I attempted to activate three Welsh Borders summits today.
I was due on G/WB-018 View Edge for 11:15utc, but was over 30 minutes late. My darn house boiler failed this morning and it took me a while to arrange repair. Then when I finally got to the summit, the radio decided it wanted to jump around to different frequencies, but fortunately it finally settled allowing me to operate. Then I found it difficult to make contacts, struggling to make the 4 qso’s.
Then onto G/WB-014 Burrow and by now I am 60 minutes late on my activation with the first contact at 13:45utc. This summit was easier to activate, culminating with my 6th and final qso with 2E0USV/P on The Cloud.I decided to pull the plug quickly and head off for my third summit of the day and try and get myself back to my timetable.
As I arrived at the base of G/WB-007 Heath Mynd, I found the place infested with cows. Now don’t laugh, but I am not keen on them and without someone with me to hold my hand, I decided to beat a hasty retreat back to my home qth in Craven Arms.
In conclusion then, not a great radio day, but some lovely scenery and two new Uniques for me in my fledgling SOTA quest. I can only apologise to everyone who may have been listening out for me and failed to hear me due to my late arrival or complete no show!
Bad luck with the cows. They were around on Friday but well out of the way of both parking and summit. Having had several close encounters with cattle over the years I also tend to keep well out of the way. Better luck next time.
Thanks for the two contacts and points today; I did keep an ear open for number 3 but might easily have missed you as I was busy doing other things.
Thanks for helping me activate the two summits this afternoon. The cows were right where I wanted to park the car and would not move, so I thought better of it and retreated. I have had my fill of cattle chasing me over the years.
Hopefully work you again from another summit very very soon.
Simon, I’ve seen radios get badly affected by condensation forming inside the control panels. The inputs are normally high impedance and a small amount of moisture can play havoc. Or it could have been RF feedback. Try leaving the radio in the airing cupboard to ensure it’s really dry inside. It wont be too warm but will be warm enough to drive out moisture.
As for cows I know what you mean. But as long as you don’t walk between a mother and its calves you’ll be fine. This sometimes means walking a weird route. You can also try waving walking sticks about and making “farmer noises”. Waving sticks about above you head makes you look a lot bigger and a few “hup, hup, come on, hup, hup” expressions makes the cows start walking back to wherever they normally meet they farmer. Well it works for me. But if you don’t fancy it, well nobody is going to blame you. Herds of upset cows have killed people plenty of times.
We were chased off summit by the rain and hoped it would pass over as we travelled to SP-013 Gun. It didnt so we set off in the rain with brolly in hand for our second activation.
In reply to 2E0CHV:
I’ll take you up Heath Mynd on a Friday and keep the nasty cows at bay, Simon. One can always use Heath Mynd as training for walks on Heather and ditch hills like Mynydd Nodol and Arenig Fach by making a bee-line to the summit!
I might combine such an outing with Caer Caradoc and the Lawley [a Hump]
