Activation of GW/NW-063 on the 28/02--01/03--02/03

Old Reflector
1

Hello All

first of the activation was on the 28 what a day it was sunshine all day got up for a day at 8:00 started up the hill at 9:30 and up and running at 10:30 to start of the day was Sean MW3PZO/P on 2meters ON GW/NW-026 then on 20meter and there was OE/DM1LE/P on OE/TI-579 anther S2S in the bag then MW3RNI was just saying was on when I asked if there was someone on CW it surprised me when I asked and he said that MM0GYX/P was on 7.033 cw so off I went to look and made my first ever CW contact on a summit!! then I went back on to 2 meters and found MW0IML/P Barry and Aled MW0UPH/M and made the contact with them then I thought it was about time I put out a CQ so got MW3RNI to put a spot on for me at 11:18 and started with 40 meters making 17 contacts before Mike (2E0YYY/P) called in and made S2S with him on G/SP-013 then made 10 more contacts on 40 meters before I went on to 20 meters only making 2 contact with MW3RNI and N4EX then I went back to 40 meters to make the S2S with Barry (MW0IML/P) then went to make a contact with G8CBU on 40m and one more contact on 20 meters and then back to 40m to make the S2S GX0OOO/P on G/NP-016 then one more contact 40 into EI then S2S with G4ASA/P-40M, MW0KCB/P-17M, G6MML/P-40M, on SSB then to CW for a S2S at 13:27 with HA5LV/P and HA5MA/P then a S2S with Jimmy (MW0HGY/P) on there first summit of the day GW/NW-033 and with Tom (MW1EYP/P) also on NW-033 then went 20 meters to another CQ out and then made contacts with 11 more then put out a CQ on to 40m at 14:31 and made 7 contacts then at 14:39 put out CQ on 2 meters a made contact with (GW3DRV, GW0YBF/M ) then one more contact on 40m then on to top band and made one contact then at 16:20 made S2S with Jimmy on 2m and Tom on 40m then the last contact for the day was EW8O on 17m at 16:38 then packed up and went down.

72 contacts.
16 S2S contacts giving me 39 points.

Dxcc
2m GW
40M GM,GW,G,GI
20M OE,GW,W,HA,EA,DL,OK,I,RA9,OM
17M GW,EW

21 DXCC all together

01/03/2013

anther day up at 08:00 for a quick activation to get Jimmy and Tom (MW0HGY/P,MW1EYP/P) on Nw-009 Cader on the hill at 09:30 and making my way up at 10:30 I was up and running my first contact for the day GW4VPX who came back to my first call 145.500 then went on to make a contact with GW8SFT/M then at 11:18 I put out the first call for the day HF 20meters first to come back to my call was W1OW then on to make 11 contacts then went on to 30 meters for the first ever time on a summit and made a S2S with DL/HB9BIN/P on DM/BW-101 at 11:51 then on to 40 meters at 11:56 to make 20 contacts and then G6MML/P calls in and we make the S2S of G/LD-050 then I QSY to 20 meters to make my first S2S with OK1DVM/P on OK/VY-044 then I go have a look to see if Jimmy was on yet and make a S2S with G6WRW/P on G/WB-003 at 12:18 then on to 30 meters to make a S2S with MM0GYX/P on GM/CS-121 then on to 40meters again on the hope that this time I would make the contact Barry (MW0IML) 7 contact plus Barry then QSY for the last time to 20 meters and only make the contact with W4ZV then at 13:35 about I started to pack up, I then went on 2 meters and there was Jimmy on NW-009 at 13:40 then back up the rest of the stuff and make my way down.

47 contacts.
6 S2S contacts giving me 22 points.

Dxcc
2m GW G
40M G,GW,DL,GI,PA
20M EA,G,LZ,LA,DL,OZ,OK,W
30M DL,GM

12 DXCC all together

02/03/2013

Saturday 2 last day of the three of GW/NW-063 up at 07:00 on the way up the hill at 09:00 and up and running at 10:00 missed a lot of summits that I had hope to get so I stated the day 40 meters at 10:16 making 14 contacts before Mike (2E0YYY/P) call in and we make the S2S with him on G/SP-004 then make three more contacts on 40 meters then at 10:46 make a S2S with EA2BSB/P on EA2/NV-070 and then EC2AG/P on EA2/SS-031 at 10:51 then at 11:17 make the contact with HA2PP/P on CW on 17 meters on HA/KD-004 then on to 2 meters and make a S2S MW3PZO/P and 2W0WDS/P on GW/NW-050 at 11:21 then a S2S with 2E0GDA/P on G/WB-002 hear on three summit but only one s2s then on to make a S2S with HA2PP/P 17m-ssb, G4ASA/P 40M-CW on G/SP-008, F6HBI/P 17M-CW on F/AM-377, then with DK7MG/P 30M-CW on DL/MF-025 at 12:18 then with GW7RKC/P GW6OVD/P 2M-FM on GW/MW-001 then OK1DIG/P 20M-CW on OK/ST-023, then with Jimmy MW0HGY/P on GW/NW-021 on 2m at 12:41 then with GW4CQZ/P on GW/NW-044 on 2m then G4ASA/P 40M-SSB on G/SP-008 then I make may first ever contact with Northern Ireland with MI0RRE on 2 meters at 13:10 150 miles away on the old alinco hand held then back on 40 meters SSB to make S2S with DL6HH/P on DM/NW-178 at 13:15 then on to make a S2S with Barry on GW/NW-013 then on to make contact with G4ZRP and G6ODU and then back to 30meters to make a S2S with F6ENO/P on F/PE-322 at 14:07 then put out my last CQ for the day on 20meters at 14:15 5 contact and one CW then on to 2 meters make the contact with GW8WNK/P then with Tom who is /M on his way to my summit we meet at the top of the summit at about 16:30 then last contact for me is K0TV who is in the contest. Then we make are slow way down after the sun set. One of the best days out so far.

50 contacts.
20 S2S contacts giving me 59 points.

Dxcc
2m GW G GI
40M G,GM,GW,ON,DL
20M EA,OK,OM,OZ,W
30M DL,F
17M HA,F
15M W

12 DXCC all together

All three days reports

All together contacts 169
All together S2S contacts 42
All the S2S points 120

All the Dxcc on the bands

2M G,GW,GI
160M GW
40M GM,GW,G,GI,PA,DL,ON
30M DL,GM,F
20M OE,GW,W,HA,EA,DL,OK,I,RA9,OM,G,LZ,LA,OZ
17M GW,EW,HA,F,
15M W

Ricky
MW6GWR

2

In reply to MW6GWR:

Hi Ricky,

I’d never have known that was your first summit based cw contact. You sounded great and it was an efficient exchange, here’s hoping for many more. I think you must have been around 16 wpm?

I’ve not been a cw op that long and still trip over my characters, but the chasers are a forgiving bunch (-:

Oh, we had another cw s2s the next day too!

73,
Ian MM0GYX

3

Great to meet you on GW/NW-063 yesterday Ricky, and thanks for slowing down your pace to help me get down that horribly steep final descent!

I understand now why you are only calling other SOTA stations on CW, rather than putting out CW CQ calls yourself. Well, with what you can already do with CW you are almost there. Just a little practice at reading callsigns is all you now need.

RuFZ.xp is a very effective tool in rapidly improving your ability to read incoming callsigns. A bit of training on this, and you’ll be ready to call CQ in CW on your activations soon. Here is the link:

73, Tom M1EYP

4

In reply to M1EYP:

I understand now why you are only calling other SOTA stations on CW,
rather than putting out CW CQ calls yourself. Well, with what you can
already do with CW you are almost there. Just a little practice at
reading callsigns is all you now need.

Hi Ricky,

Let me add to Tom’s comment. I did not realize you operated CW until I happened to hear you calling another SOTA (HB9AFI/P?) a few days ago with very nice CW. When I saw you spotted below 14150 om 2 March (to avoid the ARRL contest QRM) I decided to try calling you on CW. I was delighted when you replied on CW with a very nice fist at a decent speed.

We have several USA activators new to CW who are not nearly as proficient as you already are. So please consider more CW operations. It’s so much better for weak signals such as we often have between EU and NA. I think you’ll find that most ops will slow down to match your speed…which I recall is already very acceptable at 18-20 WPM.

73, Bill W4ZV

5

In reply to W4ZV:

I was considering calling cross-mode s2s when Ricky was activating SSB the other day as I use a KX1 for my sota activities. Wasn’t sure how it would go down with the pile-up, as it was he came to my qrg, cw. I’ll probably give it a go next time Ricky, ok? Obviously you could reply cw or ssb, the kx1 has good ssb hearing.

Ian MM0GYX

6

In reply to MM0GYX:
Hello Ian

Thank you for the 2 CW S2S I think I was sending at 18wp. yes I look for would to a lot more SSB/CW contacts I am going out Tuesday the 5th I see you are planing to be out as well on GM/WS-198 so hope to make the S2S but I won’t be able to stay long as I am planing on doing three summits.

Ricky
MW6GWR

7

In reply to M1EYP:
I don’t think I will ever call CQ SOTA on CW but you never know glad you came up NW-063 thanks for the link I will have a look later. I hope to make a lot more S2S contacts this year.

Ricky
MW6GWR

8

In reply to W4ZV:
Hello Bill

I am clad we made the contact in CW I could hear you just not able to pick out what you were saying but thanks to OZ4RT who said that a W4 was calling me I was able to pick out the rest. I look for would to a lot more contacts in SSB and some CW.

Ricky
MW6GWR

9

In reply to MW6GWR:

Ok Ricky, fb.

I’m not going to be long at the summit tomorrow as my priority is the rock climbing, it seemed a shame not to activate the summit which is spitting distance from the top of the last pitch. My climbing partner isn’t a ham so I don’t want to keep him waiting too long, just long enough to bring him into the sota habit maybe.

I’ll be qrv about 1400 hopefully.

73,

Ian, MM0GYX

10

In reply to MM0GYX:

Off topic alert…

Wouldn’t be doing Adverikie Wall would you? One of my favourites.

Edit: ooooops! Just looked at your Alert. Very envious of you doing this route tomorrow.

73
Gerald
2W0GDA

11

In reply to 2W0GDA:

Hi Gerald,

It’ll be my 3rd time (it’s not my turn to lead the even pitches though )-:), only a couple of hrs away. It’s a nice one to get back in to the routine, not doing it in big boots though, hard enough with a 7 metre fishing pole!

Ian, MM0GYX

12

In reply to MM0GYX:

, hard enough with a 7 metre fishing pole!

Ha ha ha! It’s bad enough having people come up to you when out walking and ask what on earth the fishing pole is for. I can just see you arriving at a stance and someone looking at you with amazement and asking “what on earth is that for!?”.

Superb.

73
Gerald
2W0GDA

13

In reply to 2W0GDA:

You can tell them that it is for pre-placing protection!

Looks a fine route, I’ve never done it myself, I used to spend a lot of time in Poldubh (Blackpool!)

73

Brian G8ADD

14

In reply to 2W0GDA:

We’ll just say it’s a new, experimental piece of active protection, very hush hush!

Ian MM0GYX

15

In reply to MW6GWR:

Hi Ricky,

Thanks for the excellent activation reports, they are very much appreciated by many :slight_smile:

I have to congratulate you on activating with CW & from some of the comments from those you have worked, making a superb job of it. 16WPM is not to be sniffed at, after all it is a good 4WPM faster than the 12WPM test I & many others had to do to gain access to HF. That was the most nerve-wracking test I have ever taken in my life, despite being friends with the examiner & him doing his best to put me at my ease.

Having had a semi-break from radio I found I had forgotten a considerable amount of Morse when I did become more active again a few years ago. Since then I have been using CW more & more and now finally feel that I am making real progress. I am on the cusp of having my brain treating Morse as a language of it’s own, rather than having to translate into English & then write / type what I have heard. To me at least, that seems to be the key (no pun intended) to being truly fluent in any language. As I am sure you have found, a marginal SSB contact can be a good CW contact, so it is certainly a useful mode to be able to use.

Very well done Ricky, I hope to work you on the key sometime soon :slight_smile:

Thanks & best 73,

Mark G0VOF