The walk on G/SC-013 today was lovely. Beautiful weather…
Radio!!!
70cm nothing heard
2m nothing heard
17m no contacts
20m a zoo! Scraped 3 contacts (all contestors who gave me 59, so my 10W must have been working 
)
40m the zoo’s annex. 1 contest contact
60m no contacts.
Days like this on SOTA, thank goodness for the walking bit!
Know what you mean.
Nine Barrow Down isn’t really a V/UHF summit, it’s a bit too isolated. Usually 60m is the saviour in cases like that when there is a major contest on but today was “Exercise Blue Ham” and quite a few of the 60m segments were busy with cadet stations.
It’s on days like this that a bit of CW comes in handy, even my faltering 10wpm on 30m seems pretty reliable for securing an activation.
73, Colin G8TMV
I didn’t hear any of the cadets… must have chosen the right time for just SOTA chasers. You are spot on about having some CW Colin. Mine is anything but decent (about 18-20wpm for SOTA QSOs only, cannot ragchew) but it can certainly pull in he contacts. Even your 10 wpm is fine. Any sensible chaser will drop their speed to match you. Those that don’t, well you ignore them.
60m SSB G, GM, GI
40m CW PA, HB9, OK, G (long skip)
30m CW DL, EA2, HB9, LA, SM, OK
20m CW N, YO, EU, F, HA, LY, OM
Nothing was spectacular DX but every contact was very welcome. Considering how abysmal the bands have been I was pleasantly surprised to set up on 20m CW and work N4EX, KA1R & N4DA one after the other as the first three 20m QSOs.
All 5W into inv-V dipole 60/40/30 and Buddistick clone for 20m
Best optical DX, Skiddaw G/LD-004 at 90kms complete with snow covering.
Yes heard several American stations on 17m also the cadets on 60m. The common denominator yesterday seemed to be running a LOT more power than my 10W. I even tried calling into the GB2RS news group on 60, without success. Got all excited when I heard J*** (Japan?), until I discovered it was a Greek contest station 
Best DX Morocco. Had more “QSOs” with walkers, cyclists and horse riders than amateurs.
Still working on the morse. It’s probably as much about confidence as technique (not an invitation to start a debate on one of the most popular subjects on this reflector )
Grabbing another activation on Tuesday on my way back from work. Fingers crossed
I worked several of the cadet stations from home, as we are allowed to within the licenced “bandlets”.
Wondering whether they would count as valid contacts for an activation, I searched the Reflector, and the consensus seems to be that they do, which could be useful in similar circumstances…
73
Adrian
G4AZS
As an aside, Andy, did you stumble across the trig point at all? According to trigpointingUK, it was removed from it true position by a disgruntled farmer and dumped some 500m away. The last visitor was unable to find any trace of it.
SS-139? No, it’s about 10m from the house sized cairn. One end of my dipole was right by it. I have a picture but not on this PC at work.
To be honest I didn’t look this time Dave. I set up at the side of the highest point of the public footpath (behind a convenient gorse bush to provide a wind break SZ007811). I seem to recall that last time I was there the trig was ‘dumped’ about 008811. There’s a big metal bowser in the field close to where the trig should be!
Wrong Andy I suspect
Oh noes!!!1!!!1 Andy confusion… my head it asplodes! 
Sorry about the confusion! Directed at G/SC-013 type Andy!
Could be worse - we could be VK SOTAists 
and then how would we know which Andy/Andrew was being referred to?
I think all our VK colleagues are Andrew and not Andy, very posh and proper!
My mother was the only person to regularly call me Andrew.
Many of us probably experience some degree of Dissociative Identity Disorder. I am Andrew to my ‘birth’ family and Andy to every one else (well except when I upset them!). It can get confusing. I have also found that many Andys become Andrews as they become more important (self-defined).
Anyway- slightly OT. Back to work 
Probably when you were doing something wrong… e.g. “Language Andrew !” 
I was always a militant Andrew, because one of my friends was Andy, and the confusion use to annoy us as teenagers. If anything, I’ve become more tolerant in my later years!
Andy as a name always reminds me of the film Battle of Britain: “Look out, Andy!”, just before the poor guy gets shot down by a Messerschmitt (IIRC he survives and says something like “All I got was a mouthful of English Channel” or something suitably stiff-upper-lip)
One thing we Poms have developed is a tongue in cheek attitude to being shot down in flames! Apologies to the many Andrews who don’t fit my glib suggested lifecycle of nomenclature. (Dons Andrew hat to go and ring home)
The slang term for the Royal Navy is “The Andrew”
Updated from G/SB-006 today.
Another beautiful day and fantastic scenery!
The HF bands were awful, no light at the end of this tunnel that I could see today (to mis-quote another thread). My final spot after over 40 minutes produced some regular chasers to save the day. THANK YOU all!
Having finally got my 4 contacts, I confess I was on the verge of packing up when I heard a very faint HB9DHA. I had to switch the preamp in to get him, and then I really was ready to go!
As I suggested on another thread I did listen for you Andy - and heard almost nothing except faint background noises and a 45 signal from DJ5AV just breaking through my noise and working you on 7.165. At least it was a grand day for a walk.
73,
Rod
