My thanks to Alan 2e0gld, Amanda swl, Andy g4hue, Bob g3xng, Don g0wft, Glenn G0gbi, Graham g1rnz, John swl, Nicci m6mog, Preston g4mla, (in alphabetic order) for coming to our Picnic / field event at the Dunstable Downs Boot sale /rally.

My thanks also to Robert m5rpt, Koenraad g0gqz, Miles m6mut, Steve g3use, Row G7MWZ and Fred g7leb who were with us in spirit.

The weather, whilst threatening, was fine with a few droplets of rain. The wind however was EXTREME blowing down and damaging our gazebo. Taking a leaf out of the book of our American friends we formed a wagon (car) circle. Eventually flag, banner, antenna wires and vertical antenna were flown, hoisted, strung and raised; only to find the bands flat and the kit dodgy – oh well! {sigh}

This year's outing will go down in the club annals in the column with the wet and woolly ones. I think it is still topped by the year when we stood in the rain with at least four of us holding on to the gazebo which was making a valiant attempt to turn into a kite antenna. We packed up rapidly after that squall went though.

Despite the conditions we enjoyed the outing – with a number of valuable lessons learned.