GX4WAB - Worked All Britain “Follow the Torch” Station
Run by G4AYM on Day 6 - 24th May 2012

Day 6 of the Olympic Torch Run saw the torch moving along the A417 from Gloucester to Worcester. One of our members lives on a small hill that overlooks this road and so we decided to use this for the Worked All Britain event.

Although we had stwardship of the call-sign from midnight, we started the station about 06.30 BST. Initially, we tried 80m (3.760) but didn't get a single contact. At 0800 BST we changed over to 40m (7.153 as 7.160 was occupied) and the contacts started to come through immediately. Conditions were difficult, possibly due to a very heavy mist that permeated the area (which backs onto the river Severn). However, it was possible to pull contacts out of the QRN and the steady stream continued throughout the day.

At various times, we also tried 20m (14.265) and 2m but we got no contacts on 20m and only a single contact on 2m SSB.

QRN slowly decreased throughout the morning as the mist dissipated and the sun came out.

Halfway through the afternoon, our main HF rig blew a fuse and that took us off-air for 20 minutes or so while we located another one and fitted it. We initially put it down to heat (the rig was in full sun) and that the ATU may have slipped over the cooling vents. However, at about 6pm, it happened again. This took us off 40m for a longer time, until we traced the fault, which turned out to be a bias problem.

In total, we managed to make 225 contacts on 40m and one on 2m.

Equipment:

• Kenwood TS830 (our main 40m rig)
• Kenwood TS450 (this does not cover 7.1-7.2 and so we used it for 20m)
• Yaesu FT726 with Microwave Modules 100W linear (for 2m)

Antenna:

• 78m long Off Centre Fed Dipole at about 8m max
• 9m long Vertical (spiral wound with about 15m of wire). Base raised to about 3m off the ground.
• 2m 7el ZL special (rotatable)

Conclusions
(On the station)
We had a great time although none of the team were avid WAB chasers and so we would have preferred more of a steer from the WAB team, even to the extent of having a schedule of times and frequencies.
Many of our contacts did not understand that the atation was being run by different people each day and thought that we were the WAB team travelling around the country.
(On the Olympics)
Run 300m and then hop on a bus - that's what the torch bearers did and they are ambassadors for the games!

Many thanks to the team of operators:

• G0ULH
• M6IAJ
• G4MGW
• G8CQZ
• G3TDT
• but mainly to G0NXA

and to everybody else that helped.

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