26atiww maritime mobile inland waterways dx station

26 AT IWW
INLAND WATER WAYS

"Miss Elle"

History of the 26.AT.IWW Leicestershire marine mobile station kindly written by 26AT065.

26.AT.IWW was a 40ft narrow boat which belonged to Mr Geoff 26.AT.374.

It was bought by Geoff around the time of his retirement from work, he lives only a short drive from a marina on the north side of Leicester , and many times he would walk his dog down by the river and along to this marina. There were always boats of some description up for sale and he decided he wouldn’t mind spending some very relaxing spare time on one of these boats, and it would also be used by his direct family for trips and short holidays.

So he saw this 40ft narrow boat painted green and red typical of river narrow boats and being a shorter length than the larger ones, those being 60ft decided it would be easier to turn 40ft around at any wide part of a river instead of having to travel to a basin where the other longer boats had to go to turn making it very easy to run day trips either up or down the river, baring in mind that the speed limit on inland waterways is 4 mph little quicker than walking pace so it took quite some time to get anywhere.

26AT374 Geoff

Well back in the late 80s early 90s we would meet in a pub once a week at one of the local CB radio clubs have a drink and see what QSL cards had arrived that week in the shared PO Box we had until the DTI closed it down.
It was at one of these meetings that we came up with the idea of getting a special event station or whatever it was to be called going. It wasn’t really a little boat to which anyone could float down some waterway with a mobile radio so we wanted it known as a bit more than this.
Hence it became a Club Station with the call sign of 26.AT.I W W.
This was a great chance to put something on the air that little bit special as lets face it 26 div was not really a division to cause loads of QRM on 11mtrs back in those days. We wanted a station which would become very sought after. We knew the area and waterways had great potential for DX and ground plane signals.

So we needed to get a radio station set up on the boat. It would be no good having a fixed tall aerial on the boat as there are low hanging trees along the river bank and also tunnels so we got a 20ft scaffold pole a couple of car exhaust brackets drilled four holes in the very thick steel plate the boat was made of and that took some drilling, cut the scaffold pole down to about a metre length fitted this to the front of the boat and managed to get hold of a scaffold fitting which enabled two poles to join together.

The first aerial was a dipole, the radio was either a Multimode or Concorde mk2 a heavy duty car battery and a small mobile amp delivering a bit extra. Pretty much thrown together but at least we were up and running and making a few contacts.

The members of this club station were Mr Geoff 26AT 374, Mr Ken 26AT 212 myself Mr Barry 26 AT 865, Geoffs son in law Malc came along for the ride and a bit of fishing. Later our friend from Southend Mr Brian 26 AT 560 would get onboard with him coming up on the Friday and in the early days staying at my home.

We would drive down to the marina early Saturday where there would be Geoff and Malc trying to get the diesel engine started without making too much noise normally a ½ can of cold start managed to get it kicked into life. We would set off heading down river to any remote spot where we could get the equipment set up. I think I from the very start ended up cooking the breakfast so normally I would buy a load of rolls, tomatoes eggs and bacon, Ken would bring a large pack of sausages, Geoff would provide the milk Tea and sugar.

I would be cooking all of this and making hot teas as those early mornings on the river were rather chilly and who ever was steering the boat was in the open, at least I was in the warm.

I would take my old black dog with me, she was a cross Labrador named Jess she loved the water, Geoff would sometime bring his Springer called Bruce and Ken would bring his dog Holly a golden Retriever who at one time tried to jump to the bank from a lock missed the side and fell in the oggi as Geoff called the river, and on another trip I seem to recall Malcs young son came with us a time or two and he did a similar trick and went for a unpredicted swim think he had come for the fishing so maybe he went in to see if there were any swimming around waiting to be caught.

We tried to take the boat out once a month and the news of this new inland waterways station was printed in the eleven news and with it an open invite to any members of the 26 div who would like a day out on the boat to get in touch all they had to do was get themselves down here, they could stay on the boat over night as it could sleep about 3 or 4 people or just make sure they were down at the marina early, we would provide the breakfast etc. I seem to think my hot cobs were very welcoming and I should think if you asked anyone who had sampled them they would back this up, rather filling.

Well I suppose Brian 560 must have been one of the first from outside Leicestershire to come out on the boat and I remember him calling out 26 26 AT IWW marine mobile. Its quite funny that when you are so used to calling out with your own 26 call its difficult to get the new call correct. We always had a very good day out, not always good propagation and sometimes we would flick over to AM/FM and see if we could work local stations or even Holland which seemed to use the FM band.

We decided we could do with a better set up maybe a radio which would be there all the time and as the conditions were sometimes not very good a better aerial. At home we were all using Yagi antennas and getting very good results so we decided to try to find a more suitable antenna for the boat. It wasn’t going to be a problem as to how big it was as we had all the open space.

The first one we got hold of was an inverted quad which later on got modified into a 4 element yagi a very strong aerial good SWR and it seemed to do a good job but still we were using the old chicken box radio. We then got a Yaesu 101 which kicked out about 100 watts so we would take this down with us and a little Honda generator for the power. So there it was a station with good antenna decent power and whatever frequencies we wanted to go on 5k off the freq or where ever the QSY freq was we could now go.

The station was now getting quite well known and a list of dates was printed in the 11 news still with the open invite for anyone who was interested in taking part to get in touch, but we did have to limit the numbers each outing keeping it around 2 to 3 guest operators. As there was a fair bit of interest in guest members coming on the boat we did end up having to book them in to available dates so they could have a go at steering the boat, opening lock gates and having a fair time working some radio.

I know over the time the IWW was running we must have worked well over a 100 countries which was better than some local members and I believe that 212 later 012 is still trying to achieve the magic S class operator level. Well that’s another story.

It was decided that when the IWW call sign was used it was only that station who officially made the contact bit of a pig when in the last days of East Germany we made a nice contact with a station over there and another good contact Papa New guinea on the most wanted list but it was the IWW only who got these confirmed.

Some times we would get the Echo Whiskeys listening in on the side (ear wiggers) just waiting for us to finish then have a go QSK that station.

But as the conditions dropped out over the time we were working the IWW Mr Brian had read in the Radcom a advert from an old G3 operator somewhere over Derbyshire way advertising a 500 watt valve Yaesu linear amp which if set up right should put out 1KW SSB. We got in touch and arranged for myself and Mr Roy 024 ex 124 to go over and buy this amp. When we arrived at this old boy’s house we went in and had to hear how many countries he had contacted and how now he was now trying to get contacts from lady operators from all these countries and showing us all these QSL cards which were very bland nothing like the ones you get on 11mtrs. But we had to go along with him else if he knew this amp was going to be used on a pirate unlicensed station I don’t think we would have come away with it.

Anyway we got the amp and next time out we tried it out plate and load for whatever frequency what a performance nothing like transistor amps well it was big and sadly didn’t last very long I seem to recall it blew up so pretty much a waste of money.

I had a mobile set up in the van and included in this mobile station I was using a skipmaster 300 linear which did put out a fair few watts and we also got hold of a Datong clipper which gave you more punch so now we were running a fair bit of power a good 4 element yagi a power source which didn’t run out of power so quite a nice station.

The antenna would be set up on the field then carried over to the boat, one of us at the front of the boat ready to line the scaffold pole up with the shorter fixed pole then two others would walk along the roof of the boat getting it higher as they walked until it slotted in to the connecting fitting. We could turn the beam by hand so we were able to work any direction depending on the time of day.

The afternoons were towards those good old boys in the USA and the mornings spent working most of Europe and Oz. This was at the time of the Dollar men from the now soviet states well if they wanted the card they had to send first and this was how we worked the QSL cards. They wanted our confirmation then they send to us no charge but their card needed to be at our QSL address before they got one sent to them.

A funny occasion was when Bob who at that time was the 11 news ed came down we set off hoping for a good days Dx’ing. The morning started off ok but conditions dropped out a bit a bit like the fishing, so Bob came up with a new division which seemed to liven things up.

He got on the mic and started calling out 313 division Papa Papa Radio 101 Porky Pig Island, funny but the 313 call never heard of before seemed to make those operators who just wait for some interesting station to come on the band then have a go at the contact were up and running instant QRM and he kept it very serious even told them his operator name was Clunt. I know it was messing about but we were doubled up laughing.

Another member who gave a lot of his time to this station was Dave from Hull real name Steve, he would often pop down and he even stayed at the marina and gave Miss Elle a full new paint job when he was not working driving his coach to different parts of Europe .

Well all things come to an end and unfortunately the start of the bad times for the 26 division had started and Roy 024 and I decided we didn’t want any part of what was now happening Mr Brian was now staying at Kens house Friday night and it was clear then that they had changes planned for the 26 division.

But while the good times were around everyone who had been on the boat enjoyed their experience driving this 40ft long narrow boat up and down the River Soar trundling along at a pace far slower than today’s rushing around. Just having the time to look and see what’s around you hear the birds and float along at the same speed as the white Swans swimming along side the boat hoping for a crust of bread seeing other wild life along the river bank totally priceless.

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading this short account of the IWW in writing it ,it has brought back some good memories mainly when we were all one and all good friends who had the passion of radio and the chance to create some interest on 11metres.

Geoff decided old Miss Elle would have to go as the cost of the waterways licence and mooring fees kept going up and other trips on her were getting less and less she was staying tied up at her moorings more and more so she was sold. Hopefully to someone who still enjoys her pud pud of that diesel engine trundling along the many waterways of Great Britain .

They were lovely times and many thanks to Mr Geoff ex 073 for letting us use her as marine mobile 26.AT.IWW I hope the pictures I have managed to find will give you some idea of what she was like and the countryside around Leicestershire Fond memories of my old faithful dog Jess bless her she died 1999.