This is a regular in our calendar and is held in the grounds of the National Trust owned Wimpole Hall.  The actual event is the Wimpole Church fete.  We were again lucky with the weather, a typical early summers day.

George Benton used to make the stringing of the H.F. aerial so easy by using his bowto fire a line over a tree branch, but this is the major problem of the daynow.  Many attempts were made at throwing a line but we just could not get the height needed.  Luckily there was a large felled tree trunk and by standing on this and whirling an adjustable spanner and letting go at the right moment a good high branch was reached.  Anybody got a bow and arrow for next year?

The Practical Wireless Low Power contest is also on the same day so I decided to take along some 2M gear.  My trusty Ft290mk1 with R.F.speech processor and an array of solar panels float charging a couple of gell cells.  The aerial is my home brew 3-element HB9CV on top of 4 glass fibre poles (12 feet agl).  I have found that noregulator is necessary since it is impossible to over charge the batteries.  In full sunlight the panels shown can deliver perhaps 0.5 Amp but on the average English day this quickly falls away.  However there is enough to run the station.

I have a sked with Martin Cranage G8OFA in Salisbury (ex Chairman) on Sunday mornings and I arranged with him to call at midday from this site.  We were able to work thepath quite well.   I carried on for a few hours to give some points away.  Perhaps next year we should enter for real?

Wimpole is a great day out and it would be nice to see more club members come along.   There is plenty to do for all the family besides the radio.  Come next year and pack a picnic.

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