007 S2S (G/SB-007)

Activation Reports
1

Well this was almost activation #175 failure and this time it wasn’t much to do with the planning but the ionosphere.

Today was the annual campervan service ( well it actually began about 3 days ago moving the contents of the van into the shack ). Anyway for an eyewateringly large amount of money the engine has nice clean oil and the gas in the van has been checked…. My wife suggested that rather than dropping it off and driving home I should use the opportunity for a walk, and closest to Gateshead is Tosson Hill. As it was a courtesy car no dogs on this activation, and the courtesy Nissan Duke isn’t on my shopping list anytime soon ( Although it did seem happier once I’d discovered a sixth gear somewhere in the bottom right of the box which seemed to be loosely connected to a gear stick…)

This time the car park was empty so it was a nice easy walk, with possibly the only complaint being the heat…. Once at the summit I set up and started by trying to respond to Martin on 60m with a 10m dipole that the KX2 had managed to try and match… Somehow we made the QSO, although I don’t think there was a lot of the 10w from the KX2 radiating. After that I tried 2m, had a nice QSO south down in Leeds and then …. well nothing

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Stunning day in Simonside in September

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Rothbury down below

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New improved footpath to Tosson Hill

Back to 40m where I had got a resonant antenna ( Linked Dipole) and had a nice - easy QSO with Martin and the Caroline… and then well … nothing again. 20m wasn’t much better with 1 QSO in Spain. In the end I managed 6 QSO’s. A quick look at Solar Ham explains HF, but VHF was disappointing - even for midweek, but the weather made up for it.

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The Station

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The Operator as there were no Dogs to photograph…

The Kp index pretty well followed the prediction, and had I had any flexibility in days with hindsight a day which wasn’t due to have the impact of a an X flare hitting the planet might have helped.

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Thanks to Martyn and Caroline for the S2S. I was rather hoping for some sort of badge for a 007 S2S, but I am contented to have got 6 in the log so thanks to the chasers, and for those listening an just hearing noise - well I was there!

  1. Paul
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New path looks good… that was the worst part when I was there. I really liked the wee hill so the new path makes me want to return and do it again.

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… it was very dry but the final 1 km has gone from a muddy slog to an easy walk. .

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4

Nice to see the summit in pleasant weather conditions. It was damp and grey when I activated it back in 2006. I remember what path there was being a small stream when I descended. As Andy said, the top section used to be the worst part of the ascent.

I’m pleased to hear you qualified the summit under the difficult conditions we’ve had. VHF does work from there, but I suppose the 25 watts to a 5 element yagi that I’ve always used for SOTA does give me an edge. :wink:

73, Gerald

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5

It was a bit odd to be given a summit reference only 1 letter different from my own. It took me a moment under the poor conditions to realise that you really were giving your reference and not just confirming mine (G/SC-007)!

40m was very odd. Not many QSOs to be had, but I picked up 3 special event stations. TM44LG called me, and I later had easy contacts with GB80OMG and PA80OMG with no pile-ups to break into. I suspect a lot of people had just given up trying the band.

Martyn M1MAJ

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