Having been deeply involved in the gestation of SOTA-France, I was always intending to be there on launch day as an activator. I “booked” my two small summits, not too far from the Tunnel, and added the appropriate alerts to SOTAwatch. The original intention was to have a very leisurely trip, but domestic commitments arose demanding an earlier-than-planned return. As the day approached I noticed that, one after another, the other French activations were being postponed or cancelled due to adverse weather forecasts. Having already purchased my ticket, I decided to stick to the plan anyway. The alarm woke me at 0420, and I was on-the-road shortly afterwards to catch the 0650 Shuttle. There were occasional raindrops on the windscreen from time to time, but nothing serious, although Radio 4’s weather forecast was not sounding encouraging. Having made good time on the virtually empty M23/M25/M26/M20, I arrived ahead of schedule, and was able to catch the 0620. This enabled me to have a quick breakfast (croissant and espresso) upon arrival in France, before joining the autoroute south to Boulogne. Just before the péage I turned onto the N1 towards Abbeville, and, upon reaching Samer, I turned east on minor roads for the last few kilometres to …
F/NO-027 - Mont des Rêveleux. This is a rather uninspiring flat-topped hill, with several “summits” all around the 207m height. As far as I can ascertain, the actual highest point is at a disused and ruined radar site, but pretty well anywhere is within the activation area. I chose a point a few hundred metres north, alongside a large wood festooned with “Privé” signs, and ablaze with a carpet of wild flowers. The field alongside provided my operating position, with the antenna draped across some head-high branches, and the woodland providing shelter from the cool breeze. I had obviously chosen my spot well, as it was already occupied by a large hare who ran off bewildered! Throughout the activation he/she kept returning to watch from a safe distance. My reconnaissance earlier in the week had indicated that I could operate in fairly close proximity to the road, so I was able to set up a larger-than-usual station with my FT-847 and a very heavy leisure battery capable of providing sufficient amp/hours for a sustained 100 watts output. The antenna was tuned by an SGC-237 auto-tuner against an earth spike hammered into the soil.
As always, I started on 7032 CW and was immediately greeted by a large pile-up. The callers were predominantly German, but I found a few French and UK callers too. Surprisingly, the usual Swiss chasers were notable by their absence. Conditions were very changeable, with rapid QSB, but I found 26 callers before the well ran dry. I then moved to 3561 CW in an attempt to reach those chasers too close to hear me on 40m. This was a great success, resulting in another 21 QSOs. By this time I had been active for about ninety minutes, and time was pressing. I announced a QSY to 7 SSB (which was spotted) and attempted to find a clear frequency – not an easy task on a Sunday morning! Perhaps unsurprisingly, I didn’t find any takers to my few CQs on the least-noisy frequency (just below 7080) I could find. Then I tried briefly on 2m SSB, then FM, without any reply. So, I packed up and set off towards …
F/NO-026 Mont Le Communal. This hill at least has a more interesting approach, but is, once again, a very flat-topped summit. The highest point is just over 210m, and can be found in the middle of a set-aside field. I found a spot a metre or so lower, alongside another wild-flower wood, and set up in the same configuration as before. This time the pile-up on 7032 was deafening, and it was hard to pick out individual callsigns. A constant stream of callers, including three summit-to-summit, provided me with 34 stations in the log, before I again moved to 3561. This time there were slightly less takers (15), but they included a few late risers who had missed me on the first summit. With a little time in-hand, I announced a QSY to 7 SSB, and was rewarded with a clear channel around 7055. A couple of CQs produced a reply from a portable station in the west of Ireland, before a loud Italian appeared to prevent any further use of the frequency. Undaunted, I moved to 80m and found 3760 clear. A few CQs there gained me a further seven contacts, including two 2E0s and an M3, but sadly no actual SOTA chasers. There was just time for a couple of speculative calls on 144.300 SSB before packing up and heading for home. I arrived chez-moi just before 3pm with 104 contacts in the log – quite an impressive haul for the first day of SOTA-France.
Apologies to those I missed, especially those who don’t do CW. It was obvious that 40m was never going to be any use, and, once I found that 80m was putting my signal into the right place, I realised that I had not even suggested listening there amongst my announced planned frequencies. Maybe next time.
73 de Les, F/G3VQO/P
