Yesterday was a day out in Kent. First a visit to the Kent Battle of Britain Museum http://www.kbobm.org/ at Hawkinge this was interesting, lots of exhibits with information about this historic part of WWII from both sides of the conflict.
From there I moved on to a SOTA activation of Cheriton Hill G/SE-015, this is very close to Folkstone and the channel tunnel terminal. The rain showers eased off as I was setting up and I made 21 contacts on 60m. Among these a very difficult contact with Andy MM0FMF/P who had to resort to cw before I could really confirm his callsign! But worth it for the S2S points. About 1:30pm deciding it was time for a late lunch I packed up. This turned out to be a good decision since it started raining again just as I got back to my car.
The nearest pub The Cat and Custard Pot http://www.catandcustardpot.co.uk/ which happens to be the highest pub in Kent served me an excellent lunch of sausages in a jumbo Yorkshire pudding with vegetables, mash and onion gravy.
Unfortunately the day went downhill from there with heavy rain as I drove along the M20 and then the 5 miles of the M25 to the Dartford crossing taking me well over an hour! The weather and traffic both improved after the tunnel and the rest of the journey was ok.
So a round trip of about 250 miles for a single point - such is the life of a SOTA activator living in Cambridge.
I didn’t realise SE-015 was all the way down there. That’s not bad for QRP just after a geomagnetic storm on 60m around mid-summer and at midday! It was very noisy on 60m and there was a lot of QSB too. At times you were peaking S4 on the meter but most of the time nothing showing but workable all the same.
I didn’t realise SE-015 was all the way down there.
It’s the most easterly SOTA summit in the UK and quite a trek from any other.
It was very noisy on 60m and there was a lot of QSB too.
Indeed, when I first switched on the rig I thought it was good conditions, but the station I heard in a QSO was only 10 miles from me! The noise was quite bad at times and the QSB didn’t help either.
At times you were peaking S4 on the meter but most of the time nothing
showing but workable all the same.
It was another day that I was glad to be using the Clansman with it’s 30W. It’s a bit too heavy if there is any sort of a walk required but certainly puts out a good signal.
Aha… that explains the disparity in reports if you were QROish. Just 3.8W out of this 817 on 60m and about 4.2-4.5W on the other HF bands. I could tweak the menu to get 5W but there’s little to be gained apart from less battery life.