2009 on The Cloud G/SP-015

Old Reflector
81

Tuesday night, 1st September 2009 was the 2m activity contest, and represented the last chance for me to “play out” beyond my usual bedtime. It’s back to school next Monday!

I didn’t do anything as wild as walking there and back this time, but I still took the little tent/shelter and an extra antenna to play HF.

The 2m contest was somewhat weird. Everyone was reporting good conditions, and serial numbers in the 70s and 80s were being heard only halfway through the contest. That serial winner, Bryn G4DEZ was heard giving a 106, with plenty of contest time still left at one stage!

For me though, the pace was slightly lower than usual. I made 51 contacts in the contest, but was missing anything from GM or EI, and squares such as 84, 91, 70, 01 and 02. I expect to be well down the pecking order this time! Even my Macclesfield club colleagues were doing better than me, which doesn’t normally happen.

After the contest, I went over to 20m CW using the Magic Moggy antenna. With just three QSOs from G and GW in the first 45 minutes on 20m, I thought that the band was not going to play. But after 11pm, DF5WA and OK1AAZ trickled in, and then bingo - the band came to life.

In short order, I worked N2UN, K3KO, VE3GRG, SP3GVX, F5PLC and N4NO. All too soon it was quiet again, but it was good to get across the pond with 5 watts and get good signal reports.

I was then pretty tired, and decided to have a rest rather than wait for the dateline and start again. I was up and running for activation no. 2 though at 0425 UTC, making five QSOs into Eastern Europe. Steve M0DNA/M was the final contact, on 2m FM just before I left the summit. Which was cold, wet and windy, as it had been all night.

I called at Congleton Tesco on the way home to pick up a pad of file paper for Jimmy, which he needed ready to commence sixth form today. I was home at 7.25am local, and feeling just a tad tired!

73, Tom M1EYP

82

In reply to M1EYP:

Tom, there was a lot of activity in 91,01 and 02, however: from the lower UK latitudes the condx last night were particularly favourable to the low countries and deep into Germany so perhaps it was just a case of stations in these squares not beaming North as much as they normally would.

73, Chris

83

“It will probably have cleared up by the time I park at Cloudside” I optimistically thought as I set off from Macc in heavy winds and torrential rain. I was wrong. The storm continued unabated right through 'til about 9.45pm local. But still, I ascended The Cloud in order to do the 70cm activity contest from a SOTA summit.

I set up my shelter a few yards from the trig point, and then set about erecting my SB6 - 70cm SOTA Beam. This was when I discovered that I had a very weak and loose joint between a couple of sections of the pole. It had to be finely balanced to stay up at all, but even then, it would only be 15 minutes maximum before the whole thing slipped down again. This was frustrating enough, but the fact that I had to keep crawling out into heavy rain every time to put the thing back up was grating! Note to self - collect spare pole ordered from Richard, examine all existing poles, get rid of weaker sections and make up better stronger poles.

Contest conditions were difficult to make out. There wasn’t the strong EU stations of the Backpackers at weekend, but G, GW, GD, GI plus JO03 and JO02 (amongst others) were all worked. I didn’t heard GM, did hear JO01, but didn’t work it. Mind you, every time I peaked the beam on that station the dodgy sections of the poles telescoped into each other again, leaving the beam at barely 1m high!

The rain intensified further, and at one point there was a puddle of about 3 inches deep in one corner of my shelter. The wind and rain battered the canvas and I started to feel fed up. The mast collapsed yet again, and I decided to call it a day and pack up at 10.05pm.

I packed up in the continuing poor weather after making 35 QSOs - 32 on 70cm SSB and 3 on 70cm FM. My calls on 70cm CW had been unanswered. Being a little earlier despite having the shelter to pack away, I called in at the Harrington Arms in Gawsworth for a pint of Dizzy Blonde and pack of Firecracker Lobster Burts Chips.

Many thanks to all on here that worked me.

Tom M1EYP

84

In reply to M1EYP:

'… the dodgy sections of the poles telescoped into each other again, leaving the beam at barely 1m high! ’

You need one of those Aldi ‘Activator’ poles Tom, no problems then!

Ron,GW4EVX

85

In reply to GW4EVX:

I always tape the joints on my pole just to be sure :wink:

Recently, while in Preston on Jury service I regularly passed the Flag Market. There was a stallholder there selling Fishing tackle. He had a very nice pole, I would guess about 12m long that I fancied. Unfortunately, at £60+ & also being made of carbon fibre it would not have been suitable for taping a J-Pole to, so I gave it a miss. It was of the “non-telescopic” variety. No possibility of it collapsing on itself, but it may be a bit difficult to take apart after a windy day on a summit :wink:

I missed Tuesday’s 70cms UKAC contest due to other committments, although it sounds from various reports that conditions were better than average.

73,

Mark G0VOF

86

In reply to GW4EVX:

“You need one of those Aldi ‘Activator’ poles Tom, no problems then!”

Plenty left in Buxton branch as well as the excellent quality holdall.

87

It’s OK, I’ve got some spare poles. It’s just a question of picking the strongest sections and making up a new pole, while throwing the weaker sections away. Some of them are pretty worn out after many hundreds of activations; they owe me nothing!

88

In reply to M1EYP:

“…the dodgy sections of the poles telescoped into each other again, leaving the beam at barely 1m high!”

Shades of Moel Siabod last winter. At least it sounds like you didn’t have the beam whack you on the head like I did. On inspection, I found there was nothing wrong with the mast and it has done many activations since. The problem was caused by the strong wind flexing the joints which slowly lost their tightness. Rain certainly tends to assist with the lack of adhesion as well!

From your report I just wonder how many times you asked yourself “What am I doing here?”

73, Gerald

89

Better than that Gerald, I was aksing myself “Why am I going there?” throughout the drive, in a horrible storm, from Macclesfield.

All the same it is very unusual for me to throw in the towel before 10.30pm. The band was pretty empty by 10pm, and when the beam crashed down again, having made no new QSOs since the last time I re-erected it a few minutes earlier, enough was enough. A pint and a bag of crisps suddenly had greater appeal than anything I could be doing on SP-015.

Tom M1EYP

90

In reply to M1EYP:

Almost succombed to the “What am I doing here?” in the rain and 60mph wind on Gyrn Ddu NW-050 on Tuesday morning, but saw sense: another unique, two more points towards MG and it can only get better… and it did! Lots!

Had I been The Cloud, it might have been different… no, of course not, since it would be another unique for me! Will get there one day. Eventually.

91

Now that summer is over, the summer weather has arrived. What a contrast tonight on The Cloud to last Tuesday. Three of us went up - Jimmy M3EYP, Sean M0GIA and myself M1EYP - and the weather was very tame!

Jimmy operated on 2m FM and enjoyed some of the enhanced conditions, working effortlessly into his mother’s homeland - Northern Ireland. It was more of an effort to erect the SOTA Beam, having not brought a walking pole up on which to mount the WASP section. Improvisation was necessary, and the WASP was stood upon a bolt in the topograph surface, and then guyed VERY tightly. It just about stayed up, but moving the beam heading was not an option. It stayed exactly at 315 degrees, which was fairly optimum anyway.

Photos of this unusual arrangement will be available on my website shortly.

Sean set up his new aerial that is designed to work from 6m to 30m when complete. It isn’t yet - this was a prototype, but the SWR was flat as intended on 20m, 17m and 10m (other bands not yet tested). Sean worked three local G stations on 10m SSB, then I worked four on 10m CW then three on 17m CW.

All good fun by torchlight, and the customary stop in the Harrington Arms for decent ale broke the return journey pleasantly.

Cheers,

Tom M1EYP

92

In reply to M1EYP:
The aerial worked just as planned, contest on 20m (for a change) and a bit late in the day for the higher bands, good reports on 10m though via ground wave. Sean M0GIA

93

Another M0GIA / M1EYP joint activation on the evening of Saturday 19th September 2009. This was a last-minute opportunist effort, in-between running Dad’s Taxis for a bowling trip for Jimmy and his mates. Fortunately Macclesfield’s AMF Bowling centre is right on the south edge of town (behind the football ground) and handily placed to quickly adjourn to G/SP-015!

There was no evidence of life anywhere from 17m to 10m, apart from a weird beacon sounding thing on 18.110MHz that gave LU4AA then something else starting ‘C3’. Research has indicated it should have gone onto OA (Peru), so not sure what happened there. Sean wasn’t bothered about operating, so I went straight for 20m CW.

Results were somewhat mediocre, but not sure yet whether it was the atmospheric conditions or the working conditions that were chiefly responsible. In the logbook went Russia, Ukraine and three G stations all within 25 miles of me!

Not in the logbook - called but not answered - were USA, Martinique and 1B - “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus”. Over on SSB, Sean heard very loud signals from USA and Brazil, but couldn’t get himself heard either.

Then came the call that Jimmy and his mates were ready for the return trip.

Thanks to Sean for the company. Development work on new aerials continues, as does self-training in wireless telegraphy.

Tom M1EYP

94

In reply to M1EYP:

Hi Tom.

The N5 you nearly worked was in the rarish state of Arkansas. He was working a W7 so guess you should have beamed long path to work him ;>)

73

Reg G3WPF

95

And so to the next one. Tuesday evening 22nd September 2009, and the 6m activity contest. The Macclesfield club are doing reasonably well in this one (3rd place after last month), and members were out in force again. Roger G0BSU/P operating from nearby Biddulph Moor posted the best score out of any club members, but Adrian M0PAI/P (IO93) and myself weren’t far behind. In addition, Greg 2E0RXX/P was out on Wincle Minn and Jimmy M3EYP participated from the home shack.

You can tell the nights are closing in. It was surprisingly gloomy as I ascended at 7.30pm local, and the headtorch was required halfway through setting up the 6m delta loop antenna on summit. I didn’t bother with the luxury of the tent this time, but took the bothy bag up in case shelter was needed.

It wasn’t. It was a lovely mild and clear evening, with an attractive starlit sky above. Activity was reasonable; not the busiest I’ve ever heard, and no DX, but a good selection of multiplier squares, 13 in total. I thought I had a S2S at one point, but further discussion with M0NUT/P on Walbury Hill G/SE-001 confirmed that they were operating from a car.

In the end, it was 46 QSOs, 45 on SSB, 1 on CW and 0 on FM (yes I did try 6m FM). No Harrington Arms tonight, just a visit to Shell in Congleton to fill up with diesel. Many thanks to all callers.

Tom M1EYP

96

And six and a half hours later, it was time for the next SOTA activation of The Cloud. I hadn’t done an early morning pre-work one for a while, so I made the effort on Wednesday 23rd September 2009.

Walking up from Cloudside at 6.50am local, there was a slight nip in the air, but it was still generally mild like last night. I assumed the same operating position as the previous evening, but this time feeding into the 40m dipole.

Just six QSOs were made on 7.032MHz CW, but then again I was only running 1 watt after discovering that both my SLAB and internal were virtually flat! That one watt still got me into DL, HB, OE and OK though, courtesy of the magic of CW.

A speculative call on the VHF handheld was responded to by the ascending Gerald G4OIG, but already in the AZ. I was soon chatting with Gerald as he arrived on summit and setting up his beam for 2m and 70cm. My final call on 40m CW was unanswered, so I packed up and left the summit for Gerald. First though, I tried to take a photo, only to discover that those batteries were flat as well! A couple swapped from a headtorch did the trick.

Upon returning to my car at Cloudside, I worked Gerald on 144.333MHz SSB for a chaser point, and then enjoyed my commute to work while listening in to the rest of his activation, including an SWL point for 70cm SSB. Much more interesting than Radio 5!

Later on, Gerald’s appearance on Gun G/SP-013 coincided perfectly with a plannning & prep period between classes, and I worked him as M1EYP/A from the school station (Shirley MW0YLS’s old rig). A pleasant morning.

Tom M1EYP

97

In reply to M1EYP:

A pleasant morning indeed Tom. I somehow thought we might meet up on The Cloud or possibly on the path between the parking spot and the summit. Despite having been delayed a little on the A523 by a pair of slow lorries trolling along with a gap of half a car’s length between them (so no chance of passing), I still managed to arrive early and get up to see your summit shack in operation. I must say I now see what keeps you going back up there - the summit far exceeded my visual expectations.

The tally on The Cloud was 8 on 2m SSB, 4 on 70cms SSB and 2 on 4m FM. I stayed a little longer than intended, but still had enough bunce in my schedule to get me onto Gun before the time I had posted. From there I worked 12 on 2m SSB, 7 on 70cms SSB/CW and 14 on 30m CW. Some signals, including your own, were so strong that the room acoustics were very evident. A bit like the old AM days on 80m… okay, before your time Tom! Gun also exceeded expectations and I had a pleasant 90 minutes on air from up there, again overstaying. However, I was still off to my seminar ahead of schedule - well I had allowed for poor weather conditions. Thankfully none came and despite the cool breeze it was very pleasant in the mix of sun, cloud and rain droplets.

Activating these two summits before the seminar in Nottingham was a piece of pure inspiration from my XYL. At around 100 or so add-on miles for the two summits, they produced considerably better value for mileage (and money) than my two closest summits Wendover Woods CE-005 and Bardon Hill CE-004. Those summits each entail around two and a half hours drive time and between 90 and 100 miles round trip.

Gerald G4OIG

98

Aha! Now you’ve been smitten by the convenience and surprising appeal of Gun, not to mention The Cloud, that you’ve now seen is a stunner as one-pointers go, will you be able to maintain your 100% unique addiction.

One day, I guarantee, you will return. And I bet you actually feel like you want to as well. Glad you enjoyed SP-015 as much as I always do (what more inspiring place could one choose to do one’s daily CW practice?), and it was very pleasant to begin the working day with that enjoyable early morning natter.

Good luck with your Fair Snape Fell / Cracoe Fell expedition this coming winter. Cracoe Fell was brilliant with fresh snowfall when we did it. Fair Snape Fell can be a classic fell walk in decent weather, or a preview of purgatory otherwise!

Tom M1EYP

99

In reply to M1EYP:

There’s absolutely no chance of me breaking the 100% Uniques “addiction” (never thought of it that way) for the foreseeable future, though at some stage it will be the only way to continue in SOTA… maybe when a GM/SS is the most convenient new summit. Of course, the northern French summits are closer, but there is a splash of water in between to overcome.

If I had a Cloud equivalent near here, I’d certainly be up there chasing the 2m SSB activations. As it is, the nearest lump of any merit is Honey Hill (SP639769) which is 17 miles / 30 minutes away. Hardly convenient for nipping out to during work hours. I do occasionally use a local ripple, but only when the path is an impossibility from the home QTH due to the local topography.

Gerald G4OIG

100

In reply to G4OIG:

Of course, the northern French summits are closer, but there
is a splash of water in between to overcome.

Gerald, you are welcome ! just need few hours swimming with the radio…

Tom, Jimmy:
Happy birthday Jimmy !

73 Alain F6ENO