Some of the clubs events during 2018
It is fair to say this was not one of the club's best events. The fact the day was a Saturday, rather than the Sunday, which was Father's Day, meant only around 60 people paid to get into the Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome!. Only one visited the DHARS group who were operating. Just to make matters worst, there were technical problems too!
The club entered the 144 MHz May contest, which was a 24-hour event from 14:00 UTC Saturday 19th to 14:00 UTC Sunday 20th May. There were only two operators - Dave (G8WRB) and Maurice (G6AHD). The open section was entered, which allowed for operation over the full 24 hours, either at the fixed location or portable, and multiple operators.
A laptop was borrowed from Alan (G3ZES), and the open-source Minos Contest Logging Software software was used. The following data was required for a contact.
The results showed DHARS were placed 8th in the open section out of 9 stations. (A PDF copy of the certificate of the G0UTT entry can be downloaded. Although 8th from 9 was not great, we could takes some positives from this event.
Some statistics from the contest
The National Physical Laboratory opens its doors to the public every two years. Doors open at 14:00 and close and 20:00. Roger (G7RGR), John (G0IJN) and Dave (G8WRB) visited NPL. A large number of the laboratories were open, but not all of them. A copy of the Open House 2018 visitor guide has been put on the DHARS website in case anyone wants to read it.
Both John and Roger went to see the Liquid Nitrogen Show, but both thought it was more aimed at children. There's a short writeup in July 2018 RadCom about the event, by Giles Read (G1MFG), RadComs Technical Editor. Giles thought the Liquid Nitrogen Show was the best part, so obviously different people found different things particularly interesting.
There are far too many laboratories open than it is possible to see in one day, so one needs to be choosy.
Dave, G8WRB arranged in advanced to visit a lab where the properties of dielectrics are measured. He would like to thank Andrew Gregory and Bob Clarke for the opportunity to visit a lab which was not open.
NPL do an excellent job of making things interesting for a wide range of audiances. Although younger children are permitted entry, NPL advise that the events are not aimed at children under 8. A number of the visitors to NPL will have Ph.Ds, so it must be a real challenge to make things interesting for an audiance with such a wide range of backgrounds.