Special Event Radio Station

[m0jec]

I have to confess I'm still completely confused by what all this is exactly. What is being broadcast, and to whom? Is it peer to peer or and can anyone with a radio listen in?

Hi it is "peer to peer" but anyone with a "short wave" radio that has SSB (Single Sideband) Capability (some have a BFO control for this) can listen in.

Normal bands are 3.5-3.8Mhz (80m) 7.0-7.2Mhz (40m) 14.0-14.35Mhz (20m) and so on normally upto 144Mhz (2m) and 433Mhz(70cm) as well, do a search for 'RSGB Band plan' and that should give you a list of frequencies we can use, we hope to update the QRZ.com page and Twitter with at least the Band but hopefully a frequency too.

Certain stations are sought after for their "rare call" status, often this means stations in countries where there are not many amatuers, but this also applies to Special Event Calls, because they are on for a limited time there is often what we call a "pile up" (lots of stations callng at the same time) trying to work the call so they can get the special QSL card. We have been using GB0VUL over the last few years and that has been very popular, but because it is VERY rare to be allowed more than one number in the call, (OFCOM Rules etc), GB60VUL will be even more sought after.

We expect to 'work' (talk to via the radio) about 3000 stations located all over the world, probably located in more than 50 countires, judging by previous results.

We will be bringing XH558 to a truely global audience, and having some fun along the way. In previous years we have talked to stations all over the world, including North and South America, Austrialia and New Zealand, Japan, China, and other countries in Asia, as well as most of Europe, including lots of countries that were part of Russia and beyond, and quite a lot of Africa as well.

I hope this gives you more of an insight into what a special event station gets upto.

If you have more questions please feel free to ask.

Norman
M0JEC

[gm8jip]

These are the locations and dates that GB60VUL will be operating in the month of May.

List of Dates for Alternative locations for Special Event Call-Sign GB60VUL for the duration of 28 days from the 30 April 2012:
Details of Alternative locations:
30 April 2012 – 04 May 2012 - M0TDW Shalbourne,Wilts.
05 May 2012 – 12 May 2012 - Robin Hood Airport Doncaster Sheffield, First Avenue, Doncaster
13 May 2012 – 18 May 2012 - G4DOQ Broad Layings, Woolton Hill, Newbury, Berks.
19 May 2012 – 20 May 2012 - Control Tower Greenham Common, 51:22.9279N 1:17.0446W
21 May 2012 – 24 May 2012 - G0ORH Thatcham, Berks.
Main operating site: 211 (Newbury) Squadron ATC, Cadet Forces Centre, St Michaels Road, Newbury, Berkshire, RG14 5PP (Operating during 25 May 2012 – 27 May 2012)

Thank you for all your support for XH558.
73 Graeme G8JIP

[gm8jip]

The Radio Society Of Great Britain (RSGB) have shown a photograph of XH558 to show members and amateur radio operators all over the world to instruct them how to recieve the special QSL card of GB60VUL. We will give XH558 maximum publicity that the trust requires for XH558 to fly this year. By word of mouth we can tell people all over the UK and the world about the Vulcan and give them the web- site address so that they can donate money to our good cause.

http://www.rsgb.org/specialevents/ses_qsl.php

73 Graeme.

[gm8jip]

Dear All

I have now been issued with the special event callsign GB2CRF
("Clansman Radio Falklands") for a station to be operated by the
Felixstowe & District Amateur Radio Society at the Suffolk Aviation
Heritage Society's museum at the former RAF Foxhall Heath on Sunday 6th
May in support of the SAHS's "Falklands 30th Anniversary" event.
...
It is hoped that the station will be on air from 11am until 4pm local
time on the HF bands, 4m and 6m. HF frequencies will be determined by
conditions on the day although we are likely to include 3.615MHz AM and
7.1875MHz USB at some point during the day. We will monitor 51.75MHz on
6m FM and 70.475MHz on 4m FM and would welcome HF spots called in on
those frequencies (as the Clansman HF sets have frequency setting
switches and it is a pain to tune the bands!).

We will operate both a base and a field station on the museum site.The
base station is expected to have an RT322 250-watt base station using
the RAF Foxhall heath masts and a pair of RT353 VHF transceivers using
ground spike or EVHF antennas for 4m and 6m. The field station is
expected to have an RT320 HF and a RT352 VHF radio using Clansman field
antennas. Depending on the space available other 1982 radio and
telephone equipment may be on display as well.

A special QSL card will be available via the RSGB Bureau to stations
working GB2CRF on the 6th of May.

Regards Steve Pye

[gm8jip]

GB60VUL will start to be operational this lunch time on the lower end of the ssb part of the 40m band.
Regards, Graeme.

[gm8jip]

GB60VUL on 7.067Mhz +/-

[wcg]

Sounds pretty busy on there !

[gm8jip]

Just contacted Duxford!!

[gm8jip]

We have been contacted by two special event stations.
GB40HMSB HMS Belfast
GB2IWM Imperial War Museum Duxford
GB60VUL is on 7.085 MHz
73 Graeme

[gm8jip]

Station operational on 7.082 MHz.

[gm8jip]

225 contacts 26 Countries all EU apart from one Canadian, 2 special event stations as reported yesterday.

[dee]

I was just parking up at Finingley for a tour when my brother txt me to say he had been in conversation with GB60VUL.. A guy called Eric Dead chuffed

[gm8jip]

Finingley Radio Club operating GB60VUL outside the hangar of XH558.

[m0jec]

I was just parking up at Finingley for a tour when my brother txt me to say he had been in conversation with GB60VUL.. A guy called Eric Dead chuffed

Eric is the "main man" at Finningley ARS they really are doing us proud with GB60VUL I was impressed with their setup in the van (pictured in Graeme's post - which I took over the weekend) they are hosting the call till the 12th May when it returns down south, I'll be doing part 2 of my blog later this week with some pictures taken inside the van.

Over the weekend we worked several special event stations including GB2TBC (The Big Camp - Scouts), GB50RSARS (50 years of the Royal Signals Amateur Radio Society), and GB100REA (100th Anniversary of the Royal Engineers Association), and many people who has stories to tell about Vulcans either from airshows or from the days when they worked with or near the Vulcan.

I'm trying where possible to record some of the stations we work in the hope I might save some of these stories for future reference.

Below is one of the Direct QSL cards we have already received......there are plenty of Vulcan supporters out in the world of Amateur Radio.

M0SAS QSL Card

M0SAS-forum.jpg (139.21 KiB) Viewed 1052 times

Norman
M0JEC

[m0jec]

I had a great weekend visiting Doncaster, was really nice to meet the guys from Finningley Amateur Radio Society, who are doing a sterling job running GB60VUL, I was impressed with their setup pictured in Graeme's post above, which is based in a van parked just outside Hanger 3 where XH558 is currently based.

I also took some video of them working a couple of stations with a 3D camera I recently aquired, these can be viewed at:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-XCW_yN_fr4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCKn648EzPs

We have had more busy periods with many stations trying to call us, and e-mails from the USA to ask when we are going to be on certain bands so they can call us, to get in the log and get our QSL card.

In the first 5 days of the special event Bill M0TDW managed to get nearly 600 contacts in the log in over 34 countries, in the 5 days that the call has been at Doncaster they have put at least another 600 in the log, if we continue to fill the log at this rate we will have more than 3000 contacts in the log by the end of the month. This will beat our best efforts from past years and shows how keen people are to work the Vulcan Special event call. The web page that Amateur stations use to look us up (http://qrz.com/db/gb60vul) has already had more than 3000 hits so we know we are reaching many more people than we are able to talk to.

The Special event call is at Doncaster untill the 12th May, so if any of you are in the area why not pop in and say "Hi" to Eric and the crew from Finningley Amateur Radio Society, they will be pleased to see you, and you can see how this sort of special event is run and the response we get from people we speak too.

I have sampled up a little bit of audio which you can listen to at http://www.tvrwedge.co.uk/gb60vul/GB60VUL-samples.wav

this hopefully gives you an idea of what we get upto on the radio.

Norman
M0JEC