a mail to suggest that next time, they support county-wide activities like this.
Great that so many amateurs took to the air in support of the event, and of 2m. Perhaps a shame a few more clubs in the area didn’t get behind this and rally their members – It was promoted well in advance, and local clubs were informed weeks ago. If the club you’re a member of didn’t take part… perhaps drop them a mail to suggest that next time, they take part in this county-wide activity?
To those who got involved – great result, and excellent to see so much activity. And a big well done to Stella and the rest of the team operating GX4HKO for the Thurrock Acorns.
Acknowledgement
Essex Ham would like to thank the Essex Repeater Group for the loan of the GB3DA repeater for our impromptu net on the 28th of November. This repeater is a great resource and allowed us to connect with people that we couldn’t work simplex. GB3DA and other ERG repeaters, are managed by volunteers. ERG would appreciate your support which can be by membership or donation, online at http://www.essexrepeatergroup.org.uk.
Hello everyone
I plan to be on the air for most of this great event once again from Firle Beacon, East Sussex. This is semi-local to my home QTH, it’s 200 meters high (approx), WAB Square is TQ40 and locator is JO00BU.
I’ll be calling on 145.500MHz or working people a channel or two either side of that frequency. I’ll also have SSB and (slow and not very good) CW capability so could do some of that around 144.300MHz but vertically polarised. My antenna will be a 7/8 wavelength whip on my car.
I had planned to take a small yagi up there but given the bad and windy WX forecast I will be sticking with the whip! I managed to work 16 stations back in March so I’ll be interested to see how many contacts I can get this time.
Bring it on (again)!
Best 73 from Sussex
Edmund M0MNG/P
Well done all ! This is a brilliant idea & I was pleased to take part in the last one. Unfortunately my 2m rig won’t reach Essex from Nth Wales today ! Looking forward to the next 2m activity day – congratulations to Thurrock Acorns & all who took part.
Was great to be part of a very successful 2m activity afternoon , and great so many amateurs fromEssex and beyond participated too!, hopefully the rest of the country were as keen as us lot !! WELL DONE SOUTH EAST ENGLAND , xx and what a great event from the TAARC team xx
I’ve done a little video of how things sounded at my end:
https://youtu.be/DyV9lhVx4OM
Best 73
Edmund M0MNG
Excellent video – great job! Looked a bit chilly out there though
I would like to say a very big thank you to everyone that called into GX4HKO and made it such a successful event. THANK YOU.
73’s/88’s
Stella G0EKP
Great event. Well done for hosting it Stella, and well done to the Acorns for the proactive idea
Great activity day,managed quite a few contacts on SSB,quite a pile up on the Danbury repeater so just had a listen.Colchester radio amateurs up and about,we all need to use the 2m band so bring on the next activity day,don’t forget your listeners and budding foundation future licence holders,let’s all do it again real soon
Let’s all do this again soon,good to keep the band’s working,I worked on SSB for some of the afternoon.Great fun,And let’s not forget our budding foundation licence listeners after all its where most of us started out.bring on the next activity day
Hello Tony, I wonder if you were the very faint SSB signal that I heard? I think I was listening around 144.320MHz. Were you transmitting with horizontal polarisation? I was just using a vertical whip on top of my car.
Here’s a slightly unconventional suggestion. Next time, could people equipped to transmit SSB try putting out a few calls with vertical polarisation as well.. rather than sticking to horizontal throughout.
I would hazard a guess that more people have the ability to transmit SSB on 2 meters (for example thanks to the ubiquitous Yaesu FT-817 for example!) than will actually have a horizontal beam for the band. Yet very few people QRV on 2 meters will not have a (vertically-polarised) collinear.
Just a thought? :-)
On a similar note, could somebody tell me please whether the SSTV was transmitted horizontally or vertically? I managed to miss it altogether because I was in FM QSOs with other stations at the time… sorry!
Best 73
Edmund M0MNG
It was vertical polarisation and looking at my log it could well have been me!73s Tony
great 2m activity afternoon, good to hear people on air, well done to stella from our club thurrock acorns, and to pete mopsx for all the promoting he does with essexham. got my new radio pete yaesu ft8800 having good play with it. 73 jon.
I’ve just ordered a 5 element crossed yagi for 2 meters, so I might be able to take it up to Firle Beacon next time… WX and wind speed permitting, of course!