A Joint Activation with Tom and Jake (with 433 Alive)

Activation Reports
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I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Well done to all that got out, and to those who chased from home.

Rewinding to the start of the week, it seemed like this weekend was going to be a total write-off for summits across the North of England. Heavy rain and winds forecast apparently translates to me as “whatever, I’ll do a two summit weekend”! :laughing:

Saturday 21st February was a slightly smaller hill, Rogan’s Seat (G/NP-014). Walking up from Keld was lovely, but it soon got bleak once I got to the track at the top. A mostly featureless summit left a lot to be desired for. Exclusively activating on VHF and UHF FM, I was most pleased to descend with 13 QSOs ITL. Three S2S stations called in too, which was great. Notably M9OUD/P - my trusty S2S hero.

Great Whernside - Sunday 22nd February 2026

Now, this certainly isn’t a lovely summit to be stuck on during high winds - but we did it anyway!

Jake, M0PVC, and I ascended from Kettlewell - bagging free parking (almost as rare as a making a contact on 70cm :wink: ). We arrived at the summit an hour before our alerted time, proving to ourselves that we are clearly getting a bit too good at hillwalking… or we’re just rubbish at estimating our arrival :joy:

I thought it would be good to try 70cm first, given it was the day of 433 Alive. CQ CQ CQ… and I had my first contact ITL. Tony, M9OUD/P, from the summit of Helvellyn, G/LD-003. Mark, G7SXR, was quick to be #2 ITL.

We moved to 2m for a bit and our joint activating skills really started to perfect. We had such a great time speaking with so many operators for the first time - the bands were on fire today.

Jake lugged up his brilliant Yaesu FT-891 so we could play HF as well. His homebrew antenna worked wonders for us on 17m, working Spain, Bulgaria, Switzerland, Slovenia, and Italy. We’d decided 20W would be enough, as we were way too close to the antenna and didn’t want to be cooked alive. Those 20w’s did us proud for sure.

In total, I logged 35 QSOs in my logbook across the three bands. A truly action-packed activation:
70cm FM: 10 QSOs
2m FM: 18 QSOs
17m HF: 7 QSOs

Great Whernside M1TJM M0PVC
Great Whernside M1TJM M0PVC1920×1440 404 KB

M1TJM and M0PVC activating VHF, UHF, and HF on G/NP-008.

The Main Event: 433 Alive

A VHF pile-up from a well-activated summit is rare in itself… but today, we experienced something that hasn’t happened before - a pile-up on 70cm!! It felt glorious, and we were definitely rather smug when we checked the radio to double check we hadn’t accidentally switched back to 2m.

We achieved eight wonderful QSOs in around 20 minutes on 70cm. Jake was operating the Yaesu FTM-7250D with 25w using the slim-jim built for 2m, and I was operating a Yaesu FT3D handheld with the Diamond SRH-771 whip which boasts a 3 dB gain on 70cm.

It was truly amazing to see so much activity, and I’m glad that I and many other activators continue to give this band a chance - it more often than not surprises us. So… when shall we plan for the next 433 Alive day? Let’s just make it every day, hey :star_struck:

Conditions

  • Wind Speed: 35 mph WSW
  • Temperature: 4°C (windchill of -3°C)
  • Rain: None - surprisingly!
  • Cold: Yes!!!

Future Mini Challenges

We got thinking - now that’s dangerous! We are hoping to bring a very rarely used mode and another under-used band into the mix. More on this to follow… it’ll be a surprise for now :hear_no_evil_monkey:

Summit to Summits

Time (UTC) Frequency (MHz) Callsign Summit Reference
11:18 433.450 M9OUD/P G/LD-003
11:55 18.132 HB9EVF/P HB/TI-151
11:57 18.132 HB9HXJ/P HB/TI-151
12:02 145.350 G0XDX/P G/SP-001
12:12 145.350 GW4TJC/P GW/NW-048
12:28 433.450 G1OXH/P G/SP-004

A truly excellent day out in the hills. I do wonder what I did this time last year before I knew anything about Amateur Radio and SOTA! It was great activating with M0PVC for the first time, he’s clearly an excellent operator and lives and breathes SOTA just like me :joy:

All the best and 73,
Tom
M1TJM

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Due to the weather forecast earlier in the week myself and Peter (M1BZJ) decided to skip our usual haunt of G/SP-017 for a car based outing instead. Other than the wind it remained dry all day.

Our chosen spot was a road on the side of G/SP-010 Winter Hill which historically has been good especially for quick and easy radio operations

Which was a shame as our location had terrible breakthrough and radio desense from before noon till about 13:30 . I did hear you briefly but nowhere near well enough to make a qso.

From about 13:30 some of the QRN dissapeared and managed to get 12 in the log over an hour or so. The wind prevented deployment of a beam which could have mitigated some of the extraneous RF. Hopefully back to Billinge for the next one :slight_smile:

So… when shall we plan for the next 433 Alive day?

The “official” (nothing really official about them :slight_smile: ) dates are about 3 months apart. So I would expect the next one to be around May. Hopefully the weather will be kinder.

If you do Facebook, there is a 433 Alive group where announcements and reports are posted.

And why not. Personally, I do like 70cm and more recently 23cm and there have been times I;ve not made it down to 2m FM. There do seem to be hotspots for activity and the NW England and North Wales is defnately one.

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Thanks for a great report, and well done for braving the elements!

Yes, I often wonder what I did with my life before discovering these two things!

73, Matthew

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Thanks for sharing your report Tom. It sounds like you had a great weekend and are making some good friends through SOTA. I look forward to reading of your next adventure.

73, Kevin

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Hi Ian,

Thank you for your great reply. It really was a great day out - especially for 433 Alive.

You’ve sparked an interest in 23cm for me… it’s a band I hadn’t really considered at the moment, but do see quite a number of SOTA operators using it. Sounds cool!

Hope to make a S2S with you soon!

73, Tom

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Thanks Matthew! Making those contacts in the wind and rain makes it even more worth it sometimes.

I’m loving this winter bonus! Not too long left now.

Catch you on a S2S soon.

73,

Tom

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Thanks for your kind words, Kevin.

It really is a lovely community. I learnt a lot from my first joint activation, which I put into practice on Sunday for the second. I had a good teacher :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

73 for now,

Tom

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