2009 on The Cloud G/SP-015

Old Reflector
121

After nearly a fortnight off, and that cheeky young Nordic whippersnapper TM-049 trying to steal the limelight, I decided that The Cloud must be reactivated. The opportunity came on Saturday 21st November 2009. Disappointingly, I was forced into missing a Macc Town home match, due to the combination of Liam needing transport to/from a Christmas paper lantern making workshop in Congleton, and Marianne sleeping off a night shift. At least the 90 minutes of the workshop gave me a SOTA window, even if 90 minutes of football had to be missed.

I would rather not grumble about the weather, out of respect for those in Cumbria, but it was hideous. Still, I was fully waterproofed and also carried a bothy bag up to the summit. I erected the 20m Magic Moggy aerial on Cloud summit, and quickly hunkered down into the bothy bag.

The 20m band was packed with CW contest stations, there was barely room to breathe. I found a reasonable spot at 14.035MHz and self-spotted on Spotlite. Just six chasers called in, and they were worked with difficulty as the wind crunched noisily into the bothy bag. Even with the volume and the sidetone turned up fully on the 817, it was still difficult to hear properly.

All too soon, it was 3.30pm, and my deadline to pack away, descend and drive back to Victoria Mill, Congleton for the end of Liam’s workshop at 4pm. And he hadn’t enjoyed it at all.

I was mildly dischuffed about missing the footy for something Liam ended up not enjoying, so we drove back to Macc via the stadium. I managed to blag us both into the banqueting suite, from where we watched the last half hour of the game through the windows and out of the elements. Good job really, my coat was absolutely wet through after The Cloud, and now unusable.

So I was warm, dry, and just in time to see Bournemouth’s winning goal. I’ve had better days.

73, Tom M1EYP

122

Gaps between my SOTA activations are increasing alarmingly. My last actual scored point was Bardsey Island back in September. Now a ten day gap between two utterly pointless activations indicates that Jimmy and I need some proper Christmas outings in the upcoming festive season. I even elected to do last week’s RSGB 6m AC from the shack rather than the summit!

Resolve was greater on the evening of Tuesday 1st December 2009. It needed to be, as I set out on the short drive in heavy rain and strong winds. Fully waterproofed up, I ascended from Cloudside by torchlight and hit the full force of the wind on the summit. I doubted the wisdom of erecting a beam at 4m AGL in such conditions. But I went for it.

Three failed attempts later, and other collapse, and I had badly bent director and driven elements - and a reflector that was broken in half. I put the bruised and battered arrangement in the sky, more successfully, and settled into my bothy bag to escape the appalling weather and see if the antenna would work.

It did work surprisingly well. I made no effort to point in any particular direction - not sure what ‘direction’ the beam was in this state anyway - but QSOs came in from all over.

I had to be back early so that Marianne could go to work, so I went QRT at 9pm. I had worked several of the Macclesfield club, and a fair number of SOTA chasers by this stage. No DX as such with the limited time available - most of the South East / JO stations don’t turn their beams inwards until after 10pm - but plenty of activity with 37 stations worked in just under one hour.

The pack-away and descent was wet and horrible as expected, and I wasn’t overly concerned about not continuing with the remaining 90 minutes of the activity contest. The summit itself had a light covering of snow by 9pm, but just wet further down.

Thanks to all callers.

Tom M1EYP

123

In reply to M1EYP:

There was a couple of inches of the white stuff on top of t’moor not too far from you Tom and the prospect of getting down wasn’t too appealing especially with tyres on my car not being the all weather variety. A recovery truck driver stopped to ask for directions as I was tearing down: apparently someone had fallen off the road a mile past the pub.

A winter contest bonus for us hardy /P operators wouldn’t go amiss: a multiplier or two would be nice.

73, Chris M1DTJ

ps. Shame certain stations in JO01/02 don’t turn their beams inwards to check whether or not the frequency is in use before calling but hey that’s another story.

124

In reply to M1EYP:

I did wonder whether you would brave the conditions Tom - Paul and I copped the bad weather on the way home from our activations in North Wales and it was still going strong when I arrived home at 9.30 p.m., so I guess you got considerably wetter than we did. Having to dry out all the kit out is one of the worst aspects of a wet weather activation.

Hopefully you’ll make up for all of the pointless activations when the term ends. That’s when my enforced encarceration at the homestead starts! Still, the Fun Day should be a good event - as you see from the alerts, Paul and I intend to get a bit more action tagged onto that.

73, Gerald

125

Conditions braved again for the 70cm contest on Tuesday 8th December 2009. The clag was down as I started the walk past the strange uninhabited cottage on Cloudside. Interestingly, the path as been cleared to the cottage, as has what might become a driveway. The building has a new door and iron gate over it, and work is being done on the badly damaged roof. I wonder what is in store? I do hope it will either be second home I can buy ridiculously cheaply, or alternatively a 24 hour licensed cafe. I suspect neither.

Once onto the National Trust land on the open hill, I was soon regretting my complacency bred by over-familiarity. No boots, no trekking poles, just cheap trainers. And it was wet, muddy and slippy! Still, at least I know pretty well every footstep on this path, every jutting rock, every indentation and every puddle.

So walking with care from memory got me to the top, and I began to set up the SB6 70cm beam. It was very windy again, so I took particular care to do a decent job of guying, thus preventing the collapses and damage of the previous week.

Just after 8pm, I was inside the bothy bag and QRV on 432MHz SSB. The first hout was great, with 30 QSOs. The following 90 minutes was not so, with only nine further contacts added. G, GW, GD and GI were worked, but the GM stations couldn’t hear me calling them. Nothing was heard from JO01, JO02 or JO03 disappointingly, but at least I did get a SOTA chaser - Simon M1AVV - work me from IO84. Most other contesters didn’t get 84, so that was something I suppose! It was very unusual not to hear Bryn G4DEZ from JO03, and strange because the others did get him.

The Macc club were out in force, with Greg 2E0RXX and Sean M0GIA at Teggs Nose, Roger M0GMG above Walker Barn (The Parking Spot Previously Known As Chaser Central), Adrian M0PAI somewhere in the Dark Peak and Jimmy M3EYP in the shack at home. Hopefully we will have done enough to secure our 3rd place for the year.

Just before the end of the contest, a CW signal was heard, and this time I did get GM in the log. 39 QSOs in total, but only 8 multipliers, so my score will be limited. Many thanks to all the chasers that worked me.

A pint of Robbie’s Mr Scrooge and a read of the paper at the Harrington Arms, Gawsworth, rounded things off for the last 70cm contest outing of 2009.

73, Tom M1EYP

126

In reply to M1EYP:

just cheap trainers

One of the best decisions I ever made was to stop faffing about with cheap/budget footwear and buy proper stuff. I found that bottom of the range Nike and Reebok stuff outlasts supermarket/cheap trainers by a much greater margin than the price difference would suggest. Now I’ve moved on to GoreTex “technotrainers”.

I’ve got a pair of Merrell GoreTex trainers with Vibram sole and a pair of Scarpa GoreTex trainers. Neither of these were cheap, the Merrells being around £85 and the Scarpas £50. However, they work. The soles grip in soft gloop as well as on rock and wet grass. The GoreTex works. I can walk through conditions that would leave your feet soaking wet such as muddy wet grass etc. They even worked when walking along the beach near San Diego when the Pacific decided to attack. The waves washed over the Merrells and my feet were nice and dry.

They feel just like ordinary trainers and you can wear them in hot and cold weather, the GoreTex doesn’t make your feet overheat which was a worry. The Scarpas feel as soft as slippers to wear but the sole is hard enough you don’t feel the ground through them. I wear them all the time instead of ordinary trainers now. They are the Martini of shoes… “anytime, anyplace, anywhere” I’m equipped for a walk. Of course for something planned I’d have my walking boots. But now if I fancy wandering about for any reason I’m suitably equipped. You can also run them under tap to wash the grot off too.

Money well spent in my view.

Andy
MM0FMF

127

In reply to MM0FMF:

Perhaps the clue is in the last sentence of Tom’s post?

128

It was a mix of enthusiasm and reluctance as my alarm went off at 6am this morning. My head hurt from the five hours’ sleep (though thankfully not from alcohol, which had been absent from the previous evening), but I was keen to fulfil my mate Greg 2E0RXX’s idea of a Christmas S2S between The Cloud (G/SP-015) and The Norway Cloud (Holtankollen LA/TM-049).

After making up a small flask of Green & Black’s hot chocolate, I ventured outside to discover a very cold morning, with everything on the ground iced hard overnight. I took the “defensive” route to Cloudside, through town and down the A523 to Bosley Crossroads, then back down the A54 towards Congleton. There were a few spots on my normal route through North Rode that might not have been too clever in these conditions.

As it was, even when I got onto Red Lane up to Cloudside, there weren’t any problems on the road surface. The only problem on the ground was underfoot just into the National Trust land on the open fell, which was very icy and slippy for the first few yards. This was after passing the stone cottage, which was now noted to have a brand new roof to go along with its new door, pathway and driveway.

I was on summit for about 7.30am, and began erected my tent. Then up went the 40m and 80m dipoles on the one pole, arranged like a starfish with just one back-guy used for support. It was very windy and very cold, and I was happy when it was time to crawl into the tent and zip down the doors!

Most of the work was on 40m CW, with 21 QSOs including one S2S with Joska HA5CW/P on Margita HA/KM-028. On 80m CW, I got 10 QSOs, while on 80m SSB there was a short run of 5 QSOs. However, it had now gone past 0945z, and still no sign of The Norway Cloud, either on the air or on SOTAwatch!

My friends from the Macclesfield & District Radio Society had arrived in the last hour, and were QRV on 20m SSB, 17m SSB and 10m SSB. They managed QSOs into Ukraine and Italy amongst others. Those involved were Greg 2E0RXX, Charles G0LVH, Roger M0GMG and Andy M1BYH, plus the club callsign of GX4MWS got an airing too. We were later visited by Ray M1REK and Andy M1LOL.

My final 80m SSB contact was with Frank G3RMD, who advised that the Norway team had just self-spotted for 7.1217MHz SSB. I managed to completed difficult QSOs with Kjell LA1KHA/P and Aage LA1ENA/P for the S2S, as they were only 32 and 31 respectively with me. I was pleased, and quite surprised to receive 58 reports from them!

It was snowing heavily on the summit at packaway time, and my boots and trousers soon got pretty wet. The other Macc club lads’ statistics may appear in due course. The summary for my activation was:

80m CW: 10
80m SSB: 5
40m CW: 21 (inc 1 S2S)
40m SSB: 2 (inc 2 S2S)

Many thanks to all who called me.

Merry Christmas.

Tom M1EYP