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Although we were pleased to have fairly easily qualified the activations so
far, we were well aware that with XYL-imposed time restrictions, they were not
particularly impressive or satisfying radio-wise. With Marianne decreeing
"Picnic on Butser Hill" before our journey home on Saturday 4th August 2007, we
had an opportunity to partly redress this. Eventually, the three sleepy-heads emerged, enabling me to check-out, and
drive over to the big Asda hypermarket where we jointly compiled our picnic.
Jimmy then navigated us on a long drive through Bishops Waltham, and eventually
up to the car park on Butser Hill (£1 for all day parking). This time, we didn't even bring a 2m aerial, or even our handhelds up with
us. We set up the 40m dipole, and I went straight to work on CW on 7.032MHz,
while Marianne and the boys kicked off with the picnic. Once the initial pile-up
was cleared, I found a relatively clear spot on 7.079MHz and got Jimmy to
self-spot on there. At last, a bit of success on 40m SSB, and Jimmy was
absolutely delighted at working his first ever contacts into Germany and
Belgium. Just as we were about to pack up, we noticed a car and large beam aerial on
the horizon, up near the trig point. Upon investigation, it was Bob G8VOI,
preparing for the 2m six hour contest. We had a chat with him before returning
to pack our gear up.
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