I’m experiencing a strong sense of dejavu here Brian @G8ADD, and I think Matt @G8XYJ has hit the nail on the head!
I’m sure I’ve made the point to you before that the bands could appear dead if several thousand ops, like yourself, are monitoring and waiting for something else to happen!
As I’ve said, in recent months I’ve activated Bredon Hill, Dundry Down, May Hill, Walton Hill, Cleeve Hill, Walbury Hill, Bardon Hill, Brown Clee Hill, Titterstone Clee Hill, Corndon Hill, The Wrekin, Caer Caradoc, Stiperstones, Long Mynd-Pole Pank, Corndon Hill, Gyrn Moelfre, Mynydd-y-briw, Heath Mynd, Callow Hill, Burrow, View Edge, High Vinnalls and Worcestershire Beacon, all with just a 5 watt handheld with rubber duck on 2m FM.
So it can’t be the case that the English Midlands are a VHF desert - but could be that, like you Brian, everyone is sat waiting for someone else to call!
Hope to be QRV late afternoon on Friday (Brown Clee) and mid morning Saturday (Titterstone Clee). I will be cycling from a campsite nearby if all goes well.
Heads up! It is the Long Mynd Hike this weekend, mid day Saturday to mid day Sunday, 500 runners / walkers taking in Caradoc / Long Mynd / Stiperstones / Corndon and a lot of non-SOTA hills in between.
This shouldn’t prevent any activations, but some summits might be quite busy!
The fact that this discussion - and countless others - is taking place on the Internet, might be a bit of a clue…
That is your problem!! Pick up the mic and start calling. I have a new 9700, called CQ for 10 minutes on 2m SSB from home on Saturday morning, 3 QSOs later it proved the rig was working. 100 watts to a 6 ele beam, nothing special. I am sure that most of those QSOs would have been easily done on 5 watts, but it is a new toy and I wanted to run QRO!
Once again massively off topic
Back on topic
Richard bring your fusion HH and you can see how you get on with that in the WB area. I can work you on FM and C4FM - I will be intrigued to see how the FT2D deals with the Clee Hills, both with and without your filters
Matt XYJ
Can you tell the cricket season is over! Now have time for radio!!!
Sorry Richard, but I have stated several times that topic creep is so prevalent on this and other sites that I have no intention of wasting time and energy combatting it. As this thread shows, amongst all the noise the topic keeps re-surfacing so there is no harm in relaxing and enjoying it!
I hope to work you this weekend and will follow your experiments with interest, but also expect to be busy outside - strange SWR effects on my main doublet have been tracked down to the far end having come down while I was in Cornwall and I shall have to untangle it from an apple tree and get it back where it belongs, this unfortunately will reduce shack time, I can’t delay it as I am frequently active on at least five of the bands that it covers.
Testing completed on Brown Clee, Titterstone Clee and The Wrekin. I was easily able to make contacts on all three using a Baofeng UV3r (plus the filter). Without the filter I could not hear anything on Brown Clee or The Wrekin. I think that’s a success.
Richard
Please see my offer to test the filter further under the heading of ‘VHF/UHF on GM/SS Summits near Langholm’!
I don’t find a problem, usually, on Titterstone Clee, can get out of the way of the mast on The Wrekin but have to use a rather heavy 2m helical filter (made by M0JLA) on Brown Clee - or talk on 70cm which usually gets quite busy. Keep up the good work!
Viki M6BWA
Thanks for your offer Viki (the sixth I have received so far). Unfortunately I only have one prototype so I will have to decline. It sounds like you have a suitable filter for your trip in any case. I hope that it goes well.
No idea of pricing yet. We are currently doing some more thermal testing of them. In one way it’s a simple product but to do it properly is more challenging. We prefer the proper route.
