ROTA 2021

Location

The Somerset and Dorset Railway Heritage Trust are based at the former Midsomer Norton South Railway Station. The postal address is Midsomer Norton Station, Silver Street, Midsomer Norton, BA3 2EY. However, there are some specific details that will be of interest to radio hams:

  1. Lat/Long (WGS84 Geoid): 51.280956°,-2.482629°
  2. IARU: IO81sg
  3. IOTA: EU005 (UK Mainland)
  4. WAB: ST65 – England
  5. ///empires.wheat.drifting

Equipment Used

We’ve been undertaking our Special Events for a number of years now and have gradually fine tuned our equipment and setup over time. Railways on the Air is one of our favorite events and the only one where we regularly operate both SSB and Data. However, this year due to limited numbers of operators we elected to only operate SSB.

This year we used:

  1. Nissei DPS300GL power supply;
  2. Yaesu FT991 HF/6m/2m/70cm multi-mode transceiver;
  3. MFJ 993 auto atu;
  4. 80m doublet fed with 450Ω ladder line;
  5. Acer Aspire 8942 laptop running KLog under Ubuntu Studio 20.04LTS with the KDE Desktop Environment.

Following the success of the Clubs activities in the centre of Bristol for Lighthouses on the Air we were looking forward to a similar activity weekend for Railways on the Air. Sadly, as alluded to above, attendance was minimal. The event did coincide with the media frenzy induced fuel crisis which limited the ability for some of our members to travel into deepest, darkest Somerset.

Saturday

Andy G7KNA was joined by Ken G4XCB and Dave G4ULV for the initial station setup. This entailed erecting the centre pole to support the 80m doublet. The centre pole was strapped to the gazebo and the ends of the antenna tied off to convenient supports, with the feeder brought into the carriage through a window it was then necessary to arrange the internal equipment on a helpfully located table in the buffet car.

In Carriage Setup

After Ken and Dave departed in the late morning, Andy was joined by Greg MW7BUF.

During the day 31 contacts were made, slower than our usual rate but we were single handed for part of the day and spent some time operating “hunt and pounce” trying to locate other Railways on the Air Special Event Stations. In this vein we were reasonably successful working 9 other Special Event Stations over the course of the day.

Train at Platform

Sunday

The antenna was left up overnight, but the in carriage equipment was taken off-site overnight. Nevertheless the setup on Sunday was quite straight forward with just the internal equipment to be re-established in the buffet car.

In Carriage Setup

Andy was rejoined by Greg on Sunday although the day was slower with only 22 stations worked, of which 2 were other Special Event Stations.

Train Leaving

Log

Date of Contact Time Station Worked Band or Freq (MHz) Mode TX RX Operator’s Name QTH IARU Locator Distance (km) Notes
RST No. RST No.
25/09/2021 10:53 G4PZK 80m SSB 59   59   Cliff Wimborne      
25/09/2021 11:03 G3KAG 80m SSB 57   59   Tony Derbyshire Dales      
25/09/2021 11:26 G3PGA 80m SSB 59   59   Mike N Devon      
25/09/2021 11:30 G0CKP 80m SSB 59   59   Steve West Kent      
25/09/2021 11:32 M0VZA 80m SSB 58   59   Tony Essex      
25/09/2021 11:37 G0MUK 80m SSB 59   59   Rick Portsmouth      
25/09/2021 11:43 2E0GKO 80m SSB 59   59   Paul Maidstone      
25/09/2021 11:57 G0ORD 80m SSB 59   59   Eric N Forest of Dean      
25/09/2021 12:10 GB4LHR 40m SSB 59   59   Ray Lakeside and Haverthwaite Railway     Furness ARS
25/09/2021 12:35 OO21WCC/P 40m SSB 59   59   Peter       Special Event Staion for Cycle Race
25/09/2021 12:39 GB2KDR 40m SSB 59   59   Dave Keith and Dufftown Railway     Grampian Hilltoppers
25/09/2021 12:47 GB0LMR 40m SSB 59   59   Mark 55th anniversary Club Station     British Railways ARS
25/09/2021 13:09 GB0EOR 40m SSB 59   59   Sid Epping and Ongar Railway     Harlow and District ARS
25/09/2021 13:45 GB0HBL 40m SSB 59   59   Terry The Helston Branch Line     Poldhu ARC
25/09/2021 13:45 GX4FF/P 40m SSB 59   59   Andy Lakedean Nature Reserve     GF0154
25/09/2021 13:48 M0HEM 40m SSB 59   59   John Dagenham Dock     John O’Toole
25/09/2021 14:04 F4VPL 40m SSB 59   59   Dave Brittany      
25/09/2021 14:06 M0GLP 40m SSB 59   59   Garry Nottingham      
25/09/2021 14:12 M0DFW 40m SSB 58   58   Dave Cambridge      
25/09/2021 14:16 2E0XBT 40m SSB 58   59   Shaun Worthing      
25/09/2021 14:20 GB0ELR 40m SSB 58   59   Lynda East Lancashire Railway     Bury RS
25/09/2021 14:24 GB0WHR 40m SSB 59   57   Dave Whitrope Heritage Centre     Galashiels and District ARS
25/09/2021 14:28 M0XLT 40m SSB 59   59   Kevin Skipton      
25/09/2021 14:38 G3EFX 40m SSB 59   59   Alan Bushey      
25/09/2021 14:42 2M0DES 40m SSB 58   59            
25/09/2021 14:48 GB1CR 40m SSB 57   58   Simon Corris Railway     Aberystwyth and District ARC
25/09/2021 14:49 GB5RSR 40m SSB 59   59   Nonia Ribble Steam Railway     Central Lancashire ARC
25/09/2021 14:50 GM4WZG 40m SSB 59   59            
25/09/2021 15:08 G0JBA/P 40m SSB 57   59   Phil        
25/09/2021 15:36 G3RXQ 40m SSB 59   59   Stuart Lancaster      
25/09/2021 15:53 GI0LGV 40m SSB 59   59     N of Belfast      
26/09/2021 10:01 F8FLK 40m SSB 59   59   Terri N France      
26/09/2021 10:01 PH3ADD 40m SSB 59   59            
26/09/2021 10:05 G0BPK 40m SSB 58   59   Nigel Pontifract      
26/09/2021 10:19 G3YZY 40m SSB 59   59   Howard Portsmouth      
26/09/2021 10:22 DK8VX 40m SSB 59   59            
26/09/2021 10:29 2E0HFR 40m SSB 56   57   Rikki Bristol      
26/09/2021 10:32 G8HBS 40m SSB 59   59   Peter Great Yarmouth      
26/09/2021 10:33 DM3AVB 40m SSB 55   57            
26/09/2021 10:40 F5VCR 40m SSB 58   59   Derek NW France      
26/09/2021 10:41 G7SQW/P 40m SSB 59   59   Andy Buckingham Marshes     GF0218
26/09/2021 10:45 M0JCF 40m SSB 59   59   Mark Sidcup      
26/09/2021 11:02 G4ACS 40m SSB 57   59   Geoff Kinver South Staffordshire      
26/09/2021 11:05 M0MJA/P 40m SSB 58   59           GF0268
26/09/2021 11:13 M0SDY 40m SSB 59   59   Paul        
26/09/2021 11:15 MW0IDT 40m SSB 59   59   Ian Llantwit Major      
26/09/2021 11:42 GB0NDR 40m SSB 59   59   Richard North Dorset Railway Shillingstone Station     Flight Refuelling ARS
26/09/2021 12:21 M0AUG 40m SSB 59   59   Geoff        
26/09/2021 12:39 GB2EVR 40m SSB 59   59   Matt Eden Valley Railway     Eden Valley Railway
26/09/2021 13:35 G7KYH 80m SSB 59   59   John Fox Norton Nr Banbury      
26/09/2021 13:41 M0JKI 80m SSB 59   59   Adrian Stowmarket      
26/09/2021 13:58 G2NV 80m SSB 59   59   Tom        
26/09/2021 14:54 M7AOK 80m SSB 59   59   Steve