Lakes assault

Ok. I’m heading to the lake District tomorrow and I’m based around Buttermere. I am planning to activate summits >= 6 points and except for the eu-na s2s event I will try to activate on 2m SSb and 70cm FM. With 2m FM as backup. The summits currently in my list of possibles are Robinson, dalehead, grasmoor and grisedale pike.
I hope to catch you on the bands. I’ll alert something tomorrow.

I’ve just checked my guy system for my HF and it’s still the quick cheap crappy fit solution I made ages ago. It goes too far up the pole and the guys are spare pieces of cord in different lengths. I can’t put it up on my own. So. . Are there any hills in the lakes other than Robinson as I activated that this afternoon that has a fencepost or similar to attach my pole to? Preferably 6 points or more but not bothered now. It’s for the eu-na s2s event tomorrow.

I seem to remember that Grisedale Pike has several old metal posts around the summit possibly about 3’ high.

Hi Anthony,

I’m not sure of your exact antenna / guy design but a simple way to erect a HF dipole on your own where the guys attach near the top of the pole is:

  1. Peg the ends of the two dipole legs, leaving some slack in the wire, with the pole flat on the ground in the centre.

  2. “Walk” your pole into a near vertical position whilst holding the third guy line & feeder against the pole. This should pull the dipole legs fairly taut.

  3. Walk away from the pole with the third guy line making sure you keep the dipole legs taut & the pole should remain almost vertical.

  4. Peg the third guy line to maintain a stable arrangement, connect the feeder to your radio & away you go!

This 3-leg arrangement is what I used with my 160m dipole so it should work easier with with smaller HF antennas. The video below shows this antenna in the final stages of being set up to give you an idea of what I refer to. I seem to remember a good video Richard G3CWI posted showing a similar set up for an end fed half wave.

Best of luck with the activations!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGQ4s3Y8JH0

73, Mark G0VOF

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Thanks. I use resonant end fed for 20m which is around 10m long and a 10m pole. The stupid fit guys I need to bin and make some more fix about 10ft up the pole. I think I’ll head for grisedale. It appears to have metal posts from a picture and annacdotes say.

Lord’s Seat might be a good one, but not so many points on offer. Grisedale Pike does have a set of metal posts, but not much to provide shelter up there. You could do that on the morning and go and bag the shelter on Grasmoor in the afternoon. :wink:

4 foot metal post on Dale Head

http://gw4vpx.blogspot.co.uk/2016/04/gld-020-dale-head.html

73 Allan GW4VPX

That will draw most of your energy up for the day, tis a big’un !

Hence why we “walked” back to the car on the bus… :wink: it does make a nice pairing with Grasmoor and the walk between them was most enjoyable. We even got a visual bonus as we waited for the bus – a red squirrel was sitting in the road nearby. :grinning:

I attempted grisedale pike from braithwaite. Me plus around 6 other walkers all walking up the similar time as me turned around about 500m distance from the top. It was in the cloud blowing a gale and once it got hard to stand up on the ridge I turned around with 2 others.
Got back to bunkhouse got changed into dry clothes off to Keswick for fish n chips. Low and behold it’s like a bleeding summer’s day here now. Clouds lifted blue sky!!!
Tut tut.
Might head to a low pointer on way home across a66 tomorrow.

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Tomorrow I’m planning on a quick easy summit early on before a drive home. Maybe around 8:30gmt?
So I’m going to do little mell fell and depending on time great mell fell. One question though, after reading Tom’s encyclopedia website of summit reports, he doesn’t mention where he parked for great mell fell. Anyone enlighten me?

Gate at NY407245 with a bit of a pull off area. Space for a few cars at most. It’s dead easy ISTR but took much longer than I expected because I didn’t check the map properly before I left!

I was thinking of somewhere along there would be good to park.

Well the trip was a success of sorts, a bit more of the lakes assaulted me than the other way round but enjoyable still. I’ll do activation report later when I have time.

Very nice! Thanks for the video!