Blackpool Rally 2022 attendance confirmed and possible activation of Blackpool tower (not with an unfiltered Baofeng)

So I have made arrangements to be at the NARSA rally at Blackpool on the 24th April, I will be spending that weekend in Blackpool at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, and I plan to go up to the top of Blackpool Tower and do some operating, following up on Lewis M3HHY's "Baofeng the fatal flaw" video's technical aspect, that being Baofeng radios lack front-end filtering or it's woefully inadequate, whereas my Yaesu FT2D should be a little better up there but of course all radios are subject to desense from strong out-of-band signals.

So to add some extra help to get rid of the nasty stuff I will be getting hold of a SOTABeams bandpass filter that screws into the antenna socket of the radio and the antenna then screws onto that, the idea here being that this filters out the worst of the offending out-of-band signals, these being broadcast and commercial from the top of Blackpool Tower.

I will be beaconing APRS from up on the tower should I make it up there as my FT2D can do that, of course this depends on weather as the top of the tower is usually closed during really bad weather and my previous visit to Blackpool did not take me up the tower for this very reason and I was hoping this was going to happen in 2020 but certain virus issues got in the way as we know.

I look forward to the weekend and if I make it up the tower and can get through the mush at the top contacting stations far and wide and poitentially as far as GD (Isle of Man) and you'll see my results and the rally on my YouTube channel after the rally

73 de M0WNU

Attendance at the Blackpool rally and National Hamfest 2020 to hopefully go ahead

This year after booking the dates off early I got approval from the area manager, this means I can now attend the National Hamfest at the end of September and also the Blackpool rally in April as intended, the Ripon rally has not had a date announced yet so I cannot confirm if I am able to attend that until at least the week before it.

This brings me on to what happened last year, I missed the Hamfest as I booked it too late and could not get the days off approved, and on my run down to the Norbreck Castle Hotel in Blackpool I was run off a slip road by a very aggressive driver of a Mini, the former certainly cannot happen unless I have issues with the car, and the latter won't happen as the chances of me encountering that Mini driver at Lancaster (Forton) Services again will be nil.

Both events will be filmed for the YouTube Channel, and for Hamfest 2020 I will be camping and hopefully operating radio, maybe by the latter my XYL will be here too and will also be able to attend and camp at Hamfest 2020, and I'll remember the can opener and have a better tent and possibly better cooking stove too.

As for Blackpool, I will be operating 2-meters and 70cm there, including from the top of the world famous Blackpool Tower with my Yaesu FT2D and perhaps my AnyTone AT-D868UV as that seems to have a robust front end unlike my many Baofeng radios.

I'll update as this all progresses and I'd like to extend thanks to my Area Manager for allowing this to happen.

73 de M0WNU

Post-Blackpool rally post

So yesterday I was at the Blackpool rally and spent the weekend at the Norbreck Castle Hotel where the rally was to be held, not a bad hotel and I enjoyed my stay, however there was one small issue during the journey over, not counting a traffic jam on the A66 and the high winds along the high-lying areas.

I had to stop at some services for a pit stop shall we say, this particular service area was Lancaster (Forton) Services on the M6, on exiting the service area there was a Mini so close to my rear bumper it was borderline dangerous and I had to give way to traffic already on the M6, this Mini driver cut me up, thus forcing me onto the hard shoulder at the bottom of the slip road, pulled into the hard shoulder ahead of me, got out of the car, and, showing clear signs of aggression, walked towards my car (I had come to a stop and put the hazard lights on while I quickly composed myself and waited for a gap (the Mini driver left me no room in which to get up to speed on the hard shoulder as per the Highway Code), I saw a gap, shut off the hazards and indicated right and was left no alternative but to put my foot hard down onto the accelerator pedal, on passing the Mini driver who returned to his car as soon as he seen I was about to drive off gave me the “two-finger salute”, it was clear he was aggressive and could have caused me harm, this is the first and only time I was victim to road rage, it clearly was a road rage incident, I was still quite shaken on arrival at Blackpool, this is mentioned briefly and in less detail in the video I made on the rally which I hope to have up to YouTube soon.

So onto the subject of the rally, it was not as busy as my last visit and due to unforeseen circumstances the Bring & Buy was cancelled this year, I broke with tradition and did not buy a radio, I did buy the Sotabeams Fuser-6 and some Anderson Powerpole connectors, after the incident with the Grant II I certainly do not want a repeat of it with my Amateur radio gear so priority number one is to fit my CRT SS9900 with them, then my QYT KT-8900D, also I will be fitting these to the Leixen VV-898 ahead of it being used as an APRS igate radio once I obtain an M0 call which should be soon.

I have plans to return to the Blackpool rally next year, and hope to go to Blackpool later in the summer and do radio from the top of the tower as the weather this past weekend was not suited to it, obviously not using Baofeng radios.

73 de 2E0EIJ

All set for the 2019 Blackpool rally

I booked a room for the weekend of the Blackpool rally at the Norbreck Castle Hotel, so all I have to do is check out on the Sunday morning and go down to the rally, easy, however I have a weekend in Blackpool as well, so a good opportunity to play radio by the seaside, of course I’ll be taking radios with me as I am going to the Blackpool rally after all.

So this means I once again do not have to travel at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning and can have a relaxed drive over to Blackpool, I do plan to do some filming at the rally so I shall take my camcorder as well and hope to have a higher capacity battery for the camcorder in time for the rally to get some decent footage of it to put on YouTube, and I should have no rush to get away that day either.

If you see me at the rally do say hi.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Rallies this year

I have plans to attend all the rallies I make attempts to regularly attend, and I now have some dates on which rallies I can most likely attend this year.

These are:

• Ripon: 14th April
• Blackpool: 28th April (though I may go over on the 27th or 26th) and make a weekend of it
• Bowburn: 26th May (It is taking place this year and it was a good day out last year)
• National Hamfest 2019: 27-28th September (I regularly attend and will be again camping this year)
• BARAC rally 2019 at Spennymoor: 24th November

The last two years I've missed the rally at Spennymoor, and last year due to work I missed the Blackpool rally, and I hope to attend both this year, and planning is already underway for Hamfest 2019.

If you see me at any of these rallies, feel free to say hi.

73 de 2E0EIJ

Blackpool rally

In light of missing the Ripon Rally due to family commitments I made the journey over to Blackpool for the rally there, was bigger than I thought it would be but worth the trip to see what these things are all about.

The journey was fine until I approached and entered Cumbria, wherein the weather took a turn for the worse, this continued onto the M6 through Lancashire, getting better the closer to Blackpool I got,

On arrival at the venue I was spending a lot of time parking my car as there were no spots available, eventually one became available and £5 later I was in the venue, which had the vast majority of the clubs from the North West in attendance along with various sellers of amateur radio equipment, along with used equipment stands, and the RSGB, selling books and offering membership, which I took out and got a free Baofeng BF-888S UHF as well as the latest RadCom (which I shall take along to the club in case anyone wants to read it that is not a member

I was hoping to pick up a 2/70 mobile or base unit, used of course, for home that I could run on the slim-jim or some other homebrew antenna that could potentially cover both bands, I'll keep an eye out for cheap, yet still serviceable, radios for that purpose on the Internet.

So. to sum up the Blackpool rally, a good day out, but get there very early if you want a parking spot, I certainly plan to go next year but only if the weather wasn't as terrible for driving as this time.


73 de M6RSQ