The 6 Metre to Microwave Convention
6th April 2002

Held at Rease Heath College,
Cheshire, UK

 
This new event on the Amateur Radio calendar was organised by the UK Six Metre Group, the RSGB VHF Committee and the RSGB Microwave Committee. For a first attempt it was quite successful, with 140 day visitors and 50 at the dinner. Many lessons have been learnt, as one would expect, so next year’s event will be even better.
    The venue was Rease Heath College, Nantwich, Cheshire, and it proved to be an excellent choice, within easy reach of the M6 motorway and Manchester Airport. On site accommodation was available for those who wanted to arrive on Friday evening and stay until Sunday morning if need be. The standard of catering was first class, with an excellent “all day breakfast” available in the on site restaurant.
Each organising group had a stand in the main hall, alongside other exhibitors such as G.H.Engineering and Vine Antennas. Sadly, due to lack of support, the Microwave Committee stand (photo left) was quite minimal and was in danger of becoming known as the G3PHO/P exhibition until G4DDK and G0CZD arrived with their UK Microwave Group literature! It was visited by several microwavers during the day, some of whom had travelled from far afield … David, VK5KK being the best DX (he is second from the left in this photo). Other welcome visitors were Uffe, PA5DD and Jonathan, HB9DRD(G4KLX).
     The other groups were better represented, with the UK Six Metre Group appearing to dominate the event. They are certainly a very keen but rather turbulent collection of enthusiasts!
    The programme of lectures included an interesting talk on HighVoltage Power supplies, by Ian, G3SEK. This was especially relevant to your editor who, a couple of days earlier, had burnt a hole through the end of a finger as result of accidental contact with a bare 2.5KV feed to his HF PA! Due to lack of offers of microwave talks, the only microwave lecture was given by G3PHO (Microwave Update 2002).  In addition to the lectures, a number of  RSGB Contest Trophies were presented. Your webmaster received the RSGB 10GHz Trophy for winning the 2001 10GHz Cumulative Contests. The photo right shows him receiving the Trophy from the RSGB President, R.C.Whelan, G3PJT:
Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the whole weekend was the social side. A superb dinner was held on the Saturday night. It offered the opportunity for attendees to meet each other, often for the first time. The photo on the right shows, left to right, HB9QQ, G4ASR, G4ALY and G3PHO. For the writer, the meeting with Pierre Pasteur, HB9QQ, was a special occasion as his previous contact with him was back in the late 1950’s when SWL G7268  (as G3PHO was then) heard HB9QQ on 50MHz cw and received a coveted QSL card for his listener report! Another pleasurable meeting was that between G4ALY and G3PHO. After dozens of contacts on 80m and 10GHz they finally met up in person.

Left to right: Pierre (HB9QQ), David (G4ASR), 
Ralph G4ALY)  and Peter (G3PHO)

Our thanks go to all involved in the organisation, especially Simon, G8ATB, who virtually carried the Microwave Committee side of things, and to Dave Butler, G4ASR. Dave is busy planning next year’s event so please support him as much as you can!
 
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