On Monday 1st April I had a successful 5 mHz activation of Ruardean Hill with 9 contacts. Thats all that need be reported of an activation where the car is visible from the summit, however somebody asked me if I was going to do any more bands. I replied in the negative as it was a spur of the moment thing, seeing the sign for Ruardean as we drove back from Ross to the campsite with a replacement airbed. However, after taking down the W3EDP antenna I thought “Why not!” as I had the 2 metre dipole in the rucsac. However, when I set up for 2 metres the FM calling channel and some channels each side of it were blocked by an S9++ noise sounding like a two stroke engine. It wasn’t worth trying to get through that so I packed up and returned to the car. Out of curiosity I tuned to the FM calling channel from the car and listened as we drove off to the SE. The noise was audible for something like a kilometre from the summit village before I switched off to start navigating.
Has anybody else heard this racket on Ruardean Hill?
73
Brian G8ADD