[Corkradioclub] IMD at Brow Head

[Dave Moore]

Hello All,
Great to report on a very successful club outing to Brow Head, Crookhaven for International Marconi Day.
See picture for the names of those who attended.
As already reported by EI9FBB we had a total of 1,700 QSOs into 77 DXCC Entities.
We had a 40 metre only station at the actual Marconi site on top of the Head. This operated from a tent with a 45 foot fibre glass mast for a centre support for the dipole with one end on to the top of the Martello Tower and the other end over one of the ruined buildings.
This worked very well for the duration.
The fun started in mid afternoon when the wind picked up to force 7 with gusts a bit stronger and it was decided that the tent was about to be blown away. We dropped it and moved to the lee of a building with EI2KA's tent being set up instead. This worked well as both the coax and power leads were long enough to reach.
The weather forecast was for a force 7 to continue to blow so a decision was taken to dismantle this station before darkness on safety grounds.

It was intended that the second station would be set up at the car park at the bottom of the hill leading to Brow Head  (1400m away) but fortunately the owner of the house at the end of the boreen to the Head, Danny O'Keeffe, offered the use of his tarmac'ed drive for parking the three campers on site (100m away) . He had external power sockets along the kerbing so each vehicle was able to plug in to mains directly. A real blessing!
This station had a tri-bander for 10, 15 & 20m with separate verticals for 80 and 30m. 
Tim EI2KA had towed along a big diesel generator to facilitate the use of an amplifier but in the circumstances it was not used.
The camper vans were provided by Hans EI9GRB, Ger EI8HT and Anatoly EI4JF. Tents were provided by Tim EI2KA and Dave EI4BZ.
Thanks to all who participated and a special thanks to Declan EI9GA and Karl SWL for driving the two wheelbarrows up and down the hill with all the gear. Thanks also to James EI2IV and Susan who helped with the takedown.
Logs and QSLing are being handled by Dave EI9FBB.
Hope to hear comments from the other participants.

73
Dave