08/11/2021 | VO1MRC

   'The Telegram' kindly published this year's FD operation and the venue as the VO1FR cabin in Whitbourne. Set up started on arrival around noon. After climbing, pruning and felling trees formasts, all was ready by 3.30pm (1800 ut) with  the solar cells feeding an amp to the batteries and  4:30 we were on the air.

An inadvertently inverted flag (denotes distress) was a harbinger of Murphy's Law.  Frank VO1HP was given the wrong contact info which prevented his visiting.  After battling tangled halyards, a blown DMM fuse, a bad coax connector, a left-at-home PC,broken corkscrews, a shattered  wine glass and a contrary vacuum cleaner, we pounded the brass with ardour. The Ernie Ash VO1A Vibroplex bug and VO1NZ straight key were reverently deployed.

Thanks to the patience and good ears of so many skilled FD ops, our feeble signalsslowly but surely ramped the QSO count. The aerial was a low 80m dipole/auto-atustrung between a fir, a  juniper, and a makeshift mast in the spud patch.   20 was lively, 15 opened briefly, 40 was not so good, but we were surprised to be copied by 3 stations on 80 CW. The VO1SA crank generator was used to boost the batteries at night.  VO1RL baked wings for supper and cooked up a FB breakfast.  NCS par excellence VO1DD relayed the official message to my successor, Section Manager VO1DI. We had some visitors and a great  time but more dupes (no pc) than usual -- sorry guys! Despite the low sunspot numbers, a final tally left us confident we had made a respectable bid for the coveted ARRL Field Day Trophy, commissioned by Premier Smallwood  to recognise the meritorious EM-COM efforts of prominent amateurs, notably VO1FB during foul winter WX, cf. June 1959 QST.  An additional 2 or more VO FD groups were QRV,  no doubt aspiring to have their call signs engraved on the famous trophy for posterity. We welcome the competition and wish all the very best of luck.    The operation concluded with a demonstration of CW reception on 137.777 kHz and raising the Cornwall flag in honour of our sister club colleagues in Poldhu UK.   -- VO1NA