I have not had a lot of time to go round looking at sites this year, so I ended up using a backup site I found last year. I did find an excellent site in another location, but struggled to find a decent pub nearby, so I will save that for another time. I was a bit worried that my hasty setup would struggle to get a signal to the start and while I was heard rather weakly, I understand the approximate envelope was opened.

The antenna was about 150m of fine red wire strung through the bushes and trees, near some power lines.... The site itself was small with a short run in and on the flat, so I hoped that would compensate somewhat for the power lines.

Before 20:30 I heard Peter and Ruth thrashing the bushes, but much to my delight when I transmitted they seemed to go away. My glee did not last long when Ruth’s sharp eyes found me as Peter was coming towards me at the next transmission and after a confusing minute or so as Ruth tried to communicate where I was, Peter got in at 20:43.

There followed a long gap before the rest of the pack started to arrive around 21:10. I decided to be on continuous transmission by then and found myself surrounded by frustrated DFers peering about in bushes but still not seeing me! I was eventually located by Graham’s team member David. There followed a few minutes of Graham being guided through the bushes in time to arrive just before Bill at 21:21. Everyone else followed in the next 3 minutes.

There followed a pleasant hour in the Black Horse In Lacey Green swapping. war stories. Thanks for the Birthday Card guys!

Commiserations to Alan who I think was first on site around the same time as Peter. He seemed somewhat upset. Sorry it turned out a bit harder than I expected.

See you all on the next one.

Justin Snow