Thanks to Robin GM7PKT/P for my 1st S2S. I was on GM/NS-105 while he was on GM/WS-146. Worked on 2m FM, Robin was 5n8 with his beam. I was using Sotabeams MFD at 4m with the VX-170 on 5watts.
GM/NS-105 Cnoc Ceislein is my “local” summit, only a 5min drive to the car park. Overlooking much of the Highlands this is an excellent summit for activating. The path in is very soft underfoot and much snow/ice just off the path. Along the way there are many low hanging branch’s or fallen trees to contend with. Once out of the forest the path quickly turned to being icy. There is no path up to the trig point so a truge up the wet heather was called for. Many bogs which made for wet feet. Once nearing the ridge the sun came out which was a nice change. Spoke to Robin whilst in view of the trig point and arranged a sked.
The antenna was setup very quickly and started calling but no takers for a little while. Then John GM0SFQ/M was calling on 145.575 and had a long qso and even a little chat with his grandson Innes. I heard Robin calling on .500 but wasnt quick enough off the mark, spoke to him not long after that and a nice S2S with 120Km between us approx. Called through GB3SS and got 2M0IBO qsy’d to .525 for a simplex call then the ever dependiple MM0LOZ, so far Laurence has been at the end of the radio on all my activations.
Called for a little while after this but no takers. Decided to head down, setup the MFD as a backpack antenna. Combined the activation with a spot of Geocaching, there is a cache along the ridge from the trig point so followed the GPS and found it no problem. On the way down Jon 2M0IBO kept in touch. Had several more qso’s on the way back down with MM0EFJ, MM0LOZ, 2M0JAT, MM0SMD.
Apart from the wet feet I’ve had a great day out SOTAing and Geocaching.
Many thanks to all the guys for the qso’s and thanks again Robin for the 1st S2S.
73 my friends
Adrian
2M0ETR