British Inland Waterways on the Air

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This weekend I will be taking part in the British Inland Waterways on the Air, the description of the event from the website:

The event is open to all Amateurs who are boaters, cyclists, walkers and other users of the canals, rivers, towpaths, riverbanks for work or recreation. Even lakes and reservoirs that are used for recreation uses classify as an inland waterway, so there are many places for activating. Many clubs and individual Amateurs on or near the UK inland waterways obtain Special Event Station (SES) callsigns. Others operate mobile or portable using their own callsigns. Many more like to contact the BiWota stations. It is also a good chance for WAB enthusiasts to get some rare WAB squares.
The primary bands will be 40m (7MHz) and 2m (144MHz SSB and FM) but all bands will be acceptable.
The aim of the event is to bring together Radio Amateurs who regularly use the waterways to celebrate their hobby and raise awareness of the UK waterways.
Please check out the event Facebook page for current information: https://www.facebook.com/BIWOTA/

I will be at the Riverside Boatyard on Saturday and out on the River somewhere on Sunday and Monday with my portable radios (weather permitting – wet weather program will involve a pub).

Look out for me if you are local and come and say hello and I will tell you all about the Amateur Radio hobby. 

If you are not local the you can find me on 40M and 2M as well as 20M using both voice and FT8Call on the HF Bands. If you are not an Amateur Radio operator you can get me on Twitter and Facebook.

I will post the frequencies I am using below over the weekend

Mark

Event website here: http://www.nharg.org.uk/biwota

07:00 – Trying FT8Call on 14.080 First, before I set up portable outside.

0830-0900utc calling CQ on 7.158. No replies

0924utc listening on 2M and having a brew no contacts yet, but weather is good 🙂

1010utc to 1035 calling CQ on 40. Not hearing anyone. Listened to a station working another BIWOTA station but couldn’t hear him. Tide in so dipole closer to the water than me now.

End of day one

Today saw awful band conditions, possibly the worst I’ve experienced. Time for a beer and dinner. Back tomorrow (Sunday) morning.

Sunday.

Band conditions as bad if not worse than yesterday. Called CQ on and off for a few hours this morning on 40M. Tried FT8Call and not even getting any takers on that. And it’s raining so I’m not going out portable.

Will have a last try tomorrow.