As part of the Northampton Radio Club’s celebrations of its ninety-fifth anniversary, the club held a number of special event stations in the local area.

In 1935, Sir Robert Watson-Watt and Arnold Wilkins OBE used the site at Borough Hill in their experimentations into bouncing Radio waves off a moving airplane supplied by the RAF, using the Marconi transmitter then housed at the BBC station on Borough Hill.

In February 2008, Northampton Radio Club set up the GB0RDF special event station at Borough Hill, Daventry to commemorate the Birth of Radar and Radio Direction Finding.

Good weather blessed the event, operating from the car park on the summit of Borough Hill.  The operation was over a number of non-consecutive days depending on operator availability. The radio used was a Yaesu FT 857, namely my mobile setup in the car feeding to a delta loop and dipole.  With the car already set up for mobile HF and UHF/VHF operations it was relatively easy to check the SWR and do tests on each band etc. and gave some comfort for the operator.

Such is the height AGL of Borough Hill and the quality of take-off; high masts were not required, making deployment and pack up of the equipment relatively straightforward.

Generally, conditions were only average on the bands although we did manage a few good Dx contacts, the majority of contacts were on 20 mtrs and 80 mtrs with a few on 18 MHz, 70cms and 6 mtrs.  The best Dx contact was on the first day when we contacted Bill YV4EH in Venezuela.  Also in the log were Jamaica, Azores, Canada, and USA.

We passed the historical information whenever a contact asked for the site information.  At times, we had a steady stream of contacts awaiting a qso, and contacts appreciated the fact that we exchanged information rather than just rubber-stamping them.

There was some interest shown initially by the BT station now situated at the summit of Borough Hill.  After chatting to a couple of radio hams that work there, they realised it was harmless and only members of the local Amateur Radio club pursuing their hobby.  One ham had to give his work colleagues an explanation as to what Amateur radio was and what we were accomplishing!

Since the event, the club has received a large amount of QSL cards and the club has reciprocated, sending QSLs all over the world either direct or via the Bureau.

If you have had a contact with The GB0RDF station and not received a QSL card please get in touch with Ian G1BHR at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it   as he has had health problems and could have missed you.