GX0OOO Campover on G/NP-010

G6WRW good contact HNY Carolyn :slight_smile:

Keep trying karl, you need patience on Top band.

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HNY Mark, not sure what happened but John suddenly went into the noise

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I Am Listening Mark but think I am to close Geoff G6MZx

Italian now on freq, will try again after 00:30hrs

karl

Hi Carolyn,

Yours was a good contact both ways with John. He dropped in strength to me as well (only 28KM away).

I asked john to check his amp & VSWR & it does appear he has a VSWR problem indicating that one of his inductors may have fallen from his coils in the wind & rain. He is currently doing some tests but would rather not go outside in the wet & windy conditions as that may soak everything inside his tent.

I will keep you posted.

Latest, VSWR problem with his antenna - John will be trying 1985 Khz LSB shortly

Check your power limit on this frequency

73 es HNY mark G0VOF

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"It should also be noted that the maximum power on 160 m is reduced to 32 watts at frequencies above 1850kHz."
Found this on the RSGB site am ok only running 10 LOL.

karl

John has just said he will be on this frequency 1985.0 at 00:30 cw then ssb

Hi karl,

Correct, in the UK:
Foundation 10W
Intermediate 32W
Full / Advanced 32W

Thanks all,

After closing on 1985KHz John will be back on 1985KHz CW / SSB at 0030z

Until then he will be on 145MHz FM.

73 es HNY all.

Mark G0VOF

Geoff G6MZX,

Didn’t notice your post above but heard you working John just now on 2m

Glad to hear you on the air again & Very best HNY to you & Joan. Hope you get things sorted :slight_smile:

Best 73, Mark G0VOF

John was active on 1.985 CW/SSB just after 0700 on the 1st, but no copy at my QTH due to S5 background noise on that part of the band. John reported two to three inches of snow (by text).

He moved to 3.557 CW around 0730 but no copy here until 0745 when he was briefly audible and we exchanged reports , 229 from me, 559 from John. Moved to 3726 SSB at 0700, just becoming daylight. One of his top band coils had become detached in the wind and snow/rain.

Roy G4SSH

John packed up and leaving site at 0945. Tramping through snow.
Thanks and a Happy New Year to all - G4SSH

I’m pleased to say that I contacted John Twice on Top Band SSB, the second time being after midnight. Thanks, John, a terrific end and start to the year!

For those who think a 260-foot long dipole is essential for working Top Band, my antenna is a temporary 20-metre long wire fed via a 9:1 unun at a height of 8 metres. I hope to replace it with an 80 metres OCF dipole in the spring.

Brian

Happy new year all, and many thanks to John for his inspiring effort!

I managed two contacts with him on 160m, CW on 31st around 1800 hours and SSB around 0030 on 1st. I could hear him at 1000 on 31st, but too much QSB and traffic to call in with confidence.

First contact was using the bunched feeders of my low slung (7m centre) OCF doublet fed against ground, no ATU available, terrible SWR.

For the second contact, I could hardly hear John on CW using the bunched feeder, so I lashed up an ATU with crock clip leads, tapped coil and variable capacitor from the junk box, and used the doublet as a doublet! It is approx 120 feet of wire, but sloping, and not in a straight line.
By now he had moved to SSB, and we managed to exchange 22 / 31.

Very unexpected, and as Brian says, it is surprising what you can get away with on 160. Resolution to self - pay a bit more attention to 160m in 2017 :thumbsup:

Thanks also to Roy and Mark for the heads up, and info along the way.

73
Adrian
G4AZS

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TO ALL:
Many thanks to all contributors on here and to Roy, who posted the schedule only after I SMS’d him to say the tent was up & also to Mark for their support and teamwork. This was all essential to success and I would have really struggled on my own.

Planning this tentatively then meticulously for a month or two now, I have fretted about the lack of a good forecast for the best part of a week and I was never fully confident about proceeding with something of a calculated risk. In the years that SOTA has existed I have only had the confidence to do HNY from a summit twice before. The WX or a chronic chest infection, have always led to last minute cancellations. This time the BBC and MWIS forecasters got it more or less right but small effects outside their predictions could have had a large impact on comfort if not safety. The north-south dry stone wall was critical to this. Without that, I would not have even considered it.

Apologies to those who tried and failed, especially Karl. I like to specialise on 80 and particularly 160 but these are not to everyone’s taste or ability. That said I was really impressed how stations managed 160m QSO’s with the strangest of lashups, some apparently at very short notice! 160m was not propagating as far as on the 15th December from NP18 but it did produce some overseas contacts which is satisfying.

The spur of the moment decision to try 20m, because I ended up with some spare time, turned out to be a good one. As well as UK and EU, I was fortunate enough to work a handful of USA and Canadian stations.

I must thank Chris M0PXP (worked on 2m-FM on NY Eve - 4 miles distant) and his friend who are in the habit of climbing NP10 every New Year’s day, pre-dawn to watch the sun rise. There was certainly no sunrise to be observed today, just driving snow but they did me a great favour by removing the 160m loading coils in darkness for QSY to 80m. It meant that I didn’t need to dress up for a brief outing and then put snow in the (mainly) dry tent. Chris also confirmed that one loading coil had detached at one end only. That had allowed operation on 1.985 instead of 1.832 when it happened the night before. It was a solution which avoided going out in heavy, wind driven rain, darkness and fog to sort the problem. Needless to say these willing helpers descended soon afterwards and I can confirm that no sun appeared though it did stop snowing with daylight.

18 hours prone in the small tent with an airbed which burst in the first hour, added to constant noise caused by the WX outside, put paid to any real sleep. I retired at 2am and was awake again at 3am. As a result the descent on icy paths was slow and now the whole experience seems more like a dream.

Thanks again to all involved including of course the chasers who have to fight with noise while an activator can almost hear a pin drop on the frequency. Thank you for your kind comments on the air, your warmth and friendliness. It makes all the difference.

73 and best wishes to all for 2017.
Let’s hope it’ll turn out a good 'un.
THANKS ALSO TO THE SOTA MT, who without any payment, made it all possible for yet another year.

John G4YSS using SSEG Club station GX0OOO/P.
HNY

Full Report:

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HNY all and thanks for your brilliant efforts on the night out John.Great to work you on the same summit 2016/2017.Thanks for the top band on Sat eve and if I got the cw going again which I dropped we may have made top band on New Years morning.
Look forward to the next time and hopefully better conditions for you. 73 Don G0RQL.

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Except if your on 1933 the rules change :wink:

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Hi John,

Thanks again for braving the cold & wet for another year-end rollover activation on Top Band. It was wonderful to hear so many chasers working you or trying to work you, it is not easy for most of us with limited space & high noise levels so well done all who tried.

My noise levels on 160m have definitely reduced, although they have increased on other bands so it was nice to be able to hear many of the chasers working you.

Sorry I missed you for the morning session, I’m afraid I overslept & then had to go out so I hope you got enough contacts to make it worthwhile. It does look a little cold from the photo of your tent!

At least your descent was uneventful this time!

I look forward to your report :slight_smile:

Thanks & best 73,

Mark G0VOF

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