Mills on the Air 2026

On Sunday 10th May members of Crawley Amateur Radio Club headed off to Ifield Water Mill to take part in the annual Mills on the Air event.

We used an inverted V dipole for the 40m band. Initially we used a Hermes Lite 2 and 150w amplifier, later on in the day we used a Yaesu FT-710.

In previous years we had needed our sun cream, but this year we were not so fortunate, and were very grateful for the gazebo that club member Charlie provided.

Propagation conditions were poor, but we managed over 50 QSOs across England, and most of Western Europe.

We were lucky enough to have QSOs with 10 other clubs taking part in the event.

GB2NW - Nutley Windmill, East Sussex

GB6GEM - Gainsford End Tower Windmill, Essex

GB0CWM - Cogglesford Watermill, Lincolnshire

GB6CW - Cromer Windmill, Norfolk

GB0BW - Bourn Windmill, Cambridgeshire

GB1HCM - Heron Corn Mill, Morecambe

GB5HW - Heage Windmill, Derbyshire

GB5WEM - Wind Energy Museum & Thurne Mill

GB6HWM - Herne Windmill, East Kent

GB2RRS - Roughton Mill, Norfolk

The Club would like to thank the volunteers from Ifield Water Mill for hosting us for the day. Thanks also to club members David Wilde, John Russell, Oliver Sanderson, Charlie Jones, Richard Drinkwater, and Peter Jones

The most important job when we got home was to dry off the gazebo!

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