90 minutes, 2 activations

Activation Reports
1

I set off from home at 2315z. I returned at 0045z. Two activations were recorded!

Friday 10th November 2017: The Cloud G/SP-015

2m FM - 1 QSO!

Saturday 11th November 2017: The Cloud G/SP-015

2m FM - 1 QSO!

I was amazed at the lack of traffic on VHF. In years gone by whenever I have performed such a stunt, I’ve had plenty of takers on 2m, even at much later times! I don’t think we are contemplating the demise of VHF here in the North West though as several other channels were occupied by a QSO in progress.

The weather was cold, with a bit of breeze and drizzle. A couple of patches of the path in between the big staircase and the start of the National Trust land were very muddy and treacherous.

Many thanks to all the station that worked me :wink:

2

Good thing that Jimmy was about. Maybe the novelty of working M1EYP on The Cloud and Gun in the middle of the night has finally worn off? Or perhaps people assumed that you would have forgotten to charge up your batteries/take an antenna and so went to bed instead…

Too late for a trip to the pub on the way back too.

Good effort though.

3

Not a demise, perhaps, but the collapse in activity seems to be spreading to your area now!

4

It wasn’t Jimmy. Although he was still up when I got back - grrr :wink:

No it was M6TCB, Peter, an ex serviceman who told me about a fall he’d had on Sharp Edge, Blencathra G/LD-008, resulting in the loss of leg.

1 Like
5

One swallow doesn’t make a summer Brian @G8ADD !

6

Listened for you until 0030, nothing heard
Which is strange as i normally have no problem making contact with G/SP 015 from my Wirral QTH.
Better luck next time !

7

Thanks Neil.

That’s very surprising that we didn’t work. I was calling constantly from 2350 to 0010. I was only on handheld with rubber duck, but I would have expected to have made the trip to you nonetheless.

8

How sharp is that edge?

9

By English standards fairly sharp! http://keswickmrt.org.uk/rescues/sharp-edge/

Can’t comment on 2m ( Home QTH despite being 1000ft ASL is totally surrounded - even broadcast radio does not make it! ), but have listened a bit on 60m. This is still a bit of a novelty as most of my time as an active amateur was before WARC, and either my antenna is even worse that I thought or it is almost always empty!

10

Too “sharp” when wet :worried:
The rock has very low adhesion. If mountain goats go that way I’m more of a mountain pussy cat

11

Not too bad when it’s dry. I would not contemplate trying it if it was even damp, especially during the winter when there was any chance of icing. The part I didn’t like was an angled slab of rock around 4 metres long with nothing to get hold off. You needed to keep your body weight low by crouching and edge your way over it until you reached a more rugged section where you had something to hold on to.

Here is Geoff M0PYG starting off and then on the scrambly bit approaching the top of Sharp Edge in July 2011 - before he got his ham licence so he didn’t get the points but I did…

Sharp Edge start.JPG2560×1920 1.92 MB

Sharp Edge Geoff.JPG2560×1920 1.93 MB

73 Phil

1 Like
12

Panic over. Normal service resumed today with 5 easy QSOs in quarter of an hour from G/SP-015 - with a 2m handheld. :slight_smile:

13

The second picture is close to the view on the SOTA certificates!