Just a quick heads up giving plenty of time - I have arranged a hotel in Girvan for Friday evening 29th July, and then a boat trip over to the Island of Ailsa Craig. I will be activating the summit of GM/SS-246 approximately 11:15 UTC on Saturday 30th July 2022.
So, if anyone wants to chase this summit, have a listen out for me on this day. I’ll be operating on 60/40/20m - SSB and 2m FM. I may try 80m if 60/40 aren’t good!
This is obviously subject to wx conditions, but I do hope it goes to plan and the boat can cross.
Look forward to working some stations from the SOTA community around the world
Hi Ben, I will be up on G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee Hill at around same time on that Saturday, I will be ops on 40m,20m,17m but will be qrp with 5 watts??
This is fantastic news Ben - I’ve changed my plans for next Saturday so I am at home when you travel to the “Island of the Curling Stones”, Ailsa Craig!
As a SOTA Completer when I activated the summit with Tom, Jimmy and company in 2009 I broke my own tradition by going down the hill with my 2m handheld to work Jimmy @MM3EYP/P as a Chaser. Out of 1034 Completes this is the only summit where I did this. So I’m looking forward to getting a genuine chaser QSO a week on Saturday so I have an unblemished Completer record! I’ll send you some pics via PM message so you can observe any changes on the island since we were there.
Hi @G1JPV Tony, yes we should manage a S2S on 40m if conditions for inter-g are good! Failing that, 20m may be a shot, I’ll have plenty of water around me don’t think 2m FM / SSB would work due to LD being in the way, I’ll have a check!
Would be great to make the qso, so I’ll listen out!
I have just checked my log for this activation and I did not work you on 2m FM from this summit when you descended this hill. From looking at the other logs though, I can see that it was Christine @GM4YMM/P who you worked to chase Ailsa Craig GM/SS-246 once you were outside the activation zone.
I’ve had three chases on 80m in the last week, two about 0900 UTC and one at 19.18, I agree that at the stated time 80m will probably be poor. 60m is more reliable but that can also be affected by D-region absorption at this time of year. I guess suck it and see is the pragmatic approach, but anyway I will be listening!
I have regular nets on 80 in the mornings, and the last week or three, by about 9:30am my reports have been 2 or 3 s-points down on what they’d been at 9am. Not so much of a problem with CW, but SSB starts getting scratchy unless you’ve got a hundred watts.
@M0LEP@G8ADD@M1EYP as you all say, bands are all over the place at present! I activated on ‘Hafod Ithel’ GW/MW-029 a week ago, called on 60/40/20m. As it was a nice afternoon, I decided to spot myself on 80m and have a shout out. I worked a further 6 stations who couldn’t hear me on 60/40m, so you never know!
Relatively nearby ground-wave contacts, or more distant?
This morning’s 80-metre net was initially blessed by unusually low noise. (Maybe all the kit that generates it had expired in the heat yesterday?) However, the QSB was getting quite bothersome by the time the net closed at 9:45 local, with the weakest other station dipping into the rising noise quite a bit of the time.
They were inter-g contacts, stations that said they couldn’t here me on 60 (40 wasn’t the best at all). I’ve found 80m noise floor to be extremely quiet over the past few weeks. I join and listen to the HZ net most mornings and stations are 5/9+. I suppose the bands are changing hour but hour at present.
I’ll stick a little extra wire in with me just in case
I should be on the ferry to Arran as you hit the summit, I wonder if I can seek permission from the master to operate, or does it even count as /MM? hmmm…
Fantastic Ben, we are active that day on a RAYNET exercise in North Antrim at the Armoy Road Races, Race of Legends, but we will have HF on board so will listen just in case…
don’t think 2m FM / SSB would work due to LD being in the way, I’ll have a check!
