Thursday

Paul M0TZO arrived at Gatwick not long after Police Officers walked passed Mark M0MJH with their semi-automatic guns primed. Soon they were through security (and Paul was given a Frisking due to his belt buckle setting off the metal detector) and made their way to the bar.

After Paul had 3 pints, and Mark and his Breakfast and a pint, they made their way to the check in and boarded the flight to Guernsey.

An hour or so later and finally the shoreline of Guernsey came into view and the plane landed safely.

By this time a common theme had started for the weekend, in that phone batteries were going flat. Thankfully the luggage took next to no time to arrive on the carousel and headed towards the exit.

As Paul & Mark entered the arrivals hall someone was waving to them. Neither had seen a photo of Jes MU0CHN, but he seemed to recognise us, so we wandered over & introductions were made. Then we headed off to meet Louis MU6FER.

In the carpark we were to meet the Beast. A Mitsubishi Delica, with big wheels, which made getting into & out of more interesting.

A quick journey across the Island and we picked up Louis and half his shack, and camping stuff. The van was now quite packed. Mark & Paul were also issued with Hats. Oh the Hats.

Once on the campsite we were directed to the camping area and proceeded to erect our tents.

The larger tent Mark MU0MJH slept on the left & Paul MU0TZO on the right. When Louis MU6FER was here (Damn the wedding) he slept in the small tent, and Jes MU0CHN elected to sleep in the van.

Whilst erecting the tents, we met the Local Pussy.

In the evening Louis MU6FER had to work, I’d go into more details, but I heard was a load of Cock & Bull. Mark MU0MJH, Paul MU0TZO & Jes MU0CHN headed to the Houmet.

We had seen on the website that they served until 9:15pm, but was then told they finished at 9:00pm. It was 9:10pm. As the waiter wasn’t sure he checked with someone and they let us have a main course due to the mix up.

We each decided on Steak (served on a wooden chopping board) with Chips (served in a small deep fryer style basket. We joked about how they couldn’t even afford plates. The steaks were perfect. Eventually the darkness drew in and we headed back to the camp. Unfortunately Jes had the only working light and Guernsey doesn’t have too many street lights. Thankfully we made it back without too much trouble and headed off the out tents.

Paul MU0TZO snored through the night and kept half the camp awake. We aren’t sure, but there might have been fewer tents on the camp in the morning.

Friday

Louis MU6FER was at a wedding during the Friday and our only task on site was to sort the vertical antenna wires.

This started as a slow day. In the morning after eventually waking up, Paul MU0TZO & Mark MU0MJH headed to the site shop. We got something to drink then headed to the room above the shop to charge phones. Also some time was spent watching daytime TV until Mark found the British Grand Prix practice laps being shown on one of the channels.

Once phones were charged we headed back to the tents and the afternoon was spent measuring the wire for the verticals we were going to use for the contest.

These were:-

• 80m antenna (20metres of wire)
• 40m/15m antenna (10metres of wire)
• 20m (5metres of wire)

At the operating site these could then be tweaked to tune them better once they were on the vertical poles.

Later in the day Louis rejoined us and we caught up with how grumpy he was. I wish I could explain here, but I would just be writing lines of expletives, and wouldn’t be productive.

We finished packing up the antennas, radials, and the evening was once again spent at the Houmet, although this time we truely missed the hot food and evening meal was crisps & nuts.

Once back at campsite it was to bed for the final time before the contest. Paul MU0TZO managed to continue his pattern of keeping people from sleeping properly with his own snoring.