Yes folks, we are here again. Its now officially spring, and the three must have a beers are about to go off on one of their offensives yet again.

On the Monday , the three of us listened most attentively to the local weather forecast for the Staffordshire/ Corvedale areas,

The depression that has blighted several areas of Rugeley, Walsall and Wolverhampton for the last six months, is finally showing signs of dissipating.

Trees that have lain dormant during this time, will suddenly spring to life, bearing a new crop of wire aerials, attached to nylon cord.

New sproutings of aluminium and fibreglass masts, will continue to be sighted throughout the spring foliage, and these will support a new crop of guy line tendrils.

Sunshine will drive away the clouds that have blighted the Corvedale during this time, and even the local Chinese take- away are looking forward to the new spring (rolls).

One word of warning though !!!

Windy conditions are set to increase dramatically during this period and could possibly come from many directions !, but will mainly be prevalent in the nether regions.

These windy conditions are known to be caused by a large influx of high pressure (cans) of Banks’s Bitter, various amounts of white rum, and a few wee ?? Drams of a Scottish nature.

People should not panic in these unusual conditions, as things should start to return back to normal around the end of the month.

A word of warning !!

Over exposure to these conditions, may lead to a permanent condition known as S.O.D.S. ( Spring Offensive Disorder Syndrome ) and unfortunately, there is no known cure for this !!

You have been warned !!!!!!!!!!!!! The three must have a beers are at it again !!!!!!!!!!

Just after the early birds started coughing, Dave MØ DJF arrived at my QTH, Good job the boiling apparatus was primed and ready to go !!

Soon it was time for Graham 2EØ VPT to arrive, wagons were then loaded up with the valuables, (for the un-initiated, it consists of numberous cans of Banks’s bitter, several bottles of falling down fluid,, and a packet of chocolate digestives in case we got peckish !) Dave in his wisdom, decided to give Boddington’s a try as well this time, ’Good on yer Dave !! Space was then made available for Dave’s wellies !! then It was time to set off to our first rendezvous , that well known eatery on the Standeford Industrial estate called ’Helga’s.

Suitably refreshed after having three heart attacks on a plate, it was time to get on the road again to our temporary QTH for the next few days. We halted in Much Wenlock for Graham VPT to purchase his twice yearly bag of Galaxy Minstrels, This time, I am glad to report, he paid in two pence coins !! No one pence coins this time !!!!! Still got the tatty plastic coin bag though !!!!

Back on the road again, we soon arrived at our temporary Qth for the next few days, After the vehicles were unloaded, and a very warm welcome from our hosts ,the brewing gear was put on the go, Dave and Graham proceeded to erect some of our aerials, accompanied by the usual bouts of laughter !! I then erected our home brewed 20 metre vertical and the co-linear. All radios were then set up and we started to give the airwaves some stick !!

After carrying out some tests, we then sat down to see if ye gods of propagation were really going to be with us on this trip.

Dave then set up all the PSK gear, and soon several contacts were appearing on the waterfalls.

Later we then sat down to our evenings repast, as usual this was accompanied by several outbursts of derogatory remarks and severe bouts of laughter !! And of course, the wine !! When we had eaten our fill, all the housekeeping chores done, all the radio’s were then fired up, ‘Look out airwaves’ the three must have a beers at it again !!!

Several good contacts were made with Sadars members on two metre ssb, it’s a pity that Chris (DBR) was very quiet to us, really in the back of the box, never mind Chris better luck next time.!! Unfortunately for Graham (VPT) and myself, Dave had bought along with him a diabolical cough, so it looked like Graham and myself would not only have to put up with his extremely well known imitation of a high powered chainsaw, now we have got his imitation of a barking Dalmatian !! We then made a few other contacts on HF, it was soon time to retire for the night, an early start beckoned !!!

03-30 hours on the Friday morning Saw Dave and myself in front of the kettle waiting for our first brew of the new day. There was no sign of VPT, at this ungodly hour, was he still in the arms of Morpheus ? Or was it the Bacardi and coke ?? Or was it due to the fact that our hosts had put a lot of cuddly toys in his bedroom ??? He will not say !!!!!!

Still, Dave and I soldiered on regardless,. Several good contacts were made stateside during these early hours.

Around 7 am, an apparition appeared in the kitchen, its ok folks it was only Graham regaining consciousness !! We were very fortunate this trip to have an internet connection courtesy of our hosts, this was very welcome. A few SADARS members did e mail us wishing us well. Soon it was time to feed the inner men, Graham was a little put out to find that we had no muesli, no fresh skimmed milk and no fruit juice !! Mind you, he soon tucked in and enjoyed one of our usual gut busting breakfasts !!

As no one would open the bar, we had fresh coffee instead ! Rob, MØ RPF, rang to ask what band we were operating on, ( Thanks Rob ) a sked was arranged with him, and for as many members of SADARS to try and contact us.

As usual, when you are having fun, the morning passed all too quickly, we did try a new homebrew multi band aerial for hf, first results are very promising indeed. PSK was alive and well in the Corvedale,, due to Dave and myself continually having a dig at poor old Graham about chatting to his Ruskie friends, Dave glanced at his log book, lo!! What did he see ?? Yes !! A couple of Ruskie contacts were already in there !!!!. You kept that very quiet Graham,,, didn’t you !!!!! But we caught you !!!

Graham then said that he wasn’t performing as good as usual,, it’s okay folks, not really him, it was the G5 aerial he was using !! This was taken down , tested and there was a break in the 300 ohm feeder. This was replaced with the home brew 5 band trap dipole, and peace reigned once more ! Must say, the blaspheming stopped as well !!!!!!!

After giving the airwaves some ‘stick’ we decided to dine early this evening, red wine nicely chilled, home made Lasagne (thanks Karen) so that we could get squared away for the evenings onslaught/abuse of the airwaves !! Graham said, ‘its time for my tablets’ ‘Thank God’ was the reply from Dave and myself, ‘Don’t want you to get sensible ‘till Monday’ !!!

Dave wanted to put a bottle in his bed tonight, ‘No you don’t we said, ‘there is still plenty of Scotch in it ‘ !! The evening with us, as usual, passed all too quickly, several good contacts were made on two metre ssb again, quite like old times for me. Our thanks go to Ernie G4YFF, (despite suffering from a very severe case of ‘man flu’), and Rob, MØ RPF, Greame,G4 NVH, Tony G4 RSW.

After the two metre station was closed down, we then carried on with both HF and PSK., poor old Dave was coughing and barking like crazy, as you would expect from Graham and myself, he got lots of sympathy !! (Not ) !!! After a few more intakes of liquid refreshment, we decided to have an early night , then get up early to assault the airwaves yet again on the morrow.

04-30 HRS on Saturday morning all was very quiet until the kettle boiled, Dave, was heard stirring/barking in his bedroom, so, I treated him to a brew in his pit. Don’t worry folks, that was the first, and the last !! See, I can show some sympathy now and again !!!!!!Graham meanwhile was still away with fairies.

Radio’s were then fired up, but the bands were still full of B******y contesters. A full container of tea was then passed to Graham, if you have never heard, never seen Graham at 5-30 in a morning,, Please, be very careful, it is not a pleasant sight !!and we will not even mention the verbals !!! Dave did try to get out on HF, but it seems like we needed a 10 kilowatt linear to get a contact.

Success at last !! He did get a couple of contacts with the low power we had available. Still got the age old problem though,, ‘why does a station give you a 5-9 report, then keep saying again again ?? Soon it was time to get the cooker in action again, three heart attacks on a plate a coming up !! Breakfast eaten, all the housekeeping chores done, it was time to get back on the air.

After several more brews , we decided to give Greame’s (G4 NVH ) power meter a go to see what it was really like , sorry Greame, seems it didn’t like it up it !!! ‘Which wire was the positive ??? Must say, Graham ( VTP ‘s) face was a picture looking at all that smoke !!!! (only joking Greame !!! ) There were flashes as well !!! Have to admit, with Dave’s homebrew atu, and with my linear pushing around 300 to 400 watts, everything worked well.

WX continued to be very variable, rain, sunshine, and then,,,, more rain. Graham continues with PSK, despite numerous comments from Dave and myself. Some of them were even nice !! (if you believe that,,,, well !!!!!!!) I then went on HF, and sorry to say, I reneged a bit, and joined the Royal Naval Amateur Radio natter net. Never mind, I do speak to ex matelots when the need arises !! We were still getting some very unsavoury remarks from Graham at times, we have to remember to keep a safe distance from him when he has a mouse in his grubby right hand !!! Dave did say his cough(barking ) was getting a little better, should be, he has been practising a lot !!!!!!

Hooray !!!! Graham did put down his mouse eventually and made a brew, we did say it was ok, but he need a lot more practise !!

During Saturday morning, we had some very nice contacts on HF, vhf and D star. Oue thanks go to Andy G6OTZ, Gordon M3 GCS and Brian G8 VPR for the chat. Around lunch time, all went very quiet RF wise,, the only thing that did not go quiet was the banter between us three !! Some of it was quite nice, (the majority,,, well I will leave that up to your imagination !!!!

Graham, with the usual protestations got some lunch together, and tried his hand at making another brew !(still needs more practice Gra,) He then proceeded to pick up his mouse again and when we asked what he was going to do now, he said ‘I am after the Balearics, Dave did offer him some pills and cream for it, but I said let the b******r suffer !!!!!!! It then turned very quiet RF wise, time to catch up on a few lost zed’s Graham continued to press his mouse into service to get more contacts into the log. That always seemed to be open when no voice contact could be made.

After surfacing from a nice siesta, thoughts soon turned to what we were going to do for our evening repast. Was it going to be a Chinkey? An Indian or even a Chindian ?? Who knows ?? Or will the pub win ?? Needless to say,,, the pub won !! After a goodly feed at the George and Dragon, our duty driver Graham (thanks Graham ) we called in at the local Spar shop for some more re-enforcements. With cans a rattling we then made great haste back to our temporary QTH. The reason for the great haste you may/may not (delete as applicable !!) believe ,was that Graham said he was lost without a mouse in his hand !!! Guess what just some of the comments were !!!!!!!!!

PSK continued to run well, in between working radio, we swapped a few tales about old times, a phone call was made to our chairman Tony G4 RSW who in his dark and distant past was a member of the Sierra Kilo DX club !!!There, that’s let the puss tat out the bag eh !! Tony !!!!!! The reason for the call was to apologise to him and any other member of SADARS for our RF blackout whilst we were imbibing in the pub. Overall, the bands were not too bad at times for a Saturday evening, other times, well !!! Total Charles Radio A think you know the rest !!!! comes to mind. We did have many contacts who took the time and trouble to look us up on Google, and reported Good Luck, Good DX to us all. After playing some more radio, I left Dave and Graham to it, It was not long after that Dave went to ground. Graham continued to play with his mouse until the wee small hours. At this time both Dave and I were getting a little apprehensive as Graham was thinking of taking the computer mouse to bed with him !!

Dawn broke to find us operating yet again, Breakfast done, chores done, All accomplished with the now usual derogatory remarks, we had a very nice QSO with Gordon M3 GCS again on D star. We all sent our thanks to him for taking the time and making the effort to get in touch. Then we assaulted the airwaves yet again, this time with some more coal on the fire.

Several questions were asked amongst us from time to time, one that I remember well was when Graham asked what was best to clean a computer screen ??I replied that he should use the same sort of cloth he used to clean the tv screen at home, ‘Whats that? he asked, Dave said ‘That’s why he got married, Pauline does it all ‘!!!! Looks like Graham will have to wait until he gets home to get his screen cleaned !!! NO !! we didn’t help him !! Just after Sunday lunch found Dave all on his own, Graham and I deserted him in favour of our beds to catch up on yet more lost zed’s. I re-appeared around 1-45, Graham meanwhile was still in his pit dreaming of yet more PSK contacts. Around 2-15 Graham re- appeared out of his PSK rest room to some rather choice remarks from Dave and myself. Our hosts, who used to run a farm in the past, have now started to raise some sheep. Graham said that he could never be a farmer as he could not do anything to the animals. My reply was that he couldn’t anyway, its against the law !!!

After getting all the goodies ready for our last evening meal here, I said I am ‘going to be sensible, and operate the radio’s properly a bit later on’ Graham then replied quick as a flash and said’ if you are going to be sensible , then I am off !!’ Dave then asked about a Russkie contact Graham had on PSK, ‘not bad’ Graham said ‘he is in the Urals’ we did wonder if that was Russkie for the outside loo !!! We had several absolutely solid contacts into the States after the B---------y contesters died down a little, some of them were still at it full bore. But we soldiered on regardless and had some excellent QSO’s The time went by all too quickly, the wine was gone, the cans were emptying fast the remains of our sponge pudding were congealing nicely in the bowl, we started to re -cap on all we had done over the past few days since we arrived early on the Thursday morning.

As usual with the Three Must Have a Beers, the comments came thick and fast, some were even very nice !! (sad to say,, not many !!) Some serous sense did come out of our discussion, and plans were made for our next offensive. Around 8pm, with PSK still running well despite what Dave and I said or did, Graham was well pleased, funny though?? He didn’t seem to want our help or advice !!!!! HF had proved yet again, it can be hit or miss at times, Top band working was good, but we have a little more sorting out to do so that we can tune the whole band. 17 Metres was good when it was open. 80 was fair to excellent at times. We did try the other bands from time to time, with varying amounts of success. Two metres was dead, the only way to use it was through GB3 BX. And GB7 ZI - D star proved that it was worth while taking it along with us, one thing we have found out, our HF set up locks the D star transceiver up a treat !! Filters of some description required me thinks !!

All too soon it was time to pack up and go home. We have had a great time, good food , good ale, and very good company. The vehicles were loaded, fair wells said to our hosts, with the promise to return in the future. We called in at ‘Helga’s’ for one last brew, then made our ways safely home.

Well folks, it only remains for us to say a very big thank you to all who supported us during this Spring Offensive, for the loan of various bits and pieces, mainly Graeme Boull G4 NVH and Gordon M3 GCS.

On behalf of Dave MØ DJF

Graham 2EØ VPT

And myself M1 NTP

Thank you all for taking the time to read our little Slog from

MXØ SPG