The next 145 Alive event will run on Saturday 29th April from 1300-1500 British Summer Time.
The aim is to promote 2 m FM by getting operators on high ground, be it car portable, portable or SOTA. DX isn’t the main aim. It is all about getting folk to turn on their 2 m radios and make contacts with the high ground station and each other. So, verticals are the order of the day rather than yagis.
I had great fun on the January event using the Land Rover and enjoyed over 20 contacts from NE Scotland, with many of the more southern operating making 60 or more contacts.
This time I’d like to operate from a high SOTA summit with a good VHF take off, such as Ben Macdui GM/ES-002, wx permitting.
Who’s up for this then? It would be great to put a large number of SOTA summits on the air across the nation at this time. Probably your best chance of qualifying some tricky for VHF summits on 2 m FM.
If I can’t get onto a SOTA summit, it sounds like a recipe for taking the car up to the relatively local high spot (which has a cracking take off to the north) and generating 1kW ERP. Oh… DX isn’t the main aim. How disappointing, but it could be great fun. .
I’m rather hoping to be on a summit on Harris - and might change things around so that I’m on one has a possibility of take off to the East - so probably Roineabhal GM/SI-083, although not if the weather is rubbish. I’ll put it on as an alert… Paul
As we are now in the month of April, I thought I’d bring this back to the surface. The event is three weeks today.
I know April weather can be variable - we often get winter MK III in my neck of the woods - but it’s time to start making plans. Best case for me would be an activation of Ben Macdui GM/ES-002 where I know I can reach most of Scotland and The Lake District with a handheld. Worst case I will be sitting in the back of Dora the Explorer with the heating on and the mast up on a high road somewhere.
The date’s in the diary now. Won’t reach the heights of a Ben Macdui but something smaller will be on the cards. My handie, my wee Yagi, 818, Slim G, car magmount and Diamond whip are all on the team list for possible selection, depending on options and, of course WX on the day
No. There is an optical path between Ben Macdui and The Cheviot but that’s the only summit outside of Scotland that is “visible”.
There is an optical path between Snowdon and Merrick of 144miles. However, a significant amount of the path is over the sea which can severely affect the propagation on VHF and especially microwaves as the sea surface raises and falls and ducts form etc.
I could be persuaded to go up Elidir Fawr, GW/NW-004 as it has a good take off to the North and I’ve had my best 2FM contact so far from there. But the WX will have to be good for me to drag the FT857, big battery and beam up there
I’ve pretty much decided to scrap Ben Macdui and head for Mount Battock, which is lower and further south and east. Take off to the west and north won’t be so good, however I won’t be sitting in wet cloud and snow for two hours this way. I’ll save Ben Macdui for the next one!
Mount Battock has an excellent VHF take off to NE England.
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