G6UGW and G4CIB Go Severnside - Tuesday 4th September 2012

To be strictly accurate, we were in fact GW6UGW/P and GW4CIB/P at our final destination!

The day dawned bright although the forecast was for a cloudy but warm day, and soon Malcolm and I were heading down the A48 towards Chepstow. Entering Newnham I thought I caught a glimpse of something moving - a wave - on the river, so with no traffic following I was able to do a quick, no-signals left into the car park by the river, the scene of a few club picnics. Sure enough the tidal wave, a twice a day occurance, was making its way up the Severn estuary. Within a minute or so the sandbank in the middle of the river was a swirling mass of muddy water. Soon we were on our way again. Taking the A48 out of Chepstow, past the St Pierre Golf Club, then a left down to Portskewett, soon we were parked up at Black Rock Picnic Site, locator IO81PO - the location of the crossing to New Passage on the “English” side of the estuary.

Unloading the car, we soon had a 4 element, 2 metre beam erected on a suitable mast, the trusty old FT480R powered up, and almost unbelieving, sat mesmerised by GB3VHF romping in at S9 - but we're almost at sea level! A tune around, and another beacon, not so strong - PI7CIS in JO22DC. Well, 2m seems to be open! A CQ call and our first QSO with 2E0ICX, Dave in Tuffley. Sorry Dave if you are reading this - we should have been GW call signs not G!!! Next in the log book was Brian, G6HIE in Worthing (IO90SU). Our amateur radio activities were briefly put on hold as we heard on the appropriate channel, narrowboat “Harry” announcing departure from Sharpness, bound for Portishead with a pilot on board. Such was the strength of the ebbing tide flow, the “Harry” went under the Second Severn Crossing bridge sideways!!!

Some sustenance and a brew up was required after all this activity, and soon after our break we made contact with Anne, 2E1GKY, the only club member we managed to contact. By this time the sun was making a welcome if intermittent appearance, so we sat, gazed and chatted to various passers by, some intrigued as to what we were doing. One lady (who obviously knew about historical radio or wireless events in this area) accosted us with “Are you doing a Marconi re-enactement?” We were also joined by the local Community Police Support Officer - just checking us out! QSOs were logged with G3VKV, Graham in Cheltenham and G2BOF in Sutton, South London in IO91VI.

Here's a link to the picnic site:- www.portskewettcc.org/black-rock.html

So late on in the afternoon, we reluctantly packed our radio equipment away, but before heading back to Gloucester we took a short diversion to Sudbrook Pumping Station which pumps out some one million gallons of water an hour from the Severn Tunnel. The hustle of the homeward bound traffic along the A48 was broken with another short diversion to Lydney harbour.

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