Our Special Event Station Hits The Airwaves!

Over the weekend of the 16th and 17th May, Taunton & District Amateur Radio Club took to the airwaves as GB5SOL - the special event station for the Steam On The Levels event. This event, which commemorates the use of steam power on the Somerset Levels, draws visitors keen to see the stationary steam engines, traction engines, miniature steam trains and classic vehicles.

The annual Steam on the Levels event at Westonzoyland Pumping Station

Operating using the special event callsign, GB5SOL, the Club made contacts on 40m, 20m, 2m, 10GHz and on QO-100, using a variety of modes, including CW, SSB, FM, FT8, SSTV and Hellschreiber. This generated much interest from visitors and Club members were on hand to explain proceedings, handing out promotional material to those wanting further information on amateur radio.

Although the event wasn't without it's problems - very poor HF band conditions and noisy generators giving up to S9 of noise at times - it was a success. Saturday was a little quieter, but the tent was buzzing on Sunday with many visitors.

Heavy skies but a warm welcome at the Club tent!

Our planned operating schedule went out of the window due to the poor HF conditions and electrical noise, but Saturday morning we were able to point the QO-100 dish towards Es'hail and work stations from France, Germany, Italy and the Ukraine, on CW, using 200mW into a 60cm dish.

Saturday was also the "Hell Net" on 40m, using the Hellschreiber mode, contact was made with PA0KDF but the fading proved too much and we weren't able to log that one, unfortunately.

Sunday was the better day, and much busier - both on the bands and in the tent! We managed to get SSTV sorted out after some initial troubles with the on-site power supply but the real draw was CW. With the sidetone and volume cranked up, the sound of morse code at 25-30wpm seemed to lure people towards the tent, intrigued by the sounds.

A busy tent on Sunday!

During the last half an hour of the show, Club members took to FT8 and managed to log a number of stations, and a contact on 10GHz using SSTV was also made.

The event was a complete success, despite the issues and the weather, and the Club will be back on tha air with another special event station later in October...