G5FS.org.uk
The BRISTOL 6m - 70cm Contest Group.
Who are G5FS.
Gary and I have been taking part in 6m contests from the mid 90’s. It was decided that it was about time we made things more official, especially as two good friends of mine (both newly licencesd) wanted to become involved in contesting. In 2011 we were joined by Frank. He is no stranger to contesting, and in fact was my companion operator back in 1995, when I entered my very first 6m contest
The Current Team
The History of G5FS.
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Leyahn (M6LFA): Leyahn passed her foundation licence in April 2013 mainly to get involved in contesting. Although to quote her "To go camping" does have a strong aspect to. When she gets behind the microphone she gives us all a run for our money and is known within the group as our secret weapon.
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Frank (M1ACQ): Frank is very enthusiastic towards contesting and is a real pleasure to listen to operating. His interests are 2m and 70cms contesting. Frank was there at the start of the madness that is the contest group (Before we even became a contest group). Although back then we were using G7FBD as the contest call we were still hounded by the technical issues we still have today. How time have not moved on!
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Gary (M1GRY): Gary has a 'unique' style to his contesting, and has been to all but two of the contests we have taken part in over the 20 plus years of contesting. Although he no-longer lives in Bristol. He is still willing to make a 3hr trek to our main contest site and sit on top of a cold, and sometimes dry hill calling CQ.
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Mat (me): (G7FBD): I guess this contesting thing is my entire fault. After been lent a 6m transverter by Ross (G6GVI) and also being introduced to the UKSMG by him, I had the bug. The "magic band" is my band of choice during the summer (when time permits). Contesting is a perfect excuse to get on the air, but more importantly to get onto 6m.
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Chris (M0KDN). The Man of mystery, or in other words, he has not sent me a short Bio to add to the page yet. Chris, along with Leyahn form our Youth wing, I am sure at some point Chris will send me some words to add here.
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Duncan (2E0EOL): Known up to this point as No.6. Duncan comes from nearby Bath with roots in the Highlands of Scotland. He joins the well estasblished "Youth Wing" of the contest group. And although 2018 is his second outing with the group, he fitted in like he had been with us for years!
In the early days of amateur radio (1920 - 1939) a station could choose its call sign as long as it was not already in use. This procedure also allowed a call sign to be re-assigned on the event of the death of its current holder. It even seems operators could work where they liked with no regulation.
All amateur radio was suspended during World War II.
Even before the war, the licence holder for G5FS, a Mr W. Andrews was very active within the Bristol area, see the PDF article below titled “Well Done Bristol”. Oddly enough the article talks about the then president of the RSGB Mr McMichael, who made the opening contact from the stand created by Mr Andrews and Mr Brookes (G6VK) on 56Mc/s (or 56MHz in new money) - a band not too distant from 6m (50MHz).
Well done bristol: October 1935
New contest call G8LL
Prior to that a very proud Mr W. Andrews can be see in a picture taken in 1932 during a DF hunters event. We have not yet to identifed the location used in this picture.
An Original QSL Card from G5FS
After the death of Mr Andrews, his widow donated the call sign to Brunel College, Bristol, where it was used by the college to form a club station.
For me, my involvement with G5FS started in 1989. I was working at the college as a technician in the department of Marine Electronics and Aerospace Communications.
A job requirement for me - was to get my amateur radio licence. With the help of Phil Brewder I obtained a "B" class licence. I used to operate under supervision, running RTTY on HF, and set up "Europa" the G5FS-2 packet node. While at the college I was introduced to 6 metres by Ross G6GVI who I had met through the GB3BS Repeater Group.
The Late Phil Brewder
The Commodant Transmitter and G7FBD.
During the "college years" I started contesting with Frank M1AQC. Okay the station was not brilliant, it consisted of a 3 element beam, an old TV rotator, a borrowed 800W AC generator, a FT290 connected to a transverter, and of course Frank's tent. To say it was not the best is an understatement, but discovering 6m was fantastic.
After 12 years of working at the college I moved on. Frank also changed jobs, which meant trying to organise entry to a contest event was a bit of a non starter.
Frank (M1ACQ) and our first contest shack.
With a bit of nagging I managed to convince Gary to apply for his licence (he had passed the RAE back in the late 70's while still at school). Once he had the licence convincing him to come along to a contest was easy.
We worked for over 4 years by borrowing a van (with permission) and working from that as our mobile shack. Most contests were done from the Westbury White Horse. In fact I applied to what was then the DTI to register Westbury as a /A location. This to my surprise was authorised. The only issue we had was with the local authority. They wanted copies of our insurance, method statements and such like. All were submitted and they were happy.
Gary: M1GRY in QSO from our van
Wanting more of an advantage we started to look for new locations (higher ground, less public, etc.). We did one contest from Pen y Gadr Fawr a site Gary (M1GRY) had negotiated permission to use with the Bristol Contest Group - G6YB.
Currently we operate from Brown Clee hill in Shropshire, We would like to Thank the Burwarton Estate for their kind permission accessing their land. We are also working on two further sites for our activities outside of 6m. More information will be published once established.
In 2009 over a pint and a meal the new contest group was formed. Up to this point we had been using G7FBD - my own call sign.
We wanted something special, and I suggested that I could contact my old work colleague at the college to see if we could obtain the call of the now defunct radio club.
After a bit of chasing up it was agreed to sign over the call to me. A bit of hassle with the Ofcom call centre in India delayed things, but eventually G5FS was obtained and the Bristol 4m to 70cms Contest Group was up and running.