144MHz UK Activity Night

Last night was the first Tuesday of the Month, which is the RSGB’s 144MHz UK Activity Contest & Club Championship and the good weather brought the ‘hamsters’ out in droves. I suspect every one was expecting there might be a lift on and although there was no massive sporadic e to the EU conditions seemed better than I can remember in a while. Several Scottish stations were heard but never on their own frequency were they could be worked and some of the South Coast stations were romping through here. It was a little frustrating to turn the beam only for them to turn theirs in the opposite direction but that is nothing new. Two nice easy contacts in to GI were my highlight and one was worked while the ten element Jaybeam was pointing NNE. It should have been somewhere Eastish. I was most surprised when he said, “You are a massive signal here” he certainly was too. I only managed to get 17 in the log but if I wanted to do this seriously I would get out portable with a big Yagi. It was a good night and I must try to get on more during these Tuesday nights. Next week is 70cms and I need to mount the delta quad well in advance or I will miss half the fun like I did last month. I don’t have a permanent beam up for that band at the moment.