A few weeks ago we did the first 2m PSK evening and I managed to work a few stations! To begin with I thought this was going be a flop, but there appears to be a little interest.
Anyway, the next 2m PSK evening is tomorrow (Thursday 17th April 2014 @ 1930BST / 1830z) and with this in mind I will be activating Bardon Hill (G/CE-004) using 144.138MHz.
Be good if we could get some activity on the waterfall - maybe I’ll see you there!
As one of the “early adopters” of SOTA-PSK, I would naturally, normally be out to participate in this event. However we will be on the road at that time en route to some South Wales SOTAing over Easter weekend.
Good luck and have fun … and please schedule another such event so that I can join in!
It’s tough trying to get people interested in this kind of thing sometimes - so rather than set out with a “use 2m psk more” motto, I’m hoping the “an hour every other week approach” will appeal more.
Anyway, the next 2m PSK evening is tomorrow (Thursday 17th April 2014
@ 1930BST / 1830z) and with this in mind I will be activating Bardon
Hill (G/CE-004) using 144.138MHz.
A couple of us from the Cambridge area hope to be active.
In reply to M0HCU:
Managed to break through the pile up myself didn’t have any movement on the display bar but still managed to pick up G7las/p.
Parked up at the lay by for accessing the Hoove and used the sota beam along with the ft 817 probably about 160km distance, enjoyable evening.
Thanks for the QSOs chaps - clearly I need to ‘tune’ up my system a bit, but it appears to have worked!
I’ve checked on Earth Tools and, Graeme, from Hoove to Bardon is ~198km… quite encouraging really!
Here are the main points I need to ‘tune’:
The android phone (with the DroidPSK app on it) needs throwing down into the quarry below. It’s a great application but when on a summit, it’s really fiddly to use and my fat fingers kept pressing the wrong “buttons”.
Something wrong with the four pole connector meant the phone’s microphone was being used instead of the audio input. This was making it pick up environmental sounds - not helping things…
The fishing pole is getting on a bit and keeps collapsing down, nearly taking my head off with the yagi each time
The radio is a TR-751e. It appears its frequency stability has a lot to be desired. This seems to have stabilised later in the activation. Having said that… it seemed to put out PSK at full whack (25w) without even getting warm.
I took a real keyboard with me to plug into the phone. I type at ~120wpm all day on the Dvorak keyboard layout. No issues with a bit of ‘non-macro’ PSK there then!!! WRONG - how tough was it typing on a keyboard on the ground, with cold fingers!!!
I can overcome all of these things with little difficulty though and I’m going to hopefully turn this into a slick operation. Where shall I go next…?
Wasn’t very well Tom, so ended up working from home. Managed to work a couple of stations, but I had one of those days where nothing went right. Mast collapse and local interference just two of the 439,322 things that went wrong.
