Weather permitting (i.e it’s dry), I’ll be out on G/SP-008 (Boulsworth Hill) near Burnley tomorrow - on HF, 2M(FM) and 6M(FM) at around 10/10.30 UTC. I usually try 4M when out and about, but I’m going to give the home-brew 6M flower pot an outing, see if I can improve on the 2 contacts I made to Ross (G6GVI) and Harold (G0DOU) from Black Hill on 17th July.
73
Dave (M0JKS).
I put up my 6m vertical and had a listen for you, but nothing heard.
Sorry, onditions were terrible. Couldnt get the Sotabeams pole up (to hang the 6m antenna on) or the 2m yagi to point in the direction I wanted - the wind was too strong. Ill try again next time - hopefully the conditions will be more favourable.
73
Dave (m0jks)
Never been a fan of 2m beam on summit. Well done to you - appreciated the QSO today and boy did it sound coooold for August… I did use a 3 element for the 2m SSB/FM job when I started in 2005 but I gave it up after a month or two in favour of 2m FM to a vertical or if that wouldn’t cut it, I went HF. One of the experts who has mastered the art of taming his beam on 2m is Gerald G4OIG. He might come on and tell us the secret of keeping the beam in the preferred direction without having to carry up a metal mast clamped to a mounting plate so the antenna stays where you want to point it!
73 Phil
Ha ha, you have to talk to it nicely! I love using my 5 element and have regretted not taking up some summits where, for one reason or another, I have chosen to use something else. On my latest outing I worked Don G0RQL down in Devon from Ben Lui GM/SS-003 at a distance of 615km. Not a fluke as I worked him from Ben More GM/SS-001 and Stob Binnein GM/SS-002 a week and a half before. There was nothing special about conditions on either occasion.
Keeping the antenna pointing in the required direction depends on certain factors. The boom to mast connection is the main issue… I make sure mine is pushed down tightly onto the pole and sometimes wrap some electrical tape around the boom and pole. Then there is getting sufficient resistance to stop the pole rotating. I often use a bungie wrapped around the pole and secured to something fixed like the fence, trig point (see photo) or I have even attached it to the guys. Of course sometimes the weather is so dire that you can’t help but beam where the wind wants the antenna to point, but overall that doesn’t happen very often.
73, Gerald
