How it all happens.

Well there is a lot of work involved to organise and staff a special event station, particulary when it is operating over several days. Roy G4SSH who is the SSEG Chairman does a tremendous amount of the preparation work, thanks Roy.

Firstly a location for the station has to be found this has to have space to erect the aerials, space for vehicles, space to operate. Once this has been sorted out then a QSL card has to be designed the members contacted to arrange the manning rota and pre publicity sent out to the Radio magazines. After all this has happened we move to the event itself. The equipment has to be transported to site then our tame aerial rigger John G4YSS arrives with poles ropes wires and an antenna analyser and erects the aerial(s) these are then checked and adjusted then hooked up to the transceiver and tested. Then action stations, we are on the air. The calls come in and are logged usually by Kevin G0NUP on the computer log and also on a paper log. Over the last few events Emily who is John G3YZR's 7 year old Grand daughter has assisted and keeps a neat log. if any of the information she needs is missing she will chirp up and ask the operator to obtain the missing details.

After the event the log is checked and then the information is transferred to the QSL cards which are then dispatched either via the bureau or when cards are recieved direct with an sae returned direct to the sender. Further press releases are also sent out giving a resume of the special event. All parties then retire to a darkened room to recharge their batteries for the next event.