Apologies for leaving a lot of people unanswered. I almost think Irish weather can turn worse quicker than PNW( Pacific Northwest) weather.
Jeff WX7OR
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Health and Safety rule OK. Abandoning the Activation if the WX changes for the worse is part of the process.
David G0EVV
11 Likes
Hi Jeff, My QTH is on the west coast of Wales and I work across to Ireland on a regular basis on 145mhz. I monitor 145.500 (S20) when I’m in the shack. I saw your VHF spot yesterday and called you several times, but you went HF 14mhz and I could not hear you. QTH here is 650ft asl overlooking the Irish Sea. Hope to work you soon?
Kind Regards, Don GW0PLP.
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And 144.050 naturally! 
@WX7OR are you operating as EI/WX7OR? I will add you to my Ham Alert. I hope to catch you on 2 or 70. Enjoy your visit to EI!
I left my HT on but did not hear anyone. It might be because of the communication tower on top. It might also be because I was hunkered down on the west side of a concrete block to stay out of the wind. I put out a call every 5 minutes but didn’t hear anyone.
I might try another one this afternoon if i have time
Jeff WX7OR
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I am operating EI/WX7OR.
Jeff
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I’m away today so won’t be able to chase. Hope it goes well for you. Viva 270! 
Hi Jeff, just replied to you email. Both summits for today are great for VHF, just call CQ on 145.500 for a bit longer. You should get Don @GW0PLP and few other GWs from there no probs.
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Thanks. I will probably hike Djouce and summit around 2:00. If I have time and the weather is ok, I might try Great Sugar Loaf after.
Thanks
Jeff WX7OR
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Enjoy! She’s a beauty. I hope the views are clear for you. Wish I could chase but alas…
My first SOTA activation was at Great Sugar Loaf: I just used a 2m HT I happened to bring on vacation and wound up with several nice contacts including S2S across the Irish Sea to Wales. Exciting stuff, and I was hooked! Have fun!
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Jeff,
Great to work you on VHF this afternoon 59 loud and clear. 145.500 (S20) is the calling Freq. So we QSY up or down Freq to pass the details and reports so as to not tie up S20 so others can use it. Thanks.
73’ Don GW0PLP.
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I apologize for camping out on 145.500. Different areas have different protocols for calling channels. In the Northwest, SOTAs generally use 146.58 as their calling frequency, but will drop down to the national calling frequency 146.52 to get four contacts if things are slow. I might go out tomorrow morning and will use 145.520.
Thanks again for the contacts.
Jeff WX7OR
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Hi Jeff, it is perfectly okay to use 145.500 for CQ calls as often as you like, this IS a calling channel here. As Don says, just ask an answering side to QSY elsewhere. We are normally using 25kHz spacing, so 1 up would be 145.525
Here in EI you are likely to end up with no QSOs CQing elsewhere as even spotting yourself on other freq you can miss that so needed fourth FM contact with a regular ham, not a SOTA chaser.
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How did you get on today? Did you pay your respects to the Great Sugar Loaf? How was the view? I hope you got clear skies, you can see right up to Louth on a good day.
Hope you got some quality 2m VHF action today!
Great Sugar Loaf was good. I only made one VHF contact, so I broke out the KH1 for some CW. It is fun with all the different call sign formats. Unfortunately I bent my whip, so future SOTAs here will require a mast and 33’ of wire.
Jeff WX7OR
3 Likes
Nice! I wonder if that’s the first KH1 that’s been up there? How did you find operating? There’s not much room up there and the summit is often very busy as it is super popular.
I see ye got @EI4JY in the log. Good work! I reckon a Slim G would work wonders up there. I might try and get up there again before the year is out for some 270 FM and CW.
I had a 20 minute break with no one else on top. The KH1 is perfect for that type of summit. I have three 13’ radials so i am not spread out that much.
Jeff WX7OR
I should also say thanks to everyone. I was able to activate 7 summits on this trip and made my first VHF contact across an international border.
Jeff WX7OR
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It was great talking to you Jeff ! Thanks for the points and for testing my non-sense pretending to be an indoor Slim Jim 
I wasn’t expecting it could perform as good to hear you from Scarr. Safe home!
1 Like