Well, what can I say ? I was a little bit tentative on the drive up to GW/NW-062 this evening, thinking to myself, I hope I don’t end up with egg on my face after my spur of the moment idea of trying to start regular sota fun evenings throughout the summer months. I had this vision of being the only summit on air and everyone having a laugh at my expense!! “Oh ye of little faith”…
SOTA was the clear winner tonight.
We did it lads, it went perfectly, even the wx was on our side!! what an evening!! It’s purely up to us now, we HAVE to keep this thing going.
Congratulations and thanks to all of the activators who took part and the many chasers who spotted and chased us, it was terrific team work all round.
Staying on 2m-fm and ssb for the first hour was definately the right decision and proved just how valuable 2m can be for summit use.
I apologise to those of you who might have looked for me on 40m cw/ssb and 60m-ssb but the situation was beyond my control.
There were three scrambling bikes whizzing around the radio station complex and I thought it too dangerous to deploy any type of antennas, a swift dash to the other side of the summit didn’t help, normal access through the farm was barred so I was forced to set up in the only remaining spot which would put me in the activation zone and hf antennas were out of the question.
My set up was so simple…7ah slab, FT-817 with 5w and a sotabeam set up on a 7 metre telescopic pole and swapped from vertical to horizontal polarisation when going to singl side band.
Although the most basic of set ups, I managed 25 contacts including a very rare contact with M3HJD, thanks for the natter Lauren and a superb six summit to summits with…
Steve G1INK/P on sp-004, Sam M0SJJ/P on ld-049, John GW4BVE/P on mw-027, Derek G1ZJQ/P on sb-001, Ron GW4EVX/P on nw-051 and Tom M1EYP/P on sp-015 Thanks to all for the s2s contacts.
A quick glance at the evenings spots on returning home says it all, so much activity!!
So, come on, when do we do it again?
Do we do it once weekly?
Do we always do the first Tuesday of each month when we can coincide with the backpackers contest.
Any thoughts on the format, ie 30 mins 2m-fm then 30 mins 2m-ssb, then hf?
Once again, thanks to all concerned.
vy 73 Mike GW0DSP