A quick walk up Callow Hill this evening prevented July from slipping away from me without an activation. There seem to be so many more distractions in the summer.
Two metres should be fine, I thought, but took my old Alinco DR605 mobile rig to provide a bit of muscle with its 50W output. This was made possible by the recent purchase of a 4 AH LifePo battery, which doesn’t mind the 10 amp draw. Probably not the ideal SOTA rig, but as a matter of interest it weighs almost exactly the same as the FT817 (with internal battery).
Starting at 19:15 local time, Stuart G0LGS, Matt 2E0MDJ and Graham G3VKV from Cheltenham made it quickly into the log, with me using 5W. Next up was Mike G8CMU in Ross on Wye, 50W required to complete the contact. Don G0RQL called me, and I sent a report, but QSB carried him back into the noise and we didn’t manage to complete, despite me holding the pole up over my head!
Next time, Don, thanks for trying.
After a few more CQs, a signal struggled up through the noise from Kevin 2E1KJB on the Isle of Wight, about 220Km distant. We managed a fairly noise free QSO before the path faded out again.
By now, I could hear several other QSOs on the band, but after a few unanswered CQs, I pulled the plug.
A very pleasant evening, and useful application of a little extra power. My antenna was a ladder line J pole, on 5m fibreglass pole.
Thanks to all chasers, sorry if I didn’t hear you calling,
Adrian
G4AZS