Wrexham Science Festival 2004 - The Main Event!

(Setting up - Early on)

We took Friday in order to get the antenna farm together. We started Saturday with a delta-loop for 40M (up at 65 foot) and an X7, and a colinear for V/UHF..

The X7 came down about an hour later due to there being a problem with tuning - However, the winch cable snapped while it was being lowered - luckily it snapped with only a few feet to go (we managed to catch the X7!) - only problem was we couldn't get the tower back up! - Back to the drawing board!!!!

In the main room - We were getting setup. On the Friday, we had managed to set as much of the room up as possible, and to be honest we only had a few little things to sort out (club PC, SOTA, Layout) and set the stations up. James set up the club-boards (which he'd stayed up until 2am the previous night sorting out) - and as he'd put most of the posters up with me on the Friday - there really was little else to do!

The PW Display

Les had brought his 736, which was hooked via a 100w Microset linear, to the co-linear which was up at 35 feet, and was sitting just over the top of the building. 100W or not, 2M was flat for the majority of the day. Adrian had set most of the HF station up, and all was needed was a final hook-up and test. I set the club PC up, this was running the RSGBs "Welcome to Amateur Radio " DVD, and the ARRLs equivalent. It also had the RSGBs Powerpoint presentations and a copy of the Club CD (which had been duplicated to the tune of 100 CDs)

(Adrian discusses HF operation with Eric)

The Club CD is coming on leaps and bounds - it started as just being a copy of the Club websites, and associated SE Sites. Although this particular CD had a little more on it, It also had a IL/FL radio course and a selection of software - I still feel that there was some more that could have been added - and so I confidently predict that this CD will evolve over the coming years.

(The VHF Setup)

Over in the corner SOTA were setting up - I had invited them along, as John (MW1VCD) is one of our members, He along with Shirley (MW0YLS) had set up a very impressive display in the corner of our room - they were officially guests of the club !! - The display contained all manner of things such as leaflets, and 817, a SOTA beam, and various antennas, all of which had been used on various summit activations, photos of which were all along the walls.....

VHF was up and running - HF just needed to be set up and tuned up, and all was ready - We left that for Adrian!!! - The PWs were slightly wider distributed :) all remaining cables were taped down, and a final H&S check was carried out. In the meantime Steve and Adrian tuned up the HF station, and we were off and running at about 9.30am

(Adrian working HF)

Initially, the numbers through the door were very thin on the ground - The first few hours we were very worried that we'd be able to take a few hours for lunch. The main problem here was that we were at the opposite side of the campus from everyone else. The sports hall was where the main action was, and we were almost nearer B&Q than the rest of the campus.

VHF was somewhat flat, there seemed to be very few people actually on the bands at this time of day however we manged initially to work a station in Halesowen, followed by no one else!! - VHF was certainly empty for the best part of the day.

Over on HF, the station was already in full flow - Adrian had parked up on 40m, and was causing quite a racket, the delta-loop was certainly proving its worth, Surprisingly though, we only had one contact on the cluster (and at the moment one eQSL) - Over the course of the day, Adrian managed to create a pile-up all of his own.

In the meantime, myself, Eric, Darlene, James and Steve chatted to the public - Some people looked frightened, some looked amazed. However we managed to win a few people round, but the problem was getting them to sit down in front of the microphone - The plan I hatched was to start with 2M, and then move them to HF - In the end we had James and Eric working people from the car park, this was due to the lack of people on VHF!

Mark works the VHF Station, While Les looks on

The first few hours practically disappeared around us - No sooner had we kicked off, than it was midday - the local ATC delivered the lunches, which then meant the next stage - Swapping the lunches around so that everyone had what they wanted! - some people don't like Twix's!!! Early afternoon was where it all started picking up.

Seemed that people suddenly realised who and where we were - Lets face it, the top of the J-Pole could be seen across the road, and across the other side of the campus - maybe beyond ?? - You can see NEWI from a fair way outside of Wrexham. So why only one mention on the Cluster???

Not Quite a Panoramic shot - but this was how things looked in the afternoon

(Note - Eric - raffle ticket salesman - taking no prisoners, on the left)

This is how it did look a few hours earlier

Over the course of the morning, I would estimate that I spoke to about 20 people. Come the afternoon I probably spoke to closer 150 people. Geoff seemed to be doing just as well on the Morse, he seemed to be pulling people in plenty of people. When there was no one on the bands - most of the members talked to the public.

I think we managed to shift most of the Radcoms, PWs and SWMs over the course of the day.

Adrian, over the course of the day was working stations at a rapid rate - At one point he called me over "Listen to this....." he turned up the volume on the 757 and the noise that was there, was almost deafening - All these people were trying to work us!!!

We had only managed to shift a few raffle tickets, and so in the afternoon Eric took up the task of shifting the tickets - and shift them he did!! - He took no prisoners, and managed to shift a substantial amount of tickets in the remaining few hours of the day!.

Steve MW1STE hard at work on the HF Station

Darlene was talking to a few members of the public, whilst I decided to have another go at VHF - Eric's previous plan was to work people on handies from the car park - this was due to the fact that we couldn't find anyone. However this time round we did - I managed to work a station in Welshpool, and one running an FT-817 with 1w running a SOTA beam. Between Eric and James, they came up with a plan - as VHF was so flat, why not have one of them sat outside, working the station - Although no major distance, as James pointed out - the younger children will be more than happy to make the contacts! - The plan was used!

At this point I had a young man named Alistair sitting next to me.......He seemed very interested in what I was doing....so I asked him if he'd like a go - Initially he seemed a bit doubtful, but he eventually agreed - and so I dropped the mike, and introduced him into the QSO - He was initially a bit shy, given that he had suddenly managed to attract quite a crowd. However once over the initial fright he took to the mike, and with a little bit of prompting from 'MDH was conducting his first QSO.

The station in Buxton was also a SOTA station - Shirley had scheduled a QSO - So I asked Alistair to wrap the QSO up, and we'd go and have a chat - He successfully ended the QSO, and we moved aside for Shirley to take the microphone.

On talking to Alistair, it transpired that he was very interested in the hobby - He certainly seemed quite elated of what he'd just achieved. Unfortunately we tried to get someone on HF to talk to him, but failed - I spoke to him for about 30 minutes or so, and in that time chatted about the Foundation licence, and the hobby in general. I supplied him with a copy of the club CD (Which also had a copy of G8OSNs Licence Course on it) and a leaflet which allowed him to join the RSGB for a special price. Given that he lived nearer Frodsham - I suggested he speak to Kath & Dave Wilson, who run the course up at Frodsham (and at which Steve and myself help out at) - Personally I think we'll be meeting him again!

Mark MW1MDH Taking the microphone on VHF - James props the table up!!!

The event was drawing to a close, SOTA were already in the process of packing up - James was already packing up the magazines - But what to do with them, Steve suggested a call to Kath, and Liz (GW0ETU) for both the Frodsham and Colwyn Bay clubs - The call was made and Adrian took the magazines home with him, and they are currently being distributed between the clubs.

As the public filed out, SOTA was packed up, the magazines were packed away, the posters and literature supplied by Icom and Kenwood was being packed away, and the VHF station was being packed up - slowly the room was returning to normal. Over the course of the next 30 minutes all the remaining kit was packed up, the boards were packed up, and coax disappeared out the window.

Round the back, Les, John and Steve were taking apart the VHF antenna system, mainly as that was only a 35ft mast, that is easily collapsible (Racal ex-Mil) - the only other problem was the HF system, given that it took us best part of 90 minutes to put the j-pole up and given that it was 65ft high, and given that Adrian was the only person with any real knowledge of the j-pole. However, Adrian had to take the tower separately otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get the poles and the kit in the back of his landy.

In the meantime, myself, John, James, Eric, les, and Steve cleared out the rest of the room and as the cleaners were waiting we shipped the club boards and the remaining kit outside - we waited for the cleaners to finish before we moved back into the room - It was quite cold outside, and we couldn't do much about the pole, and none of us were going to even think of dropping the pole...

Taking it all down

Adrian returned at about 6pm, and we knew that given that the light was dropping - we had to work fast - and fast we did work - it took about 45 minutes to drop the pole, and pack it up. A final scout round the site to make sure we had everything, and we were leaving the site at about 7:20pm.

Another Science Festival over and done with - same time and place next year.???

I'd like to thank: Eric, Adrian, Steve, James, Les, John 'RBM, Darlene and Geoff 'EMB for turning up to help set up and run GB2WFS - Thanks also to Adrian for loan of his masts, and other assorted kit, also thanks to Steve 'STE for duplicating the club CD. Thanks also to Les for bringing his 736.  thanks also to John MW1VCD, Shirley MW0YLS and ??? for setting up and running the SOTA stall. Finally thanks to Dave Evans GW4GTE for providing RSGB representation.  Thanks to John 'VCD and Dave 'GTE for Photos (Some photos by Mark 'MDH)

Rest assured we will be running as GB2WSF for 2005!