​September 23rd 2023 saw club members participating in a successful “QRP day” held at Roke Manor, near Romsey.  The event was originally due to be held in July but had to be re-scheduled due to wet & windy weather.  Fortunately the weather this time was much better!

The playing field at Roke was an ideal venue for the event, and allowed plenty of space for multiple operating stations to be set up and different antenna configurations tested.  A wide range of modes and bands were in use, ranging from HF (Chris G7LWV, Ken G4DKH, Martyn 2E0OGR, Alan G8IPQ, Paul M1CNK) through VHF (Martyn 2E0OGR) right up to 10GHz (Andy G4JNT).   

Paul M1CNK took advantage of the location to compare the performance of a ½ wave end fed antenna vs a ¼ wave vertical using WSPR on 20m, and Glyn M0XGT and Will 2E0HAI were busy experimenting with Will’s new SDR radio and various pcb patch antennas

Martyn 2E0OGR was active on HF, where he worked several Lighthouses on the Air stations and also on 2m & 70cm, working through many of the repeaters along the south coast.

Overall, a very successful day, and one which the club will definitely repeat next year.  Many thanks to all those club members who supported the event, and especially to Paul M1CNK for organising.  

In May/June 2023, Ken G4DKH embarked on a 6 week road trip across Scandinavia in his campervan.  At a club meeting before the trip, he was challenged by several IVARC members to take along some radio equipment, so…..

With radio very much a secondary aspect of the holiday, and restricted space available in the campervan, equipment had to be minimal, finally settling on the FT817, with a 7m vertical antenna with 4 short radials, and an Elecraft T1 autotuner.

Over the course of the trip, 4 separate locations in Norway were activated - Bleik (in the Vesterålen Islands), and Alesund, Geiranger Fjord, & Vangsnes in the western fjords.   Propagation conditions were about average, and 4 operating sessions (approximately 2-3 hours each, with CW & SSB on 80, 40, 30 & 20m) resulted in a total of 23 QSOs in 15 DXCC entities.  Best DX was IK6BGJ (1866 miles) on 14 MHz SSB, and the best RBN spot was from VE2WU (3361 miles) on 14 MHz CW.

Not spectacular results by any standard, however it was a very enjoyable add-on to the holiday, and a lot of lessons were learned for next time!

Other memorable highlights of the holiday included crossing the Arctic Circle, watching the midnight sun and visiting the Sorvagen Telecoms Museum in the Lofoten Islands, hiking up to the Briksdal Glacier, and visiting the Kon Tiki museum in Oslo.