GB6GEO Geoparks Special Event Station

Held at Kents Cavern Torquay 24th / 25th May 2008

GB6GEO Geoparks weekend by Martin Foster G3VOF

Where did my idea come from, and why did I put on a special exhibition station at Kent’s Cavern?

It all started after a Torbay Chamber of Commerce AGM hosted at Kent’s Cavern on the 19th March this year (2008), followed by a Geopark awareness lecture by Nick Powe (the 5th Generation owner of Kent’s Cavern underground caves since the 1800’s). Nick explained that The English Riviera had just been accepted by UNESCO as the 6th Geopark in the United Kingdom. There are 33 Geoparks in Europe, and 53 in the world. A Geopark is a place of great archaeological and geological interest, and of course we have the Jurassic Coast, and Kent’s Cavern in Torbay that goes back millions of years.

Well you may ask what has all this to do with amateur radio?  To be very honest with you, I did not know very much about Geoparks before Nicks lecture, let alone where the Geoparks were situated. I thought it very prudent to help make awareness for the other none converted like myself. I found out European Geoparks week took part at the end of May, in a bid to raise the Geoparks profile. Nick was also running local events in series with with the Geopark programme at Kent’s Cavern during the Bank Holiday weekend 24/25th May.

Bingo! I thought that this would be the ideal opportunity to stage a special event station, so members of the public could send greetings from our English Riviera Geopark to all around the world (or at least Europe!). I also had another idea that it would be even better, if only I could get other radio amateurs interested that were situated in other Geopark regions.

 

How did I go about it?

It took many hundreds of e-mails finding out where the radio clubs were. It involved me searching for the different Geopark regions in many countries. In some cases I found it totally impossible, so I resorted to writing to the National Radio Societies. Generally this method did not return any response, and contacting the local club’s or radio amateurs directly was the only fruitful route that paid off. Nick also helped me by writing to the Geopark managers, and asking them if they could contact local radio amateur clubs. There were recipients from Australia, and Brazil, although the Brazilian amateurs did not take up my offer to participate.

My next step was to get our own NoV, my choice of special callsign seemed fairly obvious. I choose the number 6 because The English Riviera Geopark is the 6th Geopark in United Kingdom to be award status by UNESCO, and naturally I choose GEO for its suffix. What else could be more fitting for the occasion? The NoV was applied for, and Ofcom turned the application around in less than a week, I was extremely impressed at just how quickly it was issued.

Back now to the other radio amateurs in Geopark regions where I was trying to stir up some keen interest for a Geopark weekend.  Eventually my hard work started to pay off. In the UK, Denny GM1BAN told me that he had applied for GB2GEO, and he would be going to Smoo Cave at the tip of Scotland, Alan GI6PYP, applied for GB1MAC for the Marble Arch Caves in N.Ireland, Roger G4ROJ applied for GB1GEO at the Malvern Hills in Worcestershire. No luck with the other two UK Geoparks Wales, and the N.Pennines (not from the want of trying). We also had Ralf DK5AN, with DK0GEO, Mark EI7AS, with EI2GEO, Periklis SV8DVD with J48GEO,  Wayne VK5ZX with VK5SR, and Fairus 9W2FRS, with 9M2MRC.

With some other Geoparks on board it was now time for another meeting with Nick at Kent’s Cavern to organise the hard ware, and how Kent’s Cavern was going to accommodate our event station.

Yours truly plus, John G7HIK, and Paddy M1EIW, met with Nick, and we discussed antenna, location of the station etc, etc. Nick was very disposed to all of our ideas, and suggestions. He actually encouraged the erection of our antennas, so at one glance the public could see there was a radio station in the grounds.  Nick also suggested that we could operate from a tent that he would arrange, and would supply us with 40A mains power. I must say I never expected this type of enthusiasm from a non initiated member of the public, I was very pleasantly surprised. Nick also offered to have the qsl cards specially designed, and printed at his expense!!

After a walk around the general area, we had a rough knowledge of how we were going to set-up GB6GEO to our best advantage. We then decided the next stage would be a chat to TARS regarding equipment, and try to press gang some extra operators.

Colin G4FCN kindly suggested that we use the crank-up tower, and I had another conversation with Pam G7SME, and Dave G6FSP about sourcing some of the club equipment that was all blessed by Derrick G3LHJ, this was another step toward the big event.

How did it all come together on the day?

At 0900 Sat 24th May we all met in the car park of Kent’s Cavern, the day was overcast but so far dry. Colin G4FCN, arrived in his vehicle towing the lattice tower on a trailer. He manoeuvred it into a corner of the car park next to the tent where we will be operating the station.  All hands to deck Mike G1TUU, Paddy M1EIW, Nick M3GDQ, Dave M3GDV, Roger 2E0GHR, and myself rigged the tower, and 2m beam, while John G7HIK, and Nick Powe erected the clusters of dipoles (supplied by John G7HIK) from the top of the tower to the cottage (just the right distance away!) Nick had clamped a tent pole to a hand rail outside so we could secure the other end of the dipoles.

Next we just had to install the radio equipment (in a semi-temporary fashion!!) The clubs Yaesu FT847 was used as the main HF rig, while Jules M1AGY’s, Icom  IC746 was used for the 2m station. We had two linears standing by, the clubs 2m linear, and Paddy M1EIW’s  HF linear just in case.

John G7HIK kicked us off at 1315 local, on 40m, we heard GB1GEO on the Malvern Hills operating with a kite antenna, but as we had a few tuning problems at the time we lost the contact, but it soon changed when M1DZI in Norfolk came back to us with a 5-9 report. We changed amateur bands checking conditions frequently, and the calls kept coming, GB6GEO continued to spread the Geopark word. Bob G0AZX arrived to give the crew a hand operating on HF.

 Just after 1900 local, John G0TQT, Jules M1AGY, Darren M3UGO, and Zoli M0ZOL arrived to do the night shift with Paddy M1EIW, Nick M3GDQ, and Dave M3GDV. At 0100 John G0TQT plugged in the key, and rattled off a few U.S.A. stations with a crowd of Europeans until 0300. The GB6GEO team then continued on SSB, and worked 99% Europe. Conditions were predominately short skip, apart from a surprise appearance from a VK7 station in Tasmania that popped up.

Unfortunately during the night the driving wind blew the rain in at the top of our tent.  Regrettably the place, and operators became very damp indeed, but in the true sprit of the hobby, the guys being true radio amateurs battled on making the contacts regardless. When I turned up at 0800 Sunday morning many things were being blown dry in the tent by Paddy’s fan heater, fortunately the rigs did not get wet!!

Another day of operating, and this was the day Nick was having all of his visitors arrive, for Geopark cave activities. Sure enough the visitors poured into the caves bright, and early, coach loads of them. Amongst the visitors, we had a station visit by Mike G4EZV, whom we had worked the day before; he lived just across the road in Wellswood (one qsl less via the bureau!!). We persevered on all bands including Echolink, where a couple of Australian amateurs were worked (well why not, it wasn’t going to happen anywhere else folks!!)

The day brightened up as it went on, and that cheered us all up, along with the teas, and coffees, and bacon rolls supplied with the compliments of Kent’s Cavern.
John G4VUT, Mike 2E0PDL also arrived with Bridget M3VBG, and gave us more support, Roger 2E0GHR, Mike G1TUU, also returned to offer their relentless support, along with Ken G3SDW monitoring our output signal most of the time.

We actually worked four other Geopark stations EI2GEO, GB1MAC, GB2GEO, and J48GEO. We could not make contact with the Malaysian station, or the Australian Geoparks as the conditions did not allow (this year!) The German station (DK0GEO) had rig trouble, their FT200 tx/rx band switch had stuck!!

Forty metres opened up to the UK about an hour before we wrapped, and I can recall
working 45 stations non stop in about 50 mins!!
We went out on a high making contact with EI2GEO in S.Ireland; they called us while I was on my 40m roll (not bacon roll)! Their 40m signal was extremely strong indeed, many db over 9, so we were able to permit many young people (and adults), under supervision to send greetings from the English Riviera to the EI2GEO station situated in a Copper Mine, on the Copper Coast in County Waterford, S.Ireland.

The time was now 1545 hours; I thought this was a nice way to end the event having the last contact with another Geopark station. All that I had to do now was to pull the big switch. The event was now sadly over, and all hands to deck. Colin G4FCN had arrived to take the TARS tower back to its home. The de-rig was very fast, and all the antennas, and tower were down, the rigs going back in their boxes. Soon it was like we were never there, although if you really listened hard enough, you could still hear the plaintive  CQ, CQ, CQ, GB6GEO coming from the tent, or was it my ears still tuned in!

Conclusions

This event was a complete success, due to the hard work, and camaraderie of all involved without exception. Thank you to the kind people who worked on it from the beginning and those that popped in “on the day”, to give a hand. It’s people like this, and their enthusiasm, and dedication that keeps the sprit, and interest of amateur radio going, and making the hobby what it still is.

I would personally like to say a big thank you to everybody that supported us with qso’s.  Let’s face it, if we didn’t have anybody to talk to it would have been a very lonely weekend!!

Again, a big thank you to the Torbay Amateur Radio Society, and to the West Devon Radio Club for support.

Was it worth it?  You bet it was, will we be doing it again?  You bet we will.