Arial view of the 2017 showWe will be at the Starting handle club show again this year 11th / 12th Aug why not come and take a look. We will have our club marquee up and will be useing our radios on HF / VHF and Data also we will have our satalite expert demonstrating satalite comunications hopefull we will see the ISS if it is due to pass over us.

Good weekend at the Starting Handle club summer show.
Friday saw us setting up the marquees and the aerial tower we did not manage to complete the setting up before the rain started so there were some very wet workers. Sat was lovely and sunny with lots of activities going on around us. we were hoping to operate HF SSB, data FT8 using the call GB2SHC  we were hoping to contact the Chinese Cube sat orbiting around the moon unfortunately the noise (QSB) both on the radio +9 and from the many tractors made SSB operating impossible but data was unaffected we were using a fishing pole vertical and about 50w of power, using FT8 on Saturday we made 49 contacts with Argentina being the longest hop Sunday was less sunny but by and large it stayed dry, we made about the same number of contacts agin using FT8 with the furthest being into the USA, we were disappointed that we did not have many UK contacts. The club marquees  had a steady flow of visitors to the station and a number of youngsters trying their hand at Morse code and some not so young. The snipit is of the PSK Reporter which shows the stations that received our signals on Sunday not bad from a fishing pole!. Photos are the general set up with Ian M0IWB totally engrossed in FT8. Apologies for the poor quality of the photos but it as so bright I could not see the screen on the camera.

Photos(1) show Ian M0IWB studying the FT8 screen  (2) Steve bolders M0HET enjoying his can of the black liquid (3) Psk reporter showing where we reached on Sunday with FT8 (4) Sue 2E0TSZ & Adam M0OAS Working FT8 (5,6,7) show general photos of the SHC station GB2SHC

 

About the Starting Handle Club

The Starting Handle Club was created in 1974 by a small group of enthusiasts interested in preserving, working and displaying vintage and classic agricultural and horticultural bygone farm machinery. From the inception of the club, members have regularly exhibited at the Aylsham Show, Worsted Festival, the Royal Norfolk Show plus many other events mainly in Norfolk and North Suffolk. At the end of each financial year, the club has managed to make a donation to a charity or worthy cause. This has amounted to many thousands of pounds over the years. The backbone of the club comprises tractors, stationary engines, horticultural machinery and their various attachments. Old cars, lorries, motorcycles, steam engines, bicycles etc. are regularly included at rallies. To date the club boasts a membership in excess of two hundred, ranging in age from nine to ninety. The flourishing ‘Junior’ section is particularly encouraged as hopefully they will provide the mainstay of the club in the future.