When I woke early to a warm and sunny morning it seemed a really good idea to nip up my local hill for a quick impromptu activation. So threw a few bits in a rucksack (my usual kit having been dismantled for tests and other purposes) and off I went. It was a bit cloudy by the time I’d arrived at the parking spot, and when I arrived at the summit after the 7 minute ascent there was the odd spit of rain in the air. Won’t amount to anything I thought, after all the forecast had only given 10% chance of rain…
By the time I was set up, a sharp shower had soaked me (no waterproofs of course!) and a stiff breeze had sprung up. A call on 80m thankfully brought a quick reply from Michael, EI3GYB but this heralded an intensification of the rain and by the time I’d logged the contact my non-waterproof log sheet was in tatters. With my equipment inadequately protected and myself wet through and feeling colder by the minute, I decided to abort the activation. The final indignity was that the touchscreen on my now soaked phone wouldn’t let me post notification that I was going QRT
So sincere apologies to anyone who was waiting/looking for me, and many thanks to Michael for the contact and the spot. In future I will not treat any activation as trivial however benign it seems and make sure I am fully prepared for anything the weather might throw at me :-s
Thanks for the effort Paul,I must admit I was paused on 80mtrs and just heard noise.Wondered if the Arial had detached itself this end.
You know you cant believe UK weather reports.
Hope to see you next time.Have a better Sunday at home.73 Don.
Ha ha, memories of Broad Law GM/SS-029 in October 2017.
Sorry to hear about being beaten by the WX. You know never to trust a forecast… we have experienced their fictitious ramblings many many times!
As I lay in bed at 0600 listening to the rain outside (read on swiftly if that’s an unwelcome image ), I was checking the forecast which still said “dry”.
And people wonder why the Brits talk about the weather so much! Bad luck Paul, hope you dry out soon.
Sometimes we learn more from a bad activation like that than we could
from reading and planning before we go. The things I learn from stupid
mistakes are the ones I write in my log book and keep for each activation
and any contest I work from some far off location. I have to drive 4 or more
hours to activate and learned to pack extra gear, batteries and chargers for
my trips after two failed attempts on SOTA’s. Lessons learned were very
good for me to remember in the future. Thanks for the good try anyway. Will
continue listening for you from this side of the pond.
de John Paul // AB4PP
“well by the time I got home the forecast had changed to rain… perfect hindsight by the weathermen…”
One should know my now Weather Hind-casters listen to SOTA Activations to get their weather updates!!!
), I was checking the forecast which still said “dry”.