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Old Reflector
1

After posting to the reflector that I intended to have a bit of fun with my PMR 446 sets, quite frankly, I was amazed at the number of offers of help, I received from the chasers. On arriving at the trig point of Shining Tor, I set the Cobras up to monitor channel 7 and 8. In a built up area, my experience of PMR 446 hasn’t been that brilliant, in open terrain, they’re not too bad, however, at a couple of thousand feet, they perform surprisingly well. Such a shame there’s no control over the squelch. I made a number of contacts on them, though not everyone is willing to talk. My best contact was into Rochdale, a contact of about 25 miles. I spoke to a couple of radio hams also.

I wasn’t really prepared for the amount of activity on 2m FM, so the PMR experiment, sadly got somewhat sidelined.

If you’re taking on one of the higher summits and own a PMR 446 rig (I doubt there’s many radio hams who don’t) take it along and have a listen to what’s out there (some good, some not so) you may be surprised at the distances these little rigs cover. I may have another go at this, however, perhaps without doing an activation so I can give it my full attention … Scafell Pike anyone :wink:

As for my Sunday activation of G/SP-004, well I arrived at the summit earlier than planned because of the poor weather forecast. There was plenty of activity on 2m FM and lots of summits being activated. As it happens, the weather behaved itself remarkably well, with me having to put the rig away just once and then for only about twenty minutes.

In between playing with the PMR 446 and a couple of other breaks for rain and hikers asking questions, I managed 11 S2S, which yielded a shed load of points (shame I don’t bother to collect them) with summits such as Scafell Pike, Helvellyn, St Sunday Crag, Whernside, Great Coum, South Barrule, Mynydd Troed plus a few more.

Thanks to everyone who called me, this was one of the best activations I’ve ever done, mainly because of the people who were listening for a good part of the day and came back to say they were really enjoying the countless QSOs. In particular Brian M3 BJH, who followed the activity for hours. Thanks to Walt G3NYY/P, for the S2S G/WB-023 and for his help in trying to sort out my rig which seems to be playing up on the 70cm band.

Anyway, I logged 191 contacts all on 2m FM, with a substantial amount being /P or /M.

73
Mike 2E0YYY

2

In reply to 2E0YYY:

It was good listening Mike as I travelled south from the LD. I first picked you up near Shap on the M6 in Cumbria, and listened to your QRG until I got home two hours later, save for a few breaks to work other summits and Jimmy, and grab a coffee at the services. Thanks for allowing me the ragchew with you during your quiet bits!

Tom M1EYP

3

In reply to M1EYP:

In reply to 2E0YYY:

It was good listening Mike as I travelled south from the LD. I first
picked you up near Shap on the M6 in Cumbria, and listened to your QRG
until I got home two hours later, save for a few breaks to work other
summits and Jimmy, and grab a coffee at the services.

I didn’t realise you had picked up the signal near Shap. I was running between 5 and 6 watts for most of the activation

Thanks for
allowing me the ragchew with you during your quiet bits!

You’re most welcome, Tom.

73
Mike 2E0YYY