The club put the special event callsign GB198LW on the air from June 26-28, 2026 to mark the end of BBC Radio 4 Long Wave on 198 kHz after 92 years. There were three HF stations and one VHF station. Three of the stations were set up in the Scout Hall, while the main HF station – 10, 15 and 20m – used the club station. There were three Marler Hayley displays – Droitwich Transmitting Station, BBC Radio 4 and Cray Valley, together with a wonderful display of vintage broadcast radios expertly curated by Dave G4NOW.

The 30-hour event netted 3,795 QSOs. Band conditions were not great but it gave an opportunity to take advantage of the Sporadic E conditions to work around Europe. The QSO total was a really good effort by the 19 members who operated the stations. Contacts were made across 10 bands from 80m to 2m on SSB (1,912 QSOs), CW (1,351), FM (38) and FT8 (477). Over 900 QSOs were made on both 20m CW and 40m SSB. A Cray Valley Special Event Station using FT8 was something of a first, especially on 6m where 143 QSOs were made with the best DX being a QSO with OD5KU in Lebanon.

42 members supported the event by making a contact. Indeed one member contacted GB198LW on six different bands. All contacts count for the Cray Valley Award, but a reminder we are not handling the QSLing. If you want confirmation of your contact(s) you will have to use Charles M0OXO’s OQRS – https://www.m0oxo.comoqrs/logsearch.php – to obtain a QSL card. However, all contacts have been uploaded to LoTW.

As well as the operators, the weekend was an enjoyable team effort from start to finish, with several newer members involved. Members made visitors to the event welcome, and special thanks to all who helped to set up, tear down, log, provide refreshments or helped in any other way.