Hello All
As many people are aware I recently attempted to activate all the 13 summits of the SC region in about 5 days! I appreciate this is not setting any records but these activations were worked around visiting relatives, friends and of course having a holiday! Annoyingly due to WX I could only manage 11 but at least that gives me another excuse to visit the area in years to come.
After reading various people’s reports I was worried that 2m would not be very successful in the area so as a result I packed the 4m Slim Jim and plenty of batteries! I was determined not to use HF and thought that if I had to call for hours then so be it!
Anyway any doubts about these hills were soon removed, I found that the loyal set of 2m SSB chasers were always there producing excellent signals. This brief posting is mainly to thank them! So a big thank you to Don G0RQL, Roger G0TRB, Bill G4WSB, Rod M0JLA, Colin G4UXH, Phil G4OBK, Staurt G0LGS, John G3WFK, Damien M0BKV, Robert G0PEB, Alan G7RHF, David G2BOF and many others… The list is far to long, but the above people contacted me on most of the hills!
Best DX of the trip was from Swyre Head SC-012 IO80WO to Phil G4OBK in IO94OF, a total distance of 413 KM, not bad for a 4 ele beam and 5 watts!
Of course the biggest thanks of the trip go to Peter G3TJE. For those if you that don’t know Peter and I belong to the same contest group and have spoken on air many times but have not met! So when he said he was around on Wednesday to accompany me up the hills in the Quantocks and Minehead area I was delighted to have a guide! Peter chose a combination of 40m CW and 60m SSB, whilst I stuck to the usual combination of 2m SSB and 4m FM!
This was the first time that I have seen a CW activation and can honestly say that when it is sent at 24 wpm it is very impressive! In addition, I watched Peter on his first CQ call on 7.032 and the noise of gobbling turkeys was outstanding. It truly shows how SOTA and of course CW on SOTA has grown. At present I am to busy to learn the code but would at some point like to, so yes I am a convert!
Once again Peter many thanks for your excellent company, I look forward to heading up some WB or MW summits with you!
Summing up then
1 CE summit
11 SC summits
1 SW summit
and
3 WB summits.
All on 2m SSB, some on 4m FM!
Total Contacts by mode =
2m SSB = 145
4m FM = 22
70cm SSB = 3
Total points = 17!! I could have just gone to SW and done 3 hills!!
Now the fun of logging all those!
So it would appear that if you want to do these hills on 2m then sack the FM off and take advantage of directional antennas and 2m SSB!!!
73 all
Matt G8XYJ