G4YSS: First Activation Report - GM/NS-089, 14-09-13.
BEN GRIAM MOR - GM/NS-089 - 2 points. FIRST ACTIVATION for SOTA. 97 QSO’s.
GM4YSS/P and SSEG Clubcall GS0OOO/P. HF/ VHF QRO on 80-60-40-30-20 and 2-FM.
All times: BST (UTC plus 1hr UOS as z).
Fourth SOTA in the series GM/NS-082; NS-107; NS-071 & NS-089 from Dornoch Hotel Sep-13.
(See other reports).
EQUIPMENT:
ICOM IC706-2G - HF & VHF QRO with CW key in mic.
Link dipole for 80m thru 20m on a 5m CFC mast with 1m end sticks.
Home-Brew tuneable loading coils for 160m.
Vertical J-Pole for 2m FM.
2 x 6Ah & 1 x 4.3Ah Li-Po’s for IC706.
IC-E90 4-Band FM, 5W H/H with 7.4V /1.3 Ah Li-Ion detachable battery. (Reserve - not used)
QRO pack: 13kg (28.7 pounds) including 0.5 litre drinks, food, Primaloft jacket & umbrella.
INTRODUCTION:
This expedition was the fourth during a 7-night self-drive/ four SOTA holiday at the Dornoch Hotel from 9th to 17th of September 2013. (SOTAs worked in chronological order and separately reported: Ben Dhorian NS82; Ben Horn NS107; Carn a Choin Deirg NS71 and Ben Griam Mor NS89.)
Unlike the previous activation (NS71) I have had my eye on these twin hills for a few years. Ben Griam Mor GM/NS-089 and Ben Griam Beg GM/NS-091 are in the far north of Scotland and though not particularly high, stick up obtrusively from a wide area of comparitively low lying land. Initially, the plan was to activate these as a pair and it didn’t look difficult until I really got into investigating and making routes for them. After that, activatiing both of them in one trip wasn’t quite so obvious.
For one thing the drive from our base for the week; The Dornoch Hotel would take around 80 minutes each way. Secondly, none of the websites I’d used to gather information mentioned much in the way of paths. Bashing across rough ground for extended distances had been a feature of the previous day’s activation of NS71 and the terrain surrounding the Griams seemed similar to what I’d already experienced.
Basically it boiled down to simple choices and two options. 1) Do I want to walk almost 10 miles over trackless wastes for the fourth day running and take QRP for two rushed activations after rising at 4am? OR 2) Would it be preferable to have breakfast with my XYL, breeze up and down NS89 on a 2 x 3km walk and ‘give it the works’ with four hours of QRO!? At this point in time, the choice was not that difficult to make. NS91 could wait for another day.
The start point seemed obvious from the map and the internet confirmed it as the point where a track takes off from the road, roughly 2km SW of the hill. The afternoon of 12th of September had been wet so I had taken the opportunity to drive 100 miles putting WAB squares on 7.160 SSB and at the same time, checking out the start points for NS14 and NS89. On these roads, this drive took well over three hours.
The track, which goes north as far as a boat house on the shore Loch Coire nam Mang, looked more grassy than gravelly but despite it going at a tangent it could still be useful for gaining height before taking on the rough ground between it and the summit. One snag was that the road was too narrow to park a car but I did find a convenient off road area at NC 7868 3779. This was being used to store road gravel but it could also take up to three cars if parked at 90 degrees to the road.
EXECUTION:
The drive via Helmsdale took from 09:00 to 10:20 and a phone call to Roy G4SSH enabled him to pre-announce my intentions once again. The satnav was acting silly for the second day running. It wanted to take me via Rogart, Lairg and Altnaharra and only gave up this nonesense at a point west of Helmsdale. The rucksack first needed repacking; QRP out - QRO in. Today there were no midges to interfere with this process and at this stage, the sun was shining.
ROUTE UP:
I was underway by 10:43, initially walking the 70m or so from the parking place at NC 78683 37787 described above, turning right onto the track at NC 7864 3785. Walking the track was easy as far as NC 78914 38796, which is roughly at the 240m contour. Leaving the track behind I turned right to take a 1km bee-line for the spur which sticks out from the hill in a WNW direction; hitting it at NC 79955 39043. On the way across the rough ground with fairly short vegetation, I found only short traces of paths or were they just the effects of water flow? It wasn’t too wet but this at the end of a good summer.
Once onto the hill itself, the character changed dramatically to firm ground with gravelly areas which resemble paths. On the steeper sections I did find a path of sorts which zig-zagged upwards but navigation was easy via NC 80132 38983; NC 80322 38932 and NC 80456 38921 to the large combined summit cairn and shelter at NC 80662 38929. The ascent had taken 65 minutes. The shelter is substantial, at least 2 metres tall and designed to protect from westerly winds. The summit is clothed with grass and low alpine plants, the surroundings strewn with rocks which are mainly brittle sandstone.
Seconds after arriving, a glance at the western sky signified a delay and the shelter became a welcome refuge from quite a heavy downpour. As an afterthought I had tied a large umbrella to the rucksack. Cowering under this while seated on a flat rock, I had little choice but to wait out the weather but the rain only abated after 25 minutes or so. There was barely sufficient time to get the HF dipole erected before the next shower came along.
BEN GRIAM MOR - GM/NS-089, 590m, 2 pts, 11:48 to 16:27. Wind 20 mph. Temp 7 deg C. Overcast/ sunshine/ showers at first. No low-cloud. No midges. Reliable EE (Orange) Mobile phone coverage. Hazy views. No previous SOTA activations. LOC: IO78XH, WAB: NC83.
7.032/ 7.033 CW - 38 QSO`s:
Just as the day before, the first three in the log were G4SSH, G0NUP and G4OOE. After these the rest were getting restless. The pileup was a big one. This was Saturday and I am not accustomed to weekend SOTA’ing. The many calls welded into a single note 10 seconds long from which I could read absolutely nothing. Eventually picking out DL8DXL the work started and 38 stations were logged in 50 minutes. There were two consecutive S2S’s. HB9DST/P Paul on HB/VS-112 and HB9BCB/P Heinz on HB/BE-108.
Entities worked were: G; DL; HB9; F; PA; OK; HA; ON and OM. Twelve stations were in the UK, the remainder in Europe. A QSY “1 UP” was required in the middle to clear another SOTA operation closeby which I thought I may have been causing QRM to. Roy overheard this, posting the QSY to 7.033. Most callers other than the two S2S’s and a few of the more distant Europeans, were 599 to me. Incoming reports of my 60 Watt signal ranged from 579 to 599 with a handful down at 449 etc.
One QSO was really difficult but fortunately this was near the end, by which time all the ‘big boys’ had been worked. OM1AX was a miniscule signal to me and the 229 report I gave him was somewhat generous. However, I eventually heard a report back from him and into the log went Vlado. I don’t know what was wrong but it sounded like he’d switched to the dummy load. He wasn’t that weak the day before.
7.163 SSB - 16 QSO`s:
I phoned Roy for a spot on 7.163 which was the only clear spot I could find. Had it not been for good phone coverage nobody would have found me up there. As it was, David M3XIE was there within a few seconds with a ‘59’ both ways.
From the 16 worked, 12 were UK stations including G6TUH; MM0USU; G0TDM; M0MDA; G0VWP; MW3PZO; GIOHH (Sue) G0VOF; GM4WHA; GOELJ and G4SSH. The closest station was Andy in Falkirk (USU) which proved the short skip conditions. Andy gave me a respectable 56.
The only S2S was with EC2AG/P Antonio on EA2/SS-017. This was as difficult an S2S as I can remember having but after several tries we eventually exchanged reports of 22/44, though the process took more than 5 minutes. Power was mostly 60 Watts with full power for the tricky ones.
10.122 CW – 18 QSO`s:
Once again with the dipole configured as a half-wave for 30m with the coax feed 1/3 from one end, I worked 18 stations as follows: G4SSH; F6ENO (Alian); G0VOF; YO2BP; DL5DKG; F5UBH/P; G0NUP; OK1DVM; G0NES; HA5MA; M6BLV; PA0WLB; PB3SM; DL7JSM; DL2LFH/P; GM4COX/P; EA2DT and G4OOE. Reports were mostly 599 outgoing whilst receiving on average 579.
The exception was GM4COX/P (229/339); too close for this band but I later discovered that Jack was on GM/SS-251 and therefore a 10 MHz S2S. I had initially logged the call as GM4KOX/P but should have put two and two together and realised the ‘K’ was actually a ‘C.’ Fast receding grey cells prevented this! The session took 23 minutes from 13:02z and 60 Watts was the power.
14.052.6 CW – 10 QSO`s:
Stations as follows: OM7OM; F6ENO; N4EX; OM1AX; VE2JCW; DL4TO; EA2DT; UY7IC; K3EL and OK1AZD. All these were strong to me. Reporting of my 60 Watt signal was mostly 579 to 599 with one 449. The dipole I was using does not cover bands above 14 MHz; so it was now down to 80m.
3.557 CW – 6 QSO:
The day before I had put this band on with QRP ‘more in hope than expectation’ but today I had 100 Watts available. I phoned Roy for a spot and called him on the band. As before his incoming signal was 589 over the 300 mile path from Scarborough which indicated that we could expect the same propagation conditions again today. Yesterday there was only Roy but would more chasers hear today’s more powerful signal despite the fact that I was 50km further north?
It didn’t take long to find out and I was pleased to work G0NUP Kevin in Scarborough; G3RMD Frank in Cheltenham; GM0AXY Ken in Edinburgh; G0VOF Mark in Blackburn and G4OOE Nick the third Scarborough station. Reports were mostly good or very good apart from a couple of readabilities below 5. Full power was used for these QSO’s.
3.724 SSB – 2 QSO`s:
Still with 100 Watts selected, I worked G4SSH and G4JZF Graham in Birmingham.
1.832 CW & 1.843 SSB - nil QSO’s:
After another spot by Roy, I called CQ on these two frequencies intermittently over a period of about 20 minutes from 14:15z but without result. This was nothing more or less than expected; I was way too far north to get QSO’s via SOTAwatch. The only way would have been to pre-arrange QSO’s using 2m-FM but there was little time left for that. Nevertheless, I set up the 2m aerial but left the dipole and it’s 160m loading coils in place for the 2m session, just in case.
145.400 FM - 1 QSO:
After unanswered CQ’s on S20 and S23, I hit the mother lode and heard no less a player than Robin GM7PKT/P, just finishing a QSO with a chaser on S16. Robin came straight back to my call with a 56 report. Working conditions were 50 Watts to my vertical half-wave and 5 Watts to the back of Robin’s beam. The antenna was mounted on a mast which was rammed into the top of the shelter. What could have been a more fitting QSO than to briefly join this celebration of 6,000 chaser points which had apparently occurred minutes before. Robin had chosen GM/CS-003 to do it - a hill 120km to the south of Ben Griam Mor.
There were more CQ’s on 145.500 and 145.575 but nothing further ensued. This resulted in little time and battery power left, with the chances of arranging anything for Top Band now dropping to zero. What could I usefully do now?
5.371.5 USB (FL) – 6 QSO`s:
Surely there must be one or two still desperate to work this one? I went through the available options and came up with a long lost friend - 60m. FE was occupied and I tried once to break in without success. A phone call to Roy soon had me posted on channel FL and Geoff GM4WHA came back to my first CQ to exchange 59 reports. Within two minutes I had Frank G3RMD in the log with a 57/55 exchange.
LA8BCA, Terje called in next. Good to tell how long it’s been since I was on 60; I didn’t even realise Norway had 60m. Our QSO was almost complete when the rig cut off. The two 6Ah Li-Po’s had finally given up. Luckily I had slipped a 4.3 into the rucksack side pocket just prior to setting off. Two minutes later I was back apologising to a bemused Terje who had taken my disappearance as ‘sudden and deep QSB.’ The last three stations worked were: Terry G0VWP; George GI4SRQ and Mick M0MDA in Leeds. No more callers, no more bands and no more time.
Descent:
Apart from wandering off track to take photos on the way down, this was a simple retrace and I was back to the car in 45 minutes arriving at 17:12.
ASCENT & DISTANCE:
423m (1,388ft) ascent / 6.4 km (4 miles).
CHRONOLOGY:
Left Dornoch Hotel: 09:00 (via A9 & Helmsdale)
Parked car: 10:20
Walk started: 10:43
GM/NS-089: 11:48 to 16:27
Returned to Car: 17:12
Drive: 17:20
Back at Dornoch: 18:30 (Cut thro’ Glenloth to A9)
Walking times: 65 min up / 45 min down. Total: 1hr-50 min.
Summit time: 4hr-39 min.
Time Car to Car: 6hr-24 min.
Gross time Hotel to Hotel: 9hr-30 min.
QSO`s
6 on 80m CW
2 on 80m SSB
6 on 60m USB
38 on 40m CW
16 on 40m SSB
18 on 30m CW
10 on 20m CW
1 on 2m FM
Total: 97 (QRO)
Battery utilisation: 12.5 Ah.
COMMENTS:
The second unactivated SOTA of the week was much easier than the first (NS71) from the walking viewpoint. It was also more successful with almost twice the QSO’s, an extra frequency band and more summit time. There were two reasons for the greater success; one was because it was done on a weekend and the other was the difference between 5 Watts and having up to 100W available. True, that’s only two and a bit '‘S’ Points but when someone is barely hearing you it makes all the difference.
I intended to use one of this week’s activations to try out a new 50W HF amplifier which I have recently bought from Amazon. I bench tested it in preparation but leaving a coax interconnect lead at home made this impossible.
A route of sorts was GPS marked but to be honest, you could do this one without much in the way of navigational aids so long as you could see it there in front of you, which was the case today. Yes, there is rough ground to cross with no path to follow but it’s only the kilometre or so between the track at the 240m ASL point and the western shoulder of the hill. This section is not particularly boggy or particularly uneven and the vegetation is not overly impeding.
Notwithstanding the above, adding neighbouring NS91 to today’s sortie would increase the work three or four fold. I had the necessary routes in my GPS for NS91 but I have no regrets about not tagging it on today as I could not have done such a thorough job on either summit and would have been limited to two short QRP operations.
As had been the case all week propagation on 40m, which was carrying the majority of SOTA traffic, was good for both inter-G and European chasers, though the G’s were always stronger. 30m was true to its reputation of getting in the chasers who are just too far away for 40 but there was actually short skip on 30 too. 20m gave the USA an opportunity with a bonus VE contact. 60m was a last minute idea which brought in the final half dozen chasers and the QSO with Robin GM7PKT/P on 2m-FM, while celebrating his ‘6k activator’ was special.
80m did better with QRO than with the single QRP contact of the day before. It seems to be almost dismissed by SOTA activators but eight QSO’s to the very far north of Scotland demonstrates that it can be worth a try.
For the third time in the week, 100 Watts to a low/ loaded dipole on 160 failed to deliver a single QSO. To reiterate, I think it’s best to arrange skeds in advance or locally on 2m-FM just prior to operating.
The weather was less than perfect for the first part of the activation but the combination of a great summit shelter and a large umbrella minimised the effects of two periods of driving rain. The views were good and there were no midges either at the car and certainly not on the summit, due to the wind.
For the fourth time Roy’s spotting had a major influence on the enhanced QSO count. He was there on the phone for QSY’s every time but that aside, he has the ability to guess my intentions with a fair degree of success and fill in missing information from experience, should the phone link fail.
THANKS to:
ALL STATIONS worked. Hope you were able to get a QSO but apologies if you didn’t. To G4SSH and G0VOF for spots. Once again, special thanks to Roy G4SSH for his invaluable telephone liaison/ spotting Service and Denise for the use of her car. One more day was left of the holiday but thankfully, it was a rainy one!
73, John G4YSS
Using GM4YSS/P and Scarborough Special Events Group Club call - GS0OOO/P.
Note-1: GM4YSS/P will be used in the database.
Note-2: This is the second of a series of four reports in non-chrono order. NS82 and NS107 will follow.
Note-3: Total miles driven (8 days): 1,262 at 48.4 mpg (Citreon C4 Picasso Diesel.)
Note-4: A ‘marathon’ 406 mile WAB mobile run took place on 16-09-13. Most grid squares between Dornoch and Scarborough were activated on 7.160 SSB using the IC706-2G to a mag-mount and home-brew loaded whip.
Looking back at my log I think I can say that I was very pleased to work you although judging by my writing I think I had probably had a few beers by the time you got to 80m Hi!