It’s that time of year again - when Gerald G4OIG and I get let out to play Big SOTA
Theme for this year is “How many can you cram in”. We have based ourselves in Perth for a week from 31st May to 6th June with the aim of activating as many of the “easy” Summits thereabouts as possible in the time available.
Following the success of the flexible approach pioneered last year, we have a long list of possible targets planned but will confirm which summits for the next day and timings by placing alerts as early as possible the previous evening, allowing us to tailor what we tackle to the weather, our perceived fitness levels, and our inclination.
First day, when we travel up, is pretty well set in stone (traffic an weather permitting) and I have alerted for this.
For the other days, as a rule of thumb, first summit of the day will be early - 0700z or earlier, with a further one approx. mid-day (1100z - ish) and another mid-afternoon (1400z - 1500z) but please watch the alerts for local variations - there may be a fourth on one or more days.
My MO will be my “standard” - start on 60m ssb (subject to phone coverage) then onto 40m ssb, with a try on 80m if time/conditions allow. Gerald will major on 30m CW, with higher bands possible (20m, 17m ssb/cw) depending on time and conditions. Watch this thread and/or alerts for further updates…
As speed is the key on this expedition, we’d appreciate keeping the pace of contacts up and I’ll apologise in advance if the QSO’s are more rubber stamp than chatty.
Many of the summits have trig points, and wherever possible we will operate from near them for the WAB’ers.
Hope that makes our intentions clear enough and we look forward to working many of you next week
Space for dipoles on Knock Of Crief is very limited unless you run the antenna along the track… watch out for mountain bikes moving at speed! The summit is in really dense forest. Geraldo may struggle with 2m from here due the tree density at the summit, expect significant attenuation from the foliage ISTR zero/zilch/nada/rien phone signal in the trees too. T
That aside they (Torlum & Knock of Crieff) are both splendid wee summits.
Good to see you both heading to GM land again. And ABW my current work commitments should be completed by the end of this week so next week should be pretty clear for a ‘Chase’ or two or even a S2S if I get a chance.
And remember if there are any summits in your itinerary that I have Activated I should have the Trackback data and associated pics - if of any use?
Hi Paul,
I also will be venturing north next week . I plan on activating the following GM/WS’s in the Loch Alsh area:
Mon, 326 16:00gmt
Tue, 289 13:00gmt and 318 17:00gmt (14 hr day)
Wed, 264 11:00gmt and 307 16:00gmt
Thur, 260 11:00gmt
All wx and old knees dependent. Spots on Sota Watch.
Operating 60m ssb, 40m cw and ssb, 20m cw and ssb, and a bit of 2m fm.
If the weather is OK one day next week I will also be heading to Scotland for a one day solo trip to activate 3 summits north of Langholm. These will be Wisp HIll SS-118 (1015z), Pikethaw Hill SS-136 (1200z) Ellson Fell (1530z) - times approx. I will go either Monday, Tuesday or Thursday whichever day looks like it will have best weather on Sunday nights BBC Countryfile forecast. I will alert the night before. 30m/20m/17m and 10m/6m only if sporadic E is prevalent on the day when I listen on the main antenna I will be using, then I’ll change it over if I hear good sigs on 10m. 5 watts CW/SSB in use.
Will Moncreiffe Hill (SS-276) on your plans? It’s a long shot, but if you activate it first around 0800, there might be a path back to VK and I’d have a shot at a SOTA Complete
Good luck with it all, and I will listen out, but appreciate speed being of the essence will preclude hanging around for a selfish Aussie!
Yes, the wet stuff is programmed to hit the M6 corridor and GM just right for our outing. At the moment they are saying the weather will improve during the week, so it looks like you might be out on Thursday. I’d still pack the waterproof log sheets though… and maybe the waders.
Your request is duly noted Andrew. I will discuss with Paul and see how it sits with our overall plans. It is definitely to be activated, but in view of the weather forecast, at the moment we are keeping the itineraries fluid… for want of a better expression!
Heh, understood. I activated the thing with mist surrounding me and the M90 audible but completely invisible. Best weather we had while we were in Scotland
Sounds reasonable for the WX. It was like that when I did it a few years back.
It’s a grand late Spring day today. Currently the sky is the brightest blue and the clouds the fluffiest pure white. We’ve had a few torrential showers around lunchtime and some snow and sleet earlier at 1030am.
Still when you are further North than Moscow on the edge of the North Atlantic Ocean then this what the WX is like, mainly awful!
I’d be more than happy to try for some VK contacts from Moncreiffe or any of our other “early morning” summits if the sky is playing ball, we’ll bear that in mind when planning but ultimately it will all be down to the weather…
Paul/Gerald, hope you both have a good trip but as usual I’m always at work while all these expeditions are taking place so doubt I’ll be getting any of these summits chased.
Sorry to hear that the weather may be a little inclement for your trip North. It’s a shame you can’t arrange for weather like we had on Ward’s Stone last month, that really was a surprise & a superb day all round
As I mentioned to Paul that day, I was just in the process of changing jobs. Although I am still at the same place, I am a lot busier so my opportunities for chasing are a bit more limited than they were previously. I took over from a very experienced colleague who was retiring & had about 23 days to take in about 45 years of experience! That said, I have been in the role for over a month now & nothing has fallen over yet
Maybe once I am more settled in the role my radio activity will begin to get back to normal.
I hope to catch one or both of you at some point during your trip.
Will be watching the alerts…
