G/SP-004 Shining Tor, 10 Metre Report

Activation Reports
1

When alerting for my planned activation of G/SP-004 Shining Tor, I was somewhat surprised to see the only other activation of this summit in the last 2 months was by me. Shame really, because this summit has so much to offer in terms of DX on both HF and VHF. I hope a few more activators will make a visit while the 10m band is in good shape. It took about 30 minutes to make the ascent of this summit, which I’ve activated nearly 100 times.There was just a steady breeze at the trig point and this meant I had little trouble getting the A-99 on 15 feet of poles. This made me a very happy bunny!

The rain held off, although the summit was shrouded in mist for almost the entire activation.

As with most of my recent activations, this was only going to be HF and with the 10m band in such good shape, that’s were I started…on 10m fm. My self spot drew the attention of Christos SV2OXS and he was followed by Carolyn G6WRW, thanks for the call, Carolyn. Two more G stations called in, but there was no sign of any DX,

So, I worked a couple of s2s on 20m before re-spotting on 10m ssb. As if by magic the Stateside chasers latched onto my spot and the calls came in thick and fast. I stayed on ssb for almost 50 minutes before Qsy’ing back to 10m FM, where another run of North Americans was logged. As ever, Dow, W4DOW headed the charge, with Phillip, VE1WT, Walter NE4TN and Guy N7UN all putting an apperance. Nice to see Herm KB1RJC back in the log on 10m FM. Things slowed up a little, so I qsy’d back to ssb for the last 50 minutes, where once again, I was chased down by the North Americans.

This activation was a lot of fun with plenty of DX finding its way into my log. It was a real pleasure to get W0MF from Nebraska, logged. The best of the 10m FM DX was once again Texas.

115 contact for the activation.

5 contacts on 20m SSB
2 contacts on 10m AM
29 contacts on 10m FM
79 contacts on 10m SSB

61 North Americans logged

I contact on 10m AM
49 contacts on 10m SSB
11 contacts on 10m FM.

CW the best mode? Well, I’m not so sure…

Thanks to all the chasers…

2E0YYY (who wishes he was Lord of Shining Tor) :wink:

2

I’m not surprised you’re not sure, as you haven’t collected any data to compare! I hope to do a long activation on 10m multimode sometime soon, while the conditions are favourable.

3

Once again Mike Thanks for the Ten Meter FM Simplex contact and chaser points.
Always good to work you on any band or mode.
Best 73 de W4DOW ((Dow))

PS Any mode is Good when the Band is open. 73

4

Cheers Dow,

Keep your ears open on Thursday. Subject to wx being okay, there should be three G activators for you to chase on 10m about 1300z.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

1 Like
5

Hello Dow,

“…Any mode is Good when the Band is open”

Spot on.

It does make me wonder why activators just stick to one mode and/or band.
I often hear chasers on SSB who when they activate never go onto SSB but purely activate in CW. Strange really.

Mike

6

Well I do plenty of phone, plenty of cw and even a bit of datamodes on my activations, so I could never be accused of such dastardly behaviour. However, it is not difficult to understand why those that do, do. It is one thing having a warm shack with a bells and whistles table top transceiver and accessories at your fingertips.

It is quite another to determine what to put in your rucksack to lug up a hill and get the best return for your efforts. Although my activating to date, and at present has regularly served both cw and phone, I am considering a change of habit soon. I have a lovely little cw only portable radio, and a very lightweight multiband antenna system. Time to take the weight off my feet and tackle some longer bigger walks I feel, safe in the knowledge that I will still make lots of contacts due to the reliability and efficiency of the mode.

7

Hello Tom,

No you are not one of ‘them’ at all.

“I am considering a change of habit soon. I have a lovely little cw only portable radio, and a very lightweight multiband antenna system.”

Well good luck, if you decide, to go the CW only route.

I was going to listen out for Kevin KJ5FA/P but it is now 1705Z and no show so I will shut down and go and do something useful …

Night night
Mike

8

Cheers Mike, but no luck required. CW is by far the easiest mode to make activator qsos on.

Current condx will keep me on 10m for now, so that will mean taking the 817 and hence multimode capability. But then I will become “one of them” who does multimode chasing from home, but cw only activating with an optimised lightweight portable set up.

9

[quote=“M1EYP, post:8, topic:9777, full:true”]
CW is by far the easiest mode to make activator qsos on.

Well Tom, you’re entitled to your opinion and I’m entitled to mine.

10

I concede it is probably easier for you to make QSOs on SSB or FM Mike. I speak only from personal experience of using all modes, and the relative ease with which I have qualified many uniques, often when my phone-only activating buddy (Jimmy M0HGY) has struggled. Occasionally it has been the other way round, but usually I’m the one that has the easier time.

11

Congrats, Mike for so many QSOs and DX!
It was a great pleasure for me when you called me for our S2S QSO yesterday.
Thanks for that and I’ll be looking forward to meeting you many more times in the future.
Have a great week.
73 de Guru - EA2IF

1 Like
12

Then again, I have just posted an alert for an activation tomorrow night, in which I dare say it will be much easier to make SSB contacts than CW. I’ll probably make 50 to 70 on SSB, but I’ll be lucky to get even double figures on CW. This coming weekend I anticipate many CW QSOs on 10m…

13

Hi Tom,
Do you plan to work the contest from a SOTA?

14

Thanks for taking my call, Guru. I’m sure we will make many more contacts.
The 10m path to North America was in good shape yersterday with some South Americans calling me also.
Good luck with working the DX on 10m.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

15

Not the whole event Guru, and not all bands, but I do hope to do a 10m CW activation at some point during the weekend.