Given the warm weather it was a perfect opportunity to get some of our foundation candidates, Ben and Stephen, outside and give them the opportunity to develop their operating skills in a safe environment.

The generous access to a field by a local landowner allowed us to have a mini field day for our foundation candidates, giving them the chance to setup a 2m and HF station.

The day started with a chance for them to bring along their own radio and a demonstration of how to program their radio using a PC. This had the advantage to teaching them how to interface their radio to a computer and meant that they went home with a usefully programmed radio. Thank to Mark G8PHM for producing the programming file and taking the time to walk the candidates through the various bands and modes programmed into the list.

Ben and Stephen then had the chance to setup the station including a 2m and 40m vertical antennas.

Throughout the day everyone had the chance to operate the club station under the watchful eye of Phil M0IMA and Mark G8PHM. There were obviously a lot of other people with the same idea about getting out and about in the fine weather as the bands were all active.

Starting on 20m, Kieran 2E0FVB managed a QSO with a Parks on the Air activation in Canada. He's only a little upset he didn't manage to get the contact in his personal log 🙂

Not to be outdone, Ben worked his way through a huge pileup of active stations to work the Marconi special events station IY8MD. It would have been a challenging QSO for any radio amateur so it was great to see one of our foundation candidates having the confidence to work the station.

After a long day of operating, we decided to get Phil M0IMA to take the final session on the radio. Not to be outdone by anyone else. Phil managed to work SX300ML, a Greek special event station celebrating 2500 years from the Thermopylae Battle.

After a long but hugely successful day - the club team retired to the local pub for a quick outdoor refreshment before finally heading home.