1st Activation ever from a Summit

Activation of G/DC-003
Well to start arrived nice and early about 06:00 utc. Sun’s out and it’s a little chilly in that NE breeze, So far so good. Broke out the gear of the car and short walk to the summit site on Kitt hill and as setting up notice a pretty major problem with me support lines tangled up big time. After 20 minutes threw it on ground and mounted the 8m pole onto the trig point TP-4256 in SX-37 and tried it on via the mangled cord. So decided to opt for the 1/4w 40mb vertical wire and got it quickly set up as the inverted L 1/2w 40mb wire could not go up due to lack of support from the triangular support lines which were in a mess. Yet managed to get it up right and stable and unpacked the radio gear on MFJ tuner 949D and the Trio 120V 10w and an standard mike and the PSU unit. A portable power station (Not engine but battery’s unit).
After all of this antenna was still up right to my surprise and got around to tuning in 20m with well ease down to it’s lowest SWR I good get. So low it was off the scale . Then took me mobile and placed myself on the spot page. And my first contact made me simle, big time after all that hassle of setting up was a very loud VK5PAS Paul. Was so surprised and happy to talk with Paul my very first contact on me new portable set up and as an activator. This was followed by me first S2S with Ed DD5LP/p on DL/AL-170. So a flying start it took off being placed on the watch spot page and CQ pages they came in steady stream from all over Europe including EU and RV areas also. Another good flow of stations was well worked and signal’s till it quietened down a little later,s.
Time to spot oneself on 10m 28470. Band was very dull and nothing heard on freq or nearby after getting home me spot had failed. Can see why now no one heard let alone poor Es on 10m. Next move was to 40m spotted self again but again it failed for some unknown reason no return calls on 7.131. Yet did hear a lot of Spanish, Italian, French. Germans and Italians. No UK stations heard at across 40m not even on the WAB again German stations chatting away . But did chat to a Gent nr Paris in a field whom also portable on 7.140.
So back to 20m and have a flick around first station I come across is a VK6 calling out on LP no joy getting back to him. But further flicking round resulted in another S2S from F/AM-733 ( 5 Watt Sota ) and SV/MC-042.
Then the NE breeze kicked in and turned chilly after sun disappeared behind the clouds and decided I have had a good day time to pack up to which did not take long and by 0930hrs back home as Kit hill only 20min drive from here. WX depending properly go back again see if I can get few more local stations on 40m and also sort out me support cords with better gear and get that Inverted L up and running. But one thing I did notice straight away on how quiet the noise level was well down compared to here at home. Thinks move me house up there don’t think the National trust will like that. But from that was a good outing, happy with results and only visitors were one black Labrador and couple grey hounds LOL

SO MADE 26 CONTACTS
1 VK CONTACT yesssssss
3 S2S CONTACTS :slight_smile:
M3FEH/p on G/DC-003 WAB-SX-37 and TP-4256

20mb
VK5PAS
DD5LP/P DL/AL-170
OE5FSL
LA5WNA
OK1SDE
SP9AMH
OE7FMH
EU2MM
EA2CKX
G4EOW/P in Devon
S57S
G4EOG
EA3HRA
IW1DQS
EA1SB
DJ5AV
SM6DER
DM5BB
S56RPJ
IZ0ARL
EA1BTO
RV9DC
F4EGG/P F/AM733
SV2OYE/P SV/MC-042

40M
F5ASD/P NR Paris

M3FEH chaser / Now activator too
73s to all that managed to reach me

Also a very interesting place full of history

Karl

Pictures up shortly got to down size them LOL

8 Likes

Many congratulations, Karl.

You are well and truly hooked now!
:smile:
73,
Walt (G3NYY)

2 Likes

Plus place is full of histroy

karl

4 Likes

Well done Karl.

Now you’ve started (and what a way to start!) you won’t be able to stop.

73, Simon

1 Like

Yeah more addictive than chasing LOL as its chasing in itself after the S2S :open_mouth:

just done me logging.
Now on 21 Sota activator points only 979 to go to get me goat LOL

Mind you to the super sloth hmmm getting closer :slight_smile:

Karl

Errrrrrrrrrr sorry but 1000 minus 1 = 999 :frowning:

Well done on your first activation :thumbsup:

2 Likes

If only it was that easy :smile:

Well done Karl on a great activation.
Now there’s no stopping you.
73

Ok how does the S2S points work then
Does that not count towards your activator points
Or are these sep point system as like in chaser points and activator points

Karl

If only!

73 Mike
2E0YYY

OK wish full thinking LOL

Right Re logged the activation better.
2nd time lucky. Got date wrong and missed two chasers out.
Can’t have that can we.

Sorted now

Karl

Well done Karl,
You are now seeing the fruits of your antenna construction work over the last few weeks. Glad you made it out today and glad we could have an official S2S contact as well as a bit of a chat.

Log is entered, I’ll be publishing my report on Zweiselberg to my blog at dd5lp.com as usual in the next few days but it was an enjoyable trip out.

73 Ed.

1 Like

Karl, very well done on your 1st activation. I hope you are now planning the next one!

Activating and chasing are separate activities. For complex “this is how the software was written” reasons, S2S contacts are treated as an extension of chasing. When you work an S2S contact and log it, it gets added to the S2S logs and also chaser logs. So logging an S2S contact will get you S2S points and chaser points. If you look in your chaser and S2S logs you will see the same contacts but they get scored differently.

thank you Andy that explains it well.

Few teething problems to sort out next, But did enjoy that one and now worked out why me other spots no go up. Forgot the . point in 28470 28.470.

won’t forget next time :smile:
Karl

Karl, great report, had me laughing out loud, and then a big gasp to read that your first contact was a VK! Congratulations on your first activation of many…

Rob

I’d always guessed the cart was put before the horse there… :wink:

1 Like

Found out why me 28 and 7 mhz spots did not come up today :grimacing:

Try putting the . point as in 28.470 and not 28470 DOHH :hushed:

Will remember next time :innocent:

Thanks again for the all the chasers I contacted today and the S2S’s as well.

Now to sort out kit bit better prior going up the next one

Karl with 999 to go :slight_smile:

Its OK Karl, its not as obvious as you think. Some systems prefer numbers without the decimal point.You have done really well, see if you can get onto the next one now and complete a region. One of the great things about SOTA is that you can achieve these milestones in a progressive way.

Jonathan

1 Like

Great photos Karl - wondered what kit hill and the views looked like. I was there at the beginning of May and couldn’t see more than 20 feet on low wet cloud.

Great views must go back one day.

Oh and congrats on the first activation Karl

73 Glyn

1 Like

Hi Karl,

Congratulations. You got a good result. I’ve done a reasonable number of activations and yesterday was the first one I’ve had a tangle. A bad one. They happen. We just need to eliminate or minimise the possibility of such problems for the next times.

73
Ron
VK3AFW

Thank you

That is in working process now. by firstly buying some decent line and effecting a way to make a holder to contain it but light weight of course.

Karl