GB2ORM from the Great Orme Country Park, organised by The North Wales Radio Society celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the D-Day Landings, was very successful. Conditions on the Friday night were terrible and high winds really put the pressure on club members but over the weekend well over 120+ contacts were made on HF/ VHF/DMR and Morse. On the Saturday club members joined the Royal British Legion Ceremony at the Llandudno Cenotaph where the club also had a stand promoting the RSGB and amateur radio in general. It was an honour then for the club to lay a special memorial wreath and parade with all the other dignitaries involved at the service of memorial. Thanks are due to RAF Valley in Anglesey, who provided tents to accommodate the special event station. The photo shows the wreath laying ceremony on Llandudno promenade. In support of the 75th anniversary of D-Day, the South of England was treated to a flyover by more than 25 World War II aircraft. In support of this, Essex Ham ran a three-county on-air event to cover the flight and to track the aircraft in real-time. Over 20 stations took part, including GB2IWM, from the flight’s starting point in Duxford. The net was coordinated by Dorothy M0LMR, Richard G7OED and Pete M0PSX from Two Tree Island, near Southend-on-Sea, and the team was able to provide live updates to members of the public waiting for the historic flypast with their cameras at the ready. Thanks to spotters in three counties, and live data from Keith G6NHU’s ADS-B tracker, the coverage was more accurate than reports being relayed by the local BBC radio station, and an excellent demonstration of the immediacy of reports from a coordinated network of radio amateurs.There is a short  montage of photos and audio extracts from the event at: sxham.uk/dday

This article was featured in the September 2019 issue of Practical Wireless