Red Sands Radio - GB0RSR

[G4TUT]

Red Sands Radio - GB0RSR

The ICOM UK Crew will be heading to the Red Sand Forts in the Thames Estuary/North Sea, on Friday the 11th of July for the launch of GB0RSR.

Departing from Whitstable Harbour in Kent at 7.00am, they hope to be operational by 11.00am. The crew will return to shore on Sunday evening.

ICOM will be operating on most MF/HF bands, as each band opens for use during the day. Furthermore, there will be stations for 2 meters and 70 cms.
With 70 cms, they will be using the D-Star network, and will make contact via links to the shore-based repeaters and reflectors connected to the internet.

The MF/HF Radio used will be an ICOM IC-756 Pro III.
This will be connected to a Hustler 5 band vertical antenna, which has been supplied free of charge by Waters & Stanton of Essex.

ICOM hope to fly a helikite attached to a long wire, to be used for 160/80 metres. If this performs well, they will experiment on other bands. Most of the contacts will be SSB, with some CW taking place.

The operators are Phil Hadler - G4CZU; Chris Ridley - G8GKC & John Turner - G0KFO, and all will use GB0RSR.

After the event, ICOM will distribute special GB0RSR QSL cards.



• For those unfamiliar with these WWII forts, we've found four very interesting and informative videos
http://www.southgatearc.org/news/july2008/red_sands.htm

[NF0A]

I have always wondered from the air looking down on the Estuary what purpose they served and now I know!
73