G/WB-010 Wrekin RF

Today I took a quick walk up the Wrekin, which is a local summit for me. In the past, I have found it easy to qualify on 2m with a hand held radio and attached antenna, and that is what I took this time. Well, luckily I took two of them.

I started with the Yaesu VX-5 which has a wideband receiver, and is not renowned for its immunity to RF - but I have used it successfully from the Wrekin before. I operated from close to the trig point, as usual for me.

On this occasion, it proved to be deaf. No interference heard, and no opening of the squelch, but desensitised by the local transmitter site. I worked Mike G7HEM who put a spot for me (thank you), and then Steve G6UYG/M, followed by a struggle with M0JZH. Interestingly, they were all worked with my antenna almost horizontal. With hindsight, I was probably nulling out the interference, rather than peaking their signals.

After a while, I swapped over to the Wouxun KG-UV6D. A big improvement, the band came alive; a further five stations were quickly in the log.

So, no real surprises, but a) this confirms that the Wouxun is a better choice, and b) the RF clutter on the Wrekin might have increased in some way since I last operated with the Yaesu.

Just thought I’d mention it :smile:

Thanks to all who took the trouble to call me, and sorry if I didn’t hear you, the problem was at my end!

73
Adrian

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Thanks for that Adrian. I am planning to activate The Wrekin on Sunday evening enroute to Shrewsbury at the start of my Welsh Marches Tour. I have a VX-8 & VX-170 and was planning a 2m activation. May take HF as well just in case.

73 Glyn

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Hi Glyn, the Wrekin is well placed to qualify on 2m generally. Your FT817 with its rubber duck should be plenty good enough (VX-8 probably not good, I’m not familiar with the VX-170).
Sunday evening might not be the most active part of the day, depending on your definition of evening…
Its always nice to have HF as a fall-back, especially on a summit that you can’t easily pop back to!

I’ll try to monitor 145.500 anyway.

73
Adrian
G4AZS

Aiming to be on the summit for about 17:30 local time. Hoping to be in Harmer Hill by about 19:30. Hopefully will catch you on the air sometime over the 3 days I am in the area.

73 Glyn

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Adrian

Sorry I missed you, its on my doorstep that one too, I checked the alerts before I went out & it looked like being a quiet day, not to worry, hope to catch you again soon.

Glyn

I will do my best to be on air tomorrow afternoon & will certainly be around on Monday, I look forward to making a contact.

Cheers
Neil

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Look forward to hearing from you Neil over the next couple of days.

73 Glyn

Apologies to reactivate this old thread. But do you think the situation is still the same? I’m coming to Telford next week and plan an early evening midweek wander up The Wrekin, I’ve a vx7r, vx170, tyt-md380 to hand, will not have HF available on this trip, am I likely to make a few QSO’s to qualify?

Will give it a go anyway I think.

Cheers
M(M)0TAI
:grinning:

VX-170 should be “ok”. It normally copes elsewhere with bad scenarios like this one.

Yes, I think you should manage at least four contacts, especially if you put up an alert in advance. (I’ll watch out for it and call you if possible)
I have no reason to think the RF noise has improved, it is a very attractive commercial radio site…
Good luck!

Thanks chaps for the info. Yeah Andy my 170 seems fine at mount eagle transmitter site on 25khz spacing ie .500, .525, .550 etc, not so good on the 12.5’s at that site.

IMHO, the Wrekin is hard work for a single point. Certainly carrying all the gear I was, the second time I activated it. It’s a good VHF site and can easily be qualified on 2m.

Using an X-300 colinear, 15 feet of poles and an FT-857, I knocked off 84, 2m fm contacts.

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I agree. It’s not the nicest ascent and the summit is rather “meh…”.

Nah, give over. It’s certainly not Gun or Bishop Wilton Wold, but it’s nowhere near to the harder end of the G one pointers either.

I can understand Mike’s perception here, as he’s never done the likes of Kisdon, Dufton Pike, Lingmoor Fell etc, but I am astonished at that of a seasoned G completist like Richard.

Then again, the time and effort involved in summiting cannot be hugely different to that for Shining Tor or Bardon Hill, both regulars for you Mike?

The Wrekin is barely half-an-hour’s walk up a wide and tame tourist trail! I don’t get it’s fearsome reputation at all. Then again, respected activators like G3CWI, 2E0YYY and G1INK have all referred to it at some point, so I’m prepared to accept I might be in a minority!

As for VHF operation from the summit, I recently activated it on 2m FM with a handheld and rubber duck - easy, no problems at all.

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Short activation of The Wrekin earlier on this evening. Very busy, I’ve never seen so many folk on a summit before. Only a handful of qso’s as was with a non-amateur group but still a great time was had. 30 mins from car park to summit. Great views all round if a little hazy. No problems with interference on the VX170.

Cheers
Adrian
M(M)0TAI

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Hi Adrian - thanks for the QSO from the summit of the Wrekin today. I went up in the shower and it stopped raining when the radio came out which, as you remarked, is most unusual! I made 16 QSO’s on 2m FM sitting mear the trig point. 11 were on my Yaesu VX-7 with my home made bandpass filter. You can see it here on the BATC Wiki.. CQ-TV 250 is available here.
(£8pa PDF membership to be in the hobby’s cutting edge club BTW. The next most challenging achievement after SOTA mountain goat, I’ve found, is a DATV QSO!:+1:)
I had mostly good reports from around the region e.g. Manchester to Gloucestershire using a wire dipole in white pipes aerial. Like you I’ve activated the summit many times and have had this HT de-sensed and made deaf. I usually use the FT817ND which I did today for the last 5 contacts.
With all batteries gone flat after 45 minutes operating, I packed up to the sound of distant thunder and ran off the hill. The downpour was considerable and the yew tree by the (closed today) Halfway house Cafe is quite effective as shelter.
So my filter proved its worth but is awkward to hold together with the HT in one hand.
I’m in the Lake District walking with my Dad and my family this weekend so summit radio is likely for WOTA or HEMA.

73

David M0YDH

Hi David, yes, I’m glad I caught you and thanks for the QSO. I looked up the filter details - it certainly seems to do the job.

That is what concerned me, but if it makes the activation possible, then it is worth juggling!

Mmm, all those nice back issues to browse through - I trust you are not in the recruitment team… :wink:

73
Adrian
G4AZS