EARLY SUNDAY MORNING TO THE END
Working through the night wasn't all that much of a problem, we did have to make sure members didn't flake out for too long!!!
To be fair, the night up until about 5am was hit and miss all over the
place. Stephen (ZMD) turned up at about midnight, while both Adrian and
Stephen were in their respective cars, sleeping...ZMD stayed until about 2/3am,
at which point he handed 15m to me, except that at the time 15m was on the slide
- just as Steve disappeared out of the hangar, 15m died...
Thank goodness HCJB is on 21.455 - Which the 102 brought in quite well :)) - Even though Stephen had shown me how to tune a 102, I still didn't fancy trying, plus he was asleep - so I listened round the bands.
(Stephen-ZMD Working HF at about 1am!)
The rest of the night plodded on, team members were sleeping, either in cars, on camp-beds, or flaked out on the floor. Having done all sorts of odd hours at McDonalds for 3 1/2 years (including 17 hour shifts etc) - I stayed up all night, I just had to try to either work someone or entertain myself - That's why I have Lemmings on my laptop.......In the end it turned into a case of switching the radios off, and teaching Simon and James the ways of Lemmings - A most entertaining way to pass into the early morning.
It is a good job we were inside - throughout the night we noticed it raining in all sorts of stages, from fine-mist to almost torrential downpour!
Adrian was first up at about 4:30am - with Stephen about 30 minutes later...
After some initial stretching, and walking round to loosen up the joints, we were all ready for the day - Adrian decided to check the propogation, He'd got up early with the intention of working Australia, or similar far off DX - He tuned to WWV & WWVH and we listened, to those that were awake, he explained that if we could hear the female voice - that was Hawaii, and things were looking good - We could just about hear it, and with WWV still ringing in our ears, Adrian disappeared to the car.....promptly passing out for an hour.....
To be fair, it was all a total blur - So I apologise to all concerned if none of this makes the blindest bit of sense.....
Simon and James were both out for the count, they'd have slept through the end of the world...
(Sunday Morning 6am) (The View inside the hangar at about the same time)
BREAKFAST
Adrian went and scouted out the Car Boot Sale at the bottom of the field - Firstly for some bargains, and secondly for some breakfast, He came back and suggested a trip to McDonalds was in order :)
However - it was about 6am by now - McDs wasn't due to open for another 90 minutes, this was by far the longest 90 minutes I have ever experienced, however we did manage to catch some early morning DX - We would have to be prepared for when it did open. Somehow, given our hunger, we didn't notice, but it was 7:45am!
We took an order list, and headed off to McDonalds - about 10 minutes later, we returned, Simon had woken up, but the forthcoming surge of carbohydrates would get him back on his feet (that and the immensely strong McD's coffee) and really get him sorted. 15 minutes later we were all fed, watered and ready to go. The DX started coming through - as did the occasional visitor from the car-boot sale who had a look at what we were doing - and who couldn't be drawn to our operation, the antenna setup was massive, having taken a walk to the bottom of the field, I could see it from a fair distance away!
The day continued ever onward, and to be honest it kind of went slow then fast, in pockets...
My original plan was to pack up at 10am local, The reason for this was that some of us would have to get up and go to work on the Monday, and plus we'd all be a little bit fresher for the journey back. Having chatted with Stephen, we decided to work for a little longer, until we'd worked at least 30 Musem Stations....
John RBM arrived at about 11am, and stuck round
to help out, Stephen ZMD arrived not soon after - we had a full quota of people
!, we would later be joined by Vic (GW3RME) towards the end of the day...
(John GW3RBM on the 102)
FINAL STRAIGHT
I sat down next to Stephen, it was about 11:30am, He asked me to count up the number of Museum Stations we had worked, I got it to about 28, after a few re-counts, and some cross-referencing....We decided we'd aim for 30 Museum Stations or 32 to account for errors.
There was plenty of stations around, but we had to make sure we hadn't worked them before - We worked together, Stephen worked the stations, and I cross-checked and logged - Simon and James were using the 757GX to work HF, and had opted to use their own callsign (Well, James had) - I found the 290, and set up on 2M SSB, as I knew there were some backpackers on the hills - We gave a few points away :) - Stephen continued to work the stations, and at one point had quite a pile-up on his hands. However, I could feel myself dropping off - and I could see that concentration was somewhat short, talking to other members of the team, we felt that we'd run our course. I decided we had to shut down.
James and Adrian, went out and dropped the antennas, and Stephen Switched to the G5RV and James and Adrian continued to pack up their kit - I had packed up my side of the operation earlier on in the morning - We were ready to go in about 20 minutes, except Stephen was still operating - After about 10 minutes or so, we decided that we could wait no longer - At this point, we'd got 30 Museum Stations in the bag, and as I pointed out to Stephen, We'd done what we'd set out for, the extra 2 could wait, He finally agreed to stop transmitting, and switched off his 102....
All we had to do now was to pack, clean up and we'd be off.....
PACKING UP AND OFF
Having shut Stephen's station down, and I really didn't want to - but we were all totally knackered, and I could feel myself wanting to pass out for 40 winks at any moment....
I grouped everyone together, thanked them all for their efforts over the last 24+ hours, but had to inform them the fun part was over, from hereon in we had to muck in and help with the clean up, I mentioned that no-one stands around - and to be totally fair, everyone pulled together for the final stretch - we had a broken broom - but some quick-thinking with a mast pole, and we had a useable broom :)
20 minutes later, I was happy, we'd cleaned everything - possibly done too much, but I wasn't going to leave until I was happy with how clean it all was, I was under threat you see - My life would not have been worth living!!
While cleaning up, myself and John noticed Mrs Pierce leaving the site after the car-boot sale - We stopped her and had a chat, John gave her a donation towards our electricity useage over the 24 hours - We had a chat about how well the event had gone, and thanked the Pierce's again for their hospitality and allowing us to use the hangar...
On the way home, myself, Simon and Stephen dropped in to see Ian, he was pleased to see us, but not pleased generally - but that, as they say - is another story....We made our way back home, reminiscing about the last 30 hours, and the week ahead, amongst other things. Stephen dropped me off at home, and I thanked him.
Back home, I unpacked my kit, sat down, checked my e-mail - I decided to get an hours sleep before the Simpsons at 6pm - next thing I know its 4:40am - Was I in need of sleep or what ???
All in all, I think we can all say the event was a resounding success, a total of 198 HF stations worked, 28 Museums (Although awaiting confirmation) and about 40 VHF Contacts...Not a bad tally, all-in-all....
The Team - From L-R - Simon (MW3ARF), James (M3JRP), Adrian (M3LCR), John (GW3RBM), Mark (MW1/MW3MDH) and Stephen (MW1STE/MW3SMF)