This album is all about our first operating of the club call, M0GZN, from the club QTH at Fort Purbrook. The club only has a meeting room at the Fort and no permanent shack set up, so we operate externally under canvas when we can organise it. We set up on Saturday morning 22nd April, with an HF station in a 3m square fabric gazebo and the VHF/UHF station in a nearby utility tent, which was purchased from club funds.

Neil 2E0CEU (now M0NEH) kindly provided both rigs, a Yeasu FT-920 for HF and an FT-897D for 2m/70cm work. Mick M0GWD refurbished a telescopic antenna mast kindly donated by Mike G4PRG, and this carried a homebrew trap wire dipole erected as an inverted vee, plus a 2m/70cm white-stick vertical on the top. Both were fed with mil-spec RG58 co-ax. The shorter mast to the left on the main picture supports the 4m vertical used by Ted G3XUX, operating out of his Land Rover.

The weather was very variable over both days, alternating between bright sunshine, heavy rain and strong winds. This forced us to abandon the gazebo and this was dismantled. The Sunday operating saw us relocate the HF station to the utility tent and the 2m/70cm station was set up in Mick M0GWD's Fiat 500.

While the weekend was not particularly good weather-wise, as a group we learned a great deal, and in between the rainstorms and trying to stop the gazebo going airborne, we managed a total of 98 QSOs across the various bands. Many thanks to all of the radio amateurs who supported this event.

73

Fort Purbrook ARC