Having activated both summits 3 days earlier, I was again, dragged up both summits today, by G1STQ …and all for no points
Even this overwhelming gesture of generosity, didn’t stop him bleating all day. Quite frankly, he could give a paracetamol tablet a headache…
Anyhow G/WB-002 Brown Clee was the first stop and I fancied the X-300 collinear. With its 2 x 5ft poles not the easiest antenna to drag up a fairly steep ascent via the Shropshire Way.
The WX at the trig point was cold, however, the good news was the wind had dropped quite considerably from Wednesdays activation with M0TUB.
Upon setting up the collinear, I found that one of the ground planes was missing, so it was down to just two.
I worked for about 20 minutes running about 7 watts on 2m fm using the FT-857 and received some great signal reports. I think it was Frank G3RMD said it was the biggest signal he’d heard from this summit. The highlights had to be a contacts with M3WID who had never managed to work the Welsh Borders before and a contact with G3PGA in Fremington North Devon, a contact of about 180Km.
Meanwhile, John G1STQ was trying to work the 4m band with his brand new, expensive, rubber duck antenna. He made one contact before he managed to break it. I just about managed to keep a straight face ;-). He QSY’d to 40m, but it was wall to wall with WABers. This left 20m, where once spotted, he managed to work his way through a nice pile-up. At least, I did the decent thing and logged it for him
Then it was off to G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee.
A quick walk up to the trig point, where John set up on 2m SSB and I elected to work 15m as 40m was still wall to wall.
Not too much to report on the 15m band, contacts weren’t easy to come by. Worked a few of the regular chasers VE2JCW, N4EX, WA2USA and a special event station from India AU2JCB. This station called and called and what would normally have seen a massive pile-up went virtually unanswered, so he qsy’d!
John seemed to be having some success on 2m SSB, before we decided to call it a day.
Thanks to all the chasers who took the time to give us a call…
73
Mike 2E0YYY