Well the oceanic ducting sets in later in the year, and late April is a bit early for double hop Es, but I have worked into the Spanish mainland from there on 2 metres in the past, so you never know what might turn up!
Hello Tom. Many thanks for your Activations yesterday Both you and Jimmy did very well indeed.
It was great to hear activity on the 70cm. Band. If more Activators had the courage and determination to try this band, then I am sure SOTA would benefit from greater public interest.
Thanks for the QSO’s. Best Wishes, Paul M0CQE.
UHF alive and well - it certainly is:
Pleased as Punch with a S2S with Andy, MM0FMF and another qso with Jack, GM4COX on 13 cm on Saturday.
Anybody thinking of activating this one pointer using the route described by M1MAJ (GM/SS-175) needs their brains examining - it is a long haul (7.5 km each way). I was completely out of it by the time I got back - but still smiling at the 13 cm qso’s
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I told you it was a looooooong walk! There is a shorter route straight up the escarpment from Highfield Farm, but fewer places to park. If you think that one is bad you should try Stronend from the same starting point, a 3rd of the distance but 10x worse ground.
Yes, 2x 13cms contacts on the first time out including an S2S. That’s not bad. Now to get the rest of the team active so I can qualify a summit on 13cms! Over a LOS path with 2W and the 4ele Yagi you were S9+++ I could drop the signal to S9 by pointing the antenna at Jack’s QTH. GB3CSB from Kilsyth was unbelievably loud, no matter how I place the antenna I could not affect the signal strength. In fact when I got home I could hear GB3CSB inside, downstairs beaming through my shack window, the neightbours house, lots of pine trees etc. Even without local obstructions, it’s not a LOS path. The path to Jack’s QTH in Law is not LOS but grazes a few hills and he was S7. That suggests moderate sensitivity of the transverter front end.
I picked up 2 good S2S QSOs on 2m too. Steve MM0XPZ on Hill of Stake for a complete and Robin GM7PKT on Troweir Hill. I’ll be doing that in a few weeks so that’s another budding complete in the making and another off my bucket SS list.
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Hi Andy, a few questions if you do not mind?
Is this what you are using Andy? If so RRP?
I presume IF is from the 817 on 70cms?
Does the 4 ele yagi come included with the transverter?
Any plans to upgrade the antenna to a wimo or tonna etc?
thanks in advance 73
Matt G8XYJ
Yes, that is the unit. Jack and I organised the bulk purchase and we emailed SG-Lab and asked how much for 7 shipped to the UK, got a price and paid. I’ll tell you the exact price in a PM but it was well under £200 each.
IF is 70cms. The unit will work with upto 5W IF drive but I have mine set to give full o/p on 13cms for 500mW drive, no point making RF on 70cms to waste in it an attenuator. I don’t know if the power drops much, but I was using a 3s Lipo for my transverter so I expect it to be down on 13.8V. Takes about 950mA at 13.8V. I may invest it a buck/boost jobby to power it to 11.1V on RX and 13.8 on TX.
I found a piece of RG-223 cable with SMA plugs on it… now one end is a BNC. The 4ele PCB Yagi is included in the price as is a coax power plug and 3.5mm Jack for PTT. I have set the RF Vox hang time to about 500mS and that works FB.
I think the next antenna will be a double bowtie. These are very tolerant on small dimension errors and a double bowtie gain is about 11dBi. They have a narrow vertical radiation pattern and wider horizontal pattern making them ideal if pointing the antenna may be “wind challenged”!
Saw you were going to be out but my 13cm transverter hasn’t been used for a couple of years (at least) so I need to check it out at home before getting out with it.
On the original post topic 
I did get out on Bengray on Saturday with 2m and my Chinese PA (1W -> 100W but with the batteries I currently use, I do 0.5W -> maybe 30W). Extremely windy - the beam wafting all over the place. Had a good QSO with GI4SNA, and heard Don RQL (also RMD) on 2m ssb, but they didn’t hear me - not surprising, the beam just wasn’t pointing consistently. Moved to 2m FM and picked up a few more including S2S with MM0XPZ and GM7PKT.
Hope to get out on 13cm again soon!
Had a quick look at that one - I wouldn’t be willing to attempt the route without somebody to (a) Hold my hand and (b) provide a rope - it looks as if it would be a serious scramble in a bit of a rocky gully (without having had a very close look of course)
Well UHF was certainly perfectly adequate for SOTA once again today. Then again, the being the only activation in England on Wednesday 17th May 2017 may have helped ease the qualification!
It wouldn’t take Sherlock Holmes to work out why I was the only G activator. The rain never stopped all day. Which it was something of a surprise to find a National Trust warden and large working party near the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 upon my arrival. I was intrigued by their mission!
The Cloud has always been off-limits for cyclists. Well, those that insist on actually riding their bikes over it anyway. Officially that is, according to the signs and bye-laws. Many ignored that, and it would be a rare Tuesday night activation that didn’t involve at least two groups of mountain bikers passing over the summit. In recent weeks, the frequency and visibility of the “mountain biking prohibited” notices has markedly increased.
The frequency and visibility of mountain biking has not correspondingly decreased though. So, what was the NT working party up to? Well, digging up and moving a huge boulder it seemed. This was a complex operation, and each slight movement was facilitated by two carefully-positioned rails, a harness, and a tug o’ war effort by the working party. Surely this would have been the perfect training camp for the nearby, and world-famous Bosley Wood Treatment Tug of War Club?
The boulder was eventually positioned about a quarter of the way down a path off the summit - a particularly popular one for mountain bike descents of the hill, and suffering rapid erosion damage as a result. It will be interesting to see if it dampens the biker’s enthusiasm.
I had originally intended to do another 5MHz activation, but the rain washed away any enthusiasm for such a thing, and I didn’t even carry the gear up with me. Just the VX7R handheld in my pocket, and the logbook and pencil in the other.
2m FM: 8 QSOs
70cm FM: 6 QSOs
I did also try 6m FM using the extension to the VX7R’s helical antenna, but no-one came back, despite soliciting a spot and even settingup a sked on air. Many thanks to all chasers who called in.
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Hello Tom. Good to hear you today. Many thanks for being out there in such bad weather.
Thanks also for the 2Mtr. and 70cm. QSO’s. Sorry there was no 6Mtr. contacts for you. As you know I do not have equipment to operate that band and so could not help.
Great that you are, “Flying The Flag” for 70cm. I wish there were more Activators who would do the same.
Best Wishes, Paul, M0CQE.
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Last weekend I activated Robinson (lakes) on 2m FM. But also tried 2m SSb and 70cm FM. Without phone signal couldn’t self spot but got no response on anything other than 2m FM. I try to use the other bands but no one seems to listen in the north on them. I activated little mell fell on Sunday and shouted again on 70cm FM but only barely got 4 contacts on 2m FM, and I heard gb2rs news that was being broadcast from Redcar on the east coast and I was in the lakes!
It’s activations like this that make me think twice about using less popular bands like 4m.
You need to publicise you will be on 2m SSB. You need to publicise it a lot. You need to develop a reputation to be where you say you will be when you say you will be there. Then when chasers know you will be QRV 2m SSB and will be QRV for say, 30-45mins around the time given, then you will get more chasers. But you need to stick at and make a fuss in the publicity stakes. And, you need to be spotted. If you cannot guarantee a self spot, then start on HF where you will be heard and get someone to spot your VHF activation. Or get a mate to go out portable (not necessarily a SOTA summit) to work you on VHF and spot you.
You need to work at it. Unless you are lucky enough to live in a few places which happen to have a huge catchment area. And you need to accept you cannot do every band or you will only be on any one band for a short period.
4m is a fine band and Summer SpE is wonderful. But even with cheap Chinese handhelds (that work!) it’s a niche band. So you need to arrange with others to all try 4m FM the same time and day from your SOTA summits. That’s the way we’ll be doing our 13cms stuff, get a group to get out the same time with the gear and try to work each other and maybe, just maybe, the odd random QSO.
To start with, stick with the popular stuff, 2m SSB and FM.
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2M SSB from high ground is still one of my favourite pastimes. This weekend is the first Backpackers contest so weather permitting there should be increased activity. This contests runs alongside a major 2M SSB contest too.
I cant remember if it’s against the rules to alert if anyone is taking part and will be active from a SOTA summit? I seem to recall it’s ok to state 144-SSB but not a specific frequency.
73 Chris M0RSF
Exactly that Chris.
Yes Chris.
I, for one, will be doing backpacker’s this weekend from GW/NW.
It’s handy if chasers know their Maidenhead squares for the exchange please!
Simon
It is probably as effective as the FT-817’s helical on 6m and the Wouxun KG-699E’s on 4m. It makes you wonder why they actually manufacture them, but they do make a reasonable dummy load for test purposes. 
Weather permitting I will be out. Yes, grid square AND post code!
73 Chris M0RSF
My very first activation (HB/NE-007) i tried on 2 Meters SSB, 2.5 Watt on a HB9CV - 45 Minutes - not one Station 
Now - mostly on 20 Meter - no Problems at all - but i will try again on 2m
Have Fun, Peter
VHF was a breeze again this morning - Thursday 18th May 2017. And a good job too, because the portion of the HF spectrum for which I brought an antenna - 60m - was far from “alive and well”. In total contrast to the other day, it was a struggle to get the three QSOs in 20 minutes of operating.
The other stations were reporting severe noise and QSB, although at my end I was not experiencing such difficulties. A fourth station - MI0RTY - was heard really well by me, and the contact was entirely complete, with the exception of him receiving his report from me - so not complete then!
Don G0RQL (my first contact) came back on frequency to advise that John MW0XOT was struggling for QSOs on his HEMA (HuMPs Excluding Marilyns Award) activation, and could I provide him with a contact? Of course, I would be happy to help was my reply, although I think John must have got his contacts on 80m as he never did call me on 60m.
There was then a further delay as I chased up that night’s gig for which I had been booked, but not heard anything about. The phone call provided me with the information that the gig had been cancelled and they had forgotten to tell me. Pity, I was looking forward to playing at Old Trafford again (not many people can say that hi hi!), but at least it meant I had a night off and didn’t have to rush home (my glass is always half-full).
I then switched to my VX7R VHF/UHF handheld, and the famine instantly became a feast. Two QSOs on 70cm, preceded by six in as many minutes on 2m FM, including S2S with Dave G3TQQ/P on Calf Top G/NP-022, and Dave GW8NZN/P on Penycloddiau GW/NW-054.
So eleven contacts for this activation, and the almost-daily activations of The Cloud are starting to make me feel slightly less pleb-like, so I must keep them up. Back home, and sorted myself some maths teaching work for the Friday to cover for the lost gig on Thursday. Getting bored with my job is now something from the dim and distant past!
I shall not be on for the Backpackers on Sunday. I would absolutely love to do another full series of the Backpackers Contest, which fits so well with summer SOTA activations, but it won’t be this year. I’ve got gig work most weekends for the rest of the year. Ironically, this weekend I am gigging Saturday night (Hull), but, unusually, no gig on Sunday. However, Macclesfield Town are playing in the F.A. Trophy Final at Wembley Stadium Sunday afternoon, so that’s where I’ll be. You might even see me on the telly!
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I’ll be in Jersey this weekend. Wasn’t planning on taking radio gear due to lack of summits/trigs etc. May have a rethink.