Month: February 2023

On Sunday I popped out with Stephen to GFF-018 Southdown’s National Park to complete his 6th brass monkey activation. It was pretty chilly with a northerly breeze that cut right through you. But nethertheless Brass Monkey was the name of the game. Steve had previously managed 28 QSO’s so the 24 he picked up this time meant goal achieved. 52 in total, 44 for activation and a few for good luck.

We spotted a few Red Kites but they were quite a way off, the one below dropping its payload.

So the pressure for the Brass Monkey award is off now for both of us but these are the first of many WWFF activations and /P radio activities..

So for my last Brass Monkey activation I went to Langston Harbour where I set up at the very end of Farlington Marshes. My Friend Neil M0CJM drove down from Basingstoke to sit in on the activation. Neil and I both passed out Radio Amateurs Exam (RAE) as it was known back then in 1996 I think :-). The weather was overcast and there was quite breeze coming from the SW. I carried in all of the radio kit in a new 5.11 Molle back pack which was being used for the first time so this was a bit of a test, I will detail this on the Ham Radio page soon. I took my usual portable Yaesu FT891 along with my trusty slidewinder antenna. I started off on 20m moving on to 40m with over 70 QSO’s in the log in just over an hour.
A well spent afternoon off of work.

Another WWFF activation day. This time we were out looking for two activations for Stephen 2E0OWI to complete his Brass Monkey award #5 & #6, GFF-0358 Weadlen Heaths and GFF-0018 Southdown’s National Park. He managed the 44 plus QSO’s for GFF-0835 but not quite there for GFF-0018, so another visit before the end of February will be in order.
During the activation we spotted a Great Spotted Woodpecker, well just about, it was high up in the canopy of the trees and I had to thread through the branches and twigs with the long lens. Not a great shot but managed to get a glimpse.
With the first activation over and done with within the hour we then decided to go for activation number 2 which took us to the Southdown’s National Park.
As we approached the point chosen for the activation the drizzle started to come in with a bit of a temperature drop but compared to some of the temperatures we have endured this year it was pretty mild.
Here we spotted a number of Red Kites, again these were some distance away but the long lens proved handy again. And of course we had the company of the obligatory Robin.

GFF-0358

GFF-0018

Onlooker 🙂

Today my friend Stephen 2E0OWI and I visited Gilkicker Point on the south coast over looking Solent to activate GFF-0289. Today was my fifth activation of the required six towards the Brass Monkey award.
Kicking off on 20m around 8:25 I had 76 in the log 50 minutes later with a bonus park to park contact on 40m after having a little tune around.
The weather was the warmest we have experienced since starting the Brass Monkey back in December.
Warm sun on your face, sitting on the beach looking out to sea, what more could you want on a Sunday morning.

The picture below shows the locations of the stations that I worked today.

At the end of the 50 minutes I was glad to take a break and have a cup of tea 🙂