Churches and Chapels on the Air 2016

Saturday 10th September from St. Mary’s Church Fordingbridge. The weather was wet so we were invited to operate from inside the Church itself. With help from Ken G1NCG we set up our station in the North Nave of the Church by the north door.  Again, one end of the aerial was hung from the Church Tower which meant an early morning ascent. Always a pleasure and this time I got to see the bells as well. Unfortunately the cable runs were a little longer than usual (HF about 160’ VHF about 200’ each of RG-213) but the station worked and we obtained very good signal reports from those with whom we had a QSO.


The bells of St. Mary’s, Fordingbridge - there are 8 of them, all in the ‘down’ position.

The half-sized G5RV supported (to the right) by the Church Tower and to the left by the 40’ push-up mast, with the 2m collinear atop.

The operating position with Ken G1NCG at the 2m station to the left, the HF station to the right and the exhibition stand in the distance. We had a number of visitors during the day. John G4POF, who lives nearby came and saw us a couple of times. There were a number of visitors to the Church who found us there and were very interested in our activities.

Band conditions were quite good in the morning and faded away by noon (local time), the afternoon was a bit of a struggle and when there was a pause in the rain at about 4pm we took everything down and packed away. In total we made about 40 contacts, mostly ‘inter-G’

Our thanks go to our host - The Reverend Gary Philbrick, Priest-in-charge of St. Mary’s Church.

Copyright © Colin G4GBP

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