Okay, well what a change from my old days of Activating, only needed to walk a short distance to get in AZ, WX was Glorious Sunshine, and a most enjoyable day!
Started off on 23cm’s wasn’t expecting a great deal of calls and I was right! switched to 2m and surprisingly quiet again, but did get a bit busy on 2m FM, no calls on 2m SSB. kept swapping back and forth between the bands and modes and ended up with 8 in the log. 1 local 23cm contact and 7 on 2m FM.
I packed all the gear away after 2 hours. all in the boot when I heard Mick MW0XMC/P in a qso on 145.400 ,so used my Kenwood HH to grab a S2S with him on NW-004.
Overall a very enjoyable Activation of a unique for me, had fun doing portable today, I knew I was missing it so hope to get out and about again soon, will be doing LD Land in October so looking for fun and dry weather? Fingers crossed. Thanks to all who called in today and a special thanks to a couple of SWL’s (with Callsigns) and their Sour Grapes!
Wow! Another blast from the past! Having been off radio both working and SWL for 5 years and out of SOTA/WOTA everything is though. ISTR you went quiet on the SOTA front before we did. We started SOTAing a couple of weeks ago having got the radios working again - good to hear you are out and about also.
Sorry we couldn’t work you on Gt Orme and I don’t really understand why. Normally we can hear people on Gt Orme just using a h/h with rubber duck but not today. I could hear a station right down in the noise and looking at the reflector wondered if it was Phil OBK up in Scotland - I even convinced myself I could hear SS at one point and kept hoping it would come up for me to work. It was only when I heard Dave, G0EVV struggling to work you on his ascent that I realised it was you - your signal strength was 0. All but one of your stations worked seem to be in Wales which again is quite strange for the Orme??
I don’t know whether it was an antenna problem or strange conditions - although we couldn’t hear Mick on Glyder Fawr earlier and again that is normally an easy one for us to work (he did say he may have been sheltering from the wind on the wrong side of the rocks which can happen on GF).
Strangely I did hear you booming right through to the kitchen from the shack when you worked Mick S2S on you Kenwood h/h - go figure!
Good luck with your next activation.
73
Karen 2E0XYL (& Neil 2E0TDX)
I have altered the title to include both summits in one report. Today was the Anglesey trip to activate Mynnedd Bodafon, I, like others missed the turning for the park spot so doubled back. The walk was up but I found it surprisingly easy, so can definitely recommend it for less able walkers.
When we reached the Trig it was crowded with dog walkers, so we sat off to the west side of it on a great rocky outcrop that looked like a sofa. No calls on 4m after a 10-15min CQ, switched to 2m and found Tony MW5OTA/P on Snowdon, 1st of 5 S2S’s in the Log, qualified it with Andy G8CPZ/P S2S on Scafell Pike.
Thanks to all the other S2S’s today, “Such Fun!” as Miranda"s Mum says. Being less competitive with others, really makes SOTA FUN!!! Thanks also to John, GW4ZPL who was the only non S2S contact and has been great help across our trip here to get these 2 summits in logs
