After a couple of weeks of poor weather and the threat of lightning stopping outdoor practical training we managed to get back out with a couple of the group yesterday for a play on 40M.

We were joined by John M7CAL, who after a period of illness, is now back and active with the club. It was great to see John and for him to be able to share some of his experiences with our future foundation licence holders.

We were experimenting with a mag-mount 40M whip antenna on top of a car to see how this compared to the previous 40M vertical antenna used a few weeks ago. For a small antenna it performed extremely well and we were able to get on the 40M band without any issues.

We were making contacts as far away as Germany, not bad for a small car mounted antenna running low power. However our best QSO of the day was with Bob M0RAW. Given how close he i to the club we think we managed the grand distance of about 5 wavelengths !!

The afternoon gave a great opportunity for our foundation group to get time on the air operating and also practice using a manual ATU to match the antenna.

The real fun of amateur radio is always getting on the air, experimenting with new equipment and the social aspects of being able to make contacts around the world. It's great to see our new members getting so involved and enjoying their experiences. This is what the club is all about.

We also heard MX0SNB on 7.130MHz. For those who don't know this is the amateur radio special event station operating out of Kelvedon Hatch Secret Nuclear Bunker. Sadly there was a massive number of operators trying for a QSO and our little antenna was a bit small to allow us to get through the pile-up. But it provided an opportunity for our candidates to look up the callsign and learn a little about a special event station. Just means we'll have to go out again to see if we can get MX0SNB in the logbook!