Parked near the Southern end of Thirlmere, where there is a short section of dual carriage which heads down hill towards Grasmere. The little gully that leads to Grisdale tarn is one of my favorite spots, full of little babbling waterfalls.
Took two hours to reach the farthest summit. St Sunday Crag. Decided to use my RT-65/ Diamond RH770, to see if I could get a quick activation, without setting up my FTM-3100 and Flowerpot on 5m mast. It was quite breezy and the mist was coming and going. Thanks to some very attentive hunters I had four contacts in three minutes and was done! Had a few chocolate coated raisins, a swig of tea and was off along the ridge to Fairfield.
It was blowing a āhoolieā on top of Fairfield! Visibility was down to 30m and it was raining fine slush. With little or no shelter from the wind I decided to try for an even faster activation. Hunkered down the best I could and got out the RT-65/RH770 combo again. As fate would have it G4OOE was calling CQ for SOTA from Buckden Pike as I switched on. We went to 145.450, exchanged details and he very kindly let me have the frequency to get three more contacts. Which I did over the next couple of minutes, again thanks to the hunters who were waiting. I did not hang around for tea and raisins this time and decided to get off the top and out of the wind. I know the summit well and was well equipped but was still very grateful for the line of cairns leading off the top of the summit as the visibility was poor.
In the shelter of the wall in the saddle between Fairfield and Seat Sandal I had a nice break in the relative calm and finished off my raisins and had more tea.
The summit of Seat Sandal was much more relaxed. The wind was much weaker, visibility was good and the wall near the summit provided great shelter for me and the 5.5m mast. Iād decided that after carrying the FTM-3100, flowerpot and 8m feeder and 5200mah battery, it should at least get some points. Although, Iām sure the little battery on the RT-65 and RH770 could have been good for another four contacts. I wanted to take a bit more time on this activation, trying to give any of the chasers who had not managed to get in the log during the last two manic activations a chance to get some points. I also wanted to test out a mini mic that Iād made for the FTM-3100.
Thanks. Did it last summer but only got 1 contact on Seat Sandel before battery went flat. Had a backup radio and limited the contacts on the early summits. Earned the winter bonus points!!
My favorite SOTA setup is using HF on lovely sunny days, with not much wind. Here is my setup. FX-4CR, Mini-Mic, Linked Dipoles (one for 40,20,17,12m another for 20,15 & 10) two 2200mah lipo 3s batteries and a 7m RG174 feeder with built-in balun at the feed point, which attaches at mast head of 5.5m fiberglass mast. It weighs 1465g in its bag with a notebook and half a pencil!. 1209g if I only take one battery and one of the dipoles.
When the weather or band conditions are not so great I will use 2m. The FT-65, with a Flowerpot on top of a 5m mast is good and Iāve had a number of contacts over 100 miles. But for remote summits 5W is just not enough so I tend to use the RT-65 as a backup radio, with the Diamond RH770, which works well. I started with a BTECH 30W amp to increase VHF power but then decided by the time I had two batteries, two speakers, more cables and connections, as well as more faff on the summit putting it all together, I might as well have a 30w radio with the nice flowerpot at 5m. I tried a Retevis RT95 which saved a lot of faff and a little weight but then decided I wanted to be able to power through activations on VHF, especially after just missing out on some summit to summit contacts. I then got my FTM-3100. It has 65W on high power and the receiver is excellent, combined with the forward facing speaker it is really a class above the other VHF kit I was using with much better reports both ways on the same power. With 65W the EMF calculator does require you to be 3m below and 2m away from the antenna though and this does require a longer feeder. The battery will only last 20mins on 65W too, so the idea is to use it when you need to.
When I first set it up my setup weighted 4kg! more mobile than portable. But Iāve changed from a 12Amp lifepo4 battery to a 5200 4s Lipo, taken all of the connections out of the feeder/antenna, made a mini-mic and reduced weight on all sorts of bits and pieces to get it down to under 2.5kg. Ok, yes, only 100g of that was the mic! But Iām working on it.
So, yes, good question āwhy have I got a 9g mic on a 1.3kg radio?ā Its because I will reduce weight where I can but not if it compromises the functionality of the radio and that was the day I wanted to test the mic out. The feedback was really good.
Open to any other ideas on reducing weight though.
To context that, on Friday I will be taking my ft-857d and 4200mah battery up a hill. Thatās 4kg. Iāll also be taking a Spiderbeams 7m pole, which is more than twice the weight of my Carbon 6. Itās my choice to carry 3.6kg more than usual. I donāt do it often!
Hereās a better idea.
Use a yagi with your handheld. My one weighs 100g. I have back to back tested it with 50w from a ftm-400 into a ā whip. Better signal reports on the beam.
A spare pencil is my one nod to equipment redundancy. If the āleadā breaks or wears down mid CW pile-up you havenāt got time to sharpen it with your bowie knife. BTW I hate writing with very short pencils.
As Iāve written [many times] on other threads, the Law of Diminishing Returns says reducing weight of the radio stuff below a certain point should be viewed in the context of all the other items you need in your rucksack not to mention the excess body fat many of us are carrying.
Iām usually more bothered by the packed volume rather than weight of my rucksack items. I prefer to take my smaller (20l) rucksack if I can.
Yeah, I saw that you had done that. Well done. Considered planning the route I did and adding Helvellyn but just though it was too much for me in the winter. Maybe a fast and light activation next year in the summer Thanks for the inspiration!
It was a long day. I did it on the 1st July so almost maximum daylight which I needed especially as I finished later than planned. I wouldnāt want to do it in winter. Or ever againā¦
Yeah Was a while ago when I was asking about your fast and light setup, you did a Vlog on it on your Youtube channel. I took your advice (although was quite happy with my BMI of 27) but still continued with my obsession with weight V functionality. Iām 362 points in now and your youtube channel has been a great resource of advice (even when I do it differently). Many thanks. Keep up the good work and enjoy your retirement, remember that every day is a school day now. Ian
