Lambourne End Field weekend 16-18 May 2025 – Loughton & Epping Forest ARS

There were seventeen attendees at the first 2025 Lambourne End Field Weekend held on 16-18 May 2025. Only a mile from our QTH at All Saints House, a large field provided plenty of space for camping with onsite washing, shower and toilet facilities. Setting up started from 16:00 on Friday 16^th and several members opted to camp overnight for the whole weekend:

Camping: Dave M0TAZ, George M1GEO, Chris G8OCV, John Paul 2E0TFJ and Brian / Boo M0OAB/M6OAB.

Day attendees over the three days: John G0VEH, Dave M0YOL, John G8DZH, Peter G0IAP, Ellis 2E0EWM, Pavel 2E0IGH, Dave M0VID,John M0JGR, John G1DJI, Dave Holdbrook 2E0IHQ plus Kevin M7MJW and Sophie.

Some notes from my observations follow and also reports from attendees as well. Although HF band conditions were poor, it was still possible to make some QSOs. From GB2RS news, propagation report, 25^th May :

“A high-speed solar wind, originating from a massive coronal hole, took its toll on HF this past week.

During the weekend of the 17^th and 18^th, the Kp index was above four for nine of the three-hourly recording periods. Unfortunately, the feed from the Dourbes Digisonde failed over this period, so we can’t comment on what effect this had on maximum useable frequencies, or MUFs for short.”

Friday 16^th May

A convey of two caravans and four vehicles arrived onsite soon after 16:00. Brian and Boo M0OAB and M6OAB with their caravan and Dave M0VID with the Tawney Syndicate mobile shack for the G4ONP/P HF station (Johns G0VEH and G8DZH). A doublet was setup by the latter before departing for the club meeting at All Saints House. Later Dave M0TAZ, George M1GEO and Chris G8OCV arrived onsite, all camped overnight. Dave M0YOL did some operating but didn’t stay.

Saturday 17^th May

I arrived onsite at 9.15am. Breakfast was being cooked, mostly full English brekkie, but with the aid of Air Friers, 240V AC derived from solar/battery, V2L or 1kW Ecoflow units. Brian M0OAB had a homebrew solar/battery system on his 60 year old Land Rover (photo later). The G4ONP/P caravan was the only station with a petrol generator.

As mentioned, HF conditions were poor but a few 40m stations were worked by G4ONP on SSB using a Icom IC-7300 and 100W into a doublet at 9.5m above ground.

On Saturday there was a total of twelve attendees. Five camped overnight to Sunday. The sun was quite hot, Dave M0TAZ deployed a new sun shelter to shield him from the sun’s rays.

Sunday 18th May

The Stockwood Park / DDRC rally at Luton meant numbers were slightly down on Sunday, with eleven. For some it was also time to pack and return home around lunchtime. It was noticeably cooler and cloudy on Sunday, no rain. HF band conditions didn’t improve although FT8 came to the fore and helped with the QSO count. A lot of time was spent chatting 😊.

The 40m G4ONP station had 23 SSB QSOs with UK, French, German and Benelux stations over the weekend including some special events stations. G4ONP Cloudlog, with map, here .

John G0VEH operating G4ONP/P.

The G4ONP/P station with the Tawney Syndicate radio caravan. Doublet used for 40m.

Packing up started around 15:00 and we left Lambourne End Field Centre by 16:00. The next visit is 26-28 July.

With plenty of space, this is an ideal opportunity to try out any /P antennas and enjoy the ideal local camping location.

Reports

From Dave M0TAZ

Equipment used: Icom IC-7300

Antenna: 7 MHz – 1/4 ground mounted vertical with 4 elevated radials

Power: Car V2L

The weekend consisted of 109 QSO in total, 20 SSB, the remainder FT8. The best DX for the weekend was FM4LV from Martinique. The weekend’s HF operation centred around 7 MHz, operating both SSB and FT8 data modes, the bands were hard going with a high K index and poor propagation.

I was able to test out a cheap “sun shelter” that provided me with much needed shade in the sunny conditions.

Dave M0TAZ used a 40m vertical.

Dave M0YOL

Had a great weekend at Lambourne End. I managed on 17m, with bad band conditions, 20 QSOs on SSB furthest was Brazil and on FT8 111 contacts with 3 into Japan.

Turned up in great spirit looking forward to the weekend on the radio. Set up a quarter wave for 17 meters and 4 elevated radials, radio was a Icom 7100. Band condition were very poor with the K index of 5 it was going to be very hard going. I managed to work 20 stations on SSB all around Europe apart from 1 into Brazil. I changed over to FT8 running 40 watts with a bit more success and managed to work 111 stations with the furthest being 3 stations in Japan.

The weather was very kind to use all which helps top our vitamin D. In general it was a pleasant weekend apart from the band condition and I look forward to the next field day.

Dave G4YOL

73s Dave M0YOL

George M1GEO

Likewise, thanks all! I had fun! A casual operation, worked 43 people on CW. Nothing much DX wise, mainly chasing SOTA and POTA activators, and answering the occasional CQ call.