At the start of the year, the team put together the 2026 2m/70cm CW and SSB challenge.
This might have completely passed me by as I didn’t have any gear to work those bands and modes. I’d looked into it but I didn’t want to buy a new radio.
@MM7MOX invited me for coffee last week and had a list of options for getting me onto the challenge scoreboard, including lending me his radio to do an emergency activation of Allermuir (GM/SS-171) on Hogmanay, but a more sensible choice was to get out on a hill as a pair and I could borrow his radio while we were there.
Today, we went out to Culter Fell (GM/SS-049) on what might be the last nice day of the year. Andy driving us both which was much appreciated.
The walk up was a bit marshy in places but the quite passable forecast seemed to underestimate the quality of the day. While I had mittens and hats and shelters in the bag, none of it was needed. A slight walk down the lea side and a burst of sunshine and it was a glorious day.
Now, getting an SSB contact to Ben Nevis wasn’t the original plan but I was very happy to take a contact from GB0NEV and his friend @MM8GGQ to assure me of a place in the challenge.
However the bit that really worked out was way back at the start of the year, @EI3LH shared how to flash custom firmwares onto a Quansheng to get it to support CW. I wasn’t any good at CW, but that was a me problem, not a gear problem.
Many hours with various websites and apps later and I’m nearly almost passable at it, and @MM0VPM was there to get me my first S2S 2m CW SOTA contact in the log.
There may have been some dancing.
After that it was an easy walk down the hill which was positively warm by this time and away to a cafe for hot chocolate and cakes.
Thanks for the challenge getting me to finally get some CW in my brain!
