What meant to be a quiet, regular FM activation of a modest EI/IE-034 4-pointer turned out to be a remarkable SWL experience of a 2m band CW/SSB contesting.
It is all started with a lovely black cat crossing a road just before I’ve turned to the road to the summit I have no problems with cats even if they are black, so I’ve moved on.
Then, a (rat)pack of horses came in unusually close, silently asking what on Earth I am doing on their land on a Sunday afternoon.
Then, being just 15 minutes from the summit I’ve answered to Gerald’s @MW0WML SOTA CQ just on my HT and 1/4 telescopic, too early and no S2S this time!
The actual activation was slow, the band was really quiet. I’ve only managed to get 5 QSOs in almost an hour. But then I’ve recalled that there supposed to be a number of VHF contests in progress this weekend. However, that did’t help either, as I would expect some FM contest activity too, there was NONE though!
Keep scratching my head and quietly blaming myself why I still don’t have a multi-mode kit, I’ve realised that my Kenwood TH-F7 HT is actually multi-mode (RX only) on 2 meters! It took me few seconds to hook it to my beam and then the world has changed The CW/SSB portion of the band in contrast to FM was pretty much alive and felt almost like an HF band.
There were perhaps a dozen of stations all over. The most interesting to me was F5SGT/P as I’ve never heard a continental station on 2m while on my SOTA outings.
Fairly impressed, I’ve made some recordings, featuring F5SGT, G3SRT, GI3VFW, G8SRC, GW0GEI, EI6GF. I guess most if not all are club stations with some serious power budget, but still …
VHF Contest 2025-July-06 outtakes
73 de EI4JY, Alex