It’s been tipping it down here in Macclesfield today, and the skies are dark and gloomy. Perhaps then, summer is over? OK then, “Winter Fun Evening” it is!
I will be on The Cloud G/SP-015 from 7pm local. First hour will be on 2m FM, then 8pm to 10.30pm on mainly 2m SSB with maybe a bit of CW.
31 QSOs on 2m FM, 89 on 2m SSB and one on 2m CW. Total 121 QSOs in the evening.
I dusted off the SB270 and stuck it up in the garden to listen for you. I heard a handful of stations, and worked two on SSB, but I didn’t hear you, despite tuning up and down for about an hour.
Sorry Tom - I tried!
Colin
Cheers Colin. In the FMAC I did quite a bit of running on 145.375MHz, while in the first half hour of the UKAC I had a good run on 144.196MHz. You can’t actually self-spot during the contests of course, though some of those who use the KST chats don’t quite seem to get that!
Going out doing a bit of 6m tonight on my local summit. Anyone fancy a S2S?
Well no-one else was out for a 6m S2S on the evening of Thursday 14th September 2017. Just as well really, the weather was troublesome - too windy to keep the beam in any desired direction - all it ever wanted to be was NNE. Which was handy earlier on as there was a bit of aurora about and a CW contact with GM3POI on Orkney IO88 was made via this phenomenon early on.
Otherwise conditions were pretty dire and activity on the low side. I finished on 48 QSOs, which is bordering on disastrous for a UKAC. My list of squares worked is decidedly threadbare, and the pleasure that it includes IO88 is wiped out by the omission of a great many others that I would normally expect to work. That, and spending an age to finally work GI4SNA for IO64, and a doubly longer age in still failing to work MM0CEZ in IO75.
The Harrington Arms at Gawsworth didn’t have any pies or Scotch eggs when I got there either. Just not my night at all.
Well, I was really lucky with the weather last night for the 23cm UKAC. Clear starry night, and almost no wind on Longmynd Pole Bank G/WB-005.
40 QSOs, 9 Locator squares, ODX GI6ATZ at 291Km, my best on 23 to date, tantalizingly short of 300Km 
GM4JTJ heard but not worked, I have yet to work GM, and an S2S would be especially nice…?
FT817 plus SGLabs transverter, 2W output to hombrew 15 ele yagi. I made a new balun / feed arrangement, which is more robust than the first one, and reduced the SWR from around 2:1 to around 1.5:1.
Because of the low wind, I was able to stand the tripod on the topograph:
Thanks for all the contacts, several familiar SOTA callsigns noted.
73
Adrian
G4AZS
Fantastic stuff Adrian. Great results from your 23 cm activation, and brilliant news that someone else is combining SOTA and the UKACs.
23cm isn’t one of my bands, but hope to work you S2S in a future 2, 6 or 70 AC.
Nice to work you on 23.
Unfortunately I was not on my local summit of Bardon Hill this time, but quite close at SK469139
So maybe an S2S another time.
Yesterday evening after the work I climbed up to Mt. Resegone I/LO-307 (this mountain is near my qth).
I reached the summit half an hour after the sunset, the weather was good, cold wind from north and starlly sky.
I managed to log I1/MM0BIX from Alba, about 160km.
I QSY on 40mt but I managed only one qso with station at 30km from me.
I decided to search a near station on 10 mt band, I found a NET of five OMs all near Turin, about 170km from me; after half an hour of chat with them I passed in QRT and came back to home.
I went to sleep at 01:00 local time.
8 qso in HF everyone through ground wave!! it was funny activation anyway…
I will return in December for 3 point bonus!
73
A couple of years ago, I bought a 19 ele F9FT yagi for 70cm at the Salop Amateur Radio Society junk sale. Yesterday, I got around to attaching a feeder, and arranging a support for it, in the form of a surplus telescopic aluminium mast, approx 3.5 metres high. I have had this lurking in the garage for about 40 years, so it was high time that I added a rotating guy ring and a ground spike to make it useable.
Flushed with success, I headed up to Long Mynd G/WB-005 for the RSGB 70cm UKAC.
It was already dark as I parked up, but easy enough to follow the clear path up to the trig point without need to turn on the torch. There is something very special about walking in the dark, a connection to the landscape without distraction perhaps.
Just beside the trig point is a topograph, which serves well as an operating desk. This is a popular summit, however, so I wouldn’t recomend this during the day.
I found that the ground close to the topograph was solid, and wouldn’t accept the mast ground spike, ot the guy pegs, so I had to set it up a metre or more away. Not a problem, except that in the windy conditions it was quite a stretch to keep one hand on the log to prevent it flying away, at the same time reaching the mast to rotate it, not to mention the headphone lead.
On the plus side, the antenna was very stable and did not turn much in the wind - it must be quite well balanced, aerodynamically.
Activity was fairly steady for a couple of hours, but seemed to tail off quite sharply at 10:00pm local. After a few more minutes of tuning / calling CQ, I decided to call it a night.
So, for my first venture onto 70cm SSB, I made 56 QSOs, 11 locator squares, and ODX of 288Km. This using the FT817 and 5W. Several familiar SOTA callsigns, but no S2S that I’m aware of!
Closer control of the beam might have helped, as it is very “pointy” but all in all a fun evening.
A combination of darkness, a cheap phone camera, a head torch, and high wind wasn’t conducive to photography, but here is the antenna ready to carry off, just to mark the occasion:
73
Adrian
G4AZS
I’ll be out tonight. CQ SOTA & Contest from The Cloud G/SP-015, 1900-2130z / 8 to 10.30pm BST.
It’s 6m tonight, and as ever, it would be especially nice to work any regular SOTA chasers, or even any activators S2S.
Wx looks dry but windy.
Thursday 12th October 2017. The Cloud G/SP-017. 1906 to 2123 UTC.
60 QSOs - 59 on 6m SSB, 1 on 6m CW.
DXCCs: G, GW, GD, GI, GM.
QRAs: IO64, IO74, IO81, IO82, IO83, IO86, IO91, IO92, IO93, IO94, JO02, JO03.
Wx: Chilly, windy, dry.
Condx: Poor.
Good to speak to you the other evening Adrian on 70cms!
Hope to catch you on 23cm on Tuesday next week (17/10/17).
The week after that, I am hoping to be active on 6cm again from Long Mynd, however despite mine being a battery powered 6cm system, I need access to the car for the talkback radio and it’s power. So I operate from outside, get all the cold of a SOTA activation, but cannot claim it as an activation!!! Oh Well, it is not as if I am lacking activations from G/WB-005!
73
Matt G8XYJ
Hurricane Ophelia permitting!
Hi Matt, yes, good to catch you on 70cm. I am intending to venture out next week on 23cm, but my setup is not workable in very bad weather yet. Me and the equipment could huddle in a bothy bag, but the tripod mounted antenna would be vulnerable, and I would have no easy way of rotating it.
I have a few improvements in mind, though, and it would be great if I can manage all 12 sessions next year!
Tom - missed you again, I don’t have an antenna for 6m at present, another band that I have yet to explore properly. I’m sure we’ll manage a S2S on one of the bands before too long!
Extending the options for winter fun, I notice that Long Mynd has yet to be activated on Top Band, so I might explore the possibilities there too… :o)
73
Adrian
G4AZS
Saturday 11th November, Club Calls might make the required contacts more certain on top band. I have been thinking for a while to activate my local one during this contest.
My problem would be the local club with a full size dipole approx 1 mile away from the summit.
73
G1ZAR
Cold but dry.
3.5 hours at “feels like minus 3” (Met Office) might be a bit of a challenge - but here goes.
1900-2000 on 2m FM
2000-2230 on 2m SSB
Note to all chasers - although you won’t get an extra SOTA point for working me in each part, the contest before 8pm is separate to the one after it - so I’d be delighted to work anybody twice!
Tuesday 7th November 2017
I had a few SOTA chasers want to confirm the reference with me tonight - that was pleasing. I managed to stick it out for the full 3.5 hours - total - of the two back-to-back contests.
Though it was nearly disaster and an “early bath” - twice! Shortly after powering up, it all powered down again! The culprit was an intermittent in the T-bar connector that couples to the Tracer 16Ah battery. I managed to (randomly) find a position where power was getting through, so I made a “Note to Self” not to disturb that arrangement. Of course, an hour later I accidentally kicked it, and so for a few minutes that was looking like “game over” too. Fortunately I managed to find that almost-elusive positioning once more - and this time managed to leave it alone until 2230z.
The T-bar has been brought into the shack tonight, and I’ll have a go at opening it up and fixing it tomorrow. I made a total of 113 QSOs in the activation, all on 2m - 30 on FM, 1 on CW and 82 on SSB. DXCCs worked were G, GW, GI, GD, GM and F.
A pint of Robinson’s “Dark Vader” ale and a pickled egg at the Harrington Arms, Gawsworth, rounded off the evening very nicely. The Met Office’s prediction of “feels like minus 3” was on the mark - it did!
Nice to work you Tom.
You certainly managed to work a lot more than my paltry 33. Conditions seemed poor tonight from IO94, especially to the south. Lots of stations down on their usual signals and lots of regulars missed altogether.
I’ll look out for you in the 6m on Thursday if you’re about.
73, Phil G0UUU.
