Video of recent Activation of CE-001 Cleeve Hill during the 50Mhz UKAC on 26th July 2011
(Avaialable upto HD 1080P)
Didnt get many contacts - 24 but only 5W from 817ND into Dipole - time to look at alternative antennas and perhaps get the 857D sorted for portable to give me 10W
Enjoy!
73
Matt M3WDS
In reply to M3WDS:
You were extremely weak at my home QTH on Tuesday evening, Matt. I really wondered if you had a fault of some kind. You were never more than S5 here, but Stewart was S9+40dB. Very strange. I couldn’t catch you for a QSO because you were searching and pouncing all the time.
I made a dozen QSOs with my 30m wire dipole, including ZB2FK, several EA’s, EA6, IK4 and SM. I heard ES1BA, and heard you calling him, but he faded out before I had a chance to call him.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
In reply to G3NYY:
Yeah i was wandering but then i did only have a dipole and 5W i think i need to look at alternatives i have a beam for 6m but getting the gamm match right for good SWR takes hours id have to be up there 4 hours before to sort the SWR out i am looking at making one like dad uses tho with a simple dipole driven element
i may look at for time being a delta loop or similar and hopefully get the 857D sorted so i can use it portable (put a power pole connector on the DC Cable)
even the E`s people were hearing stuff at 59+ and i cud hardly hear it but before the contest it was booming in
73
Matt M3WDS
In reply to M3WDS:
Yeah i was wandering but then i did only have a dipole and 5W i think
i need to look at alternatives i have a beam for 6m but getting the
gamm match right for good SWR takes hours id have to be up there 4
hours before to sort the SWR out i am looking at making one like dad
uses tho with a simple dipole driven element
Is it a Moonraker beam? I have been through exactly the same loop with a Moonraker 4 metre yagi! It was an absolute nightmare to try and get the SWR down with the gamma match. It can be modified to improve the matching system, but I now have a Vine 4 el yagi for 4m which has a proper dipole as the driven element. It is far superior and once set up, there is no more fiddling with the adjustments on future /P outings.
i may look at for time being a delta loop or similar and hopefully get
the 857D sorted so i can use it portable (put a power pole connector
on the DC Cable)
Both I and M1EYP use a delta loop on 6m with excellent results. Mine is built according to the GW7AAV design. No matching adjustments … I just made it to the exact measurements in the article and it worked perfectly first time.
http://www.gw7aav.com/main-index/antenna-index/antenna-design/6m-delta
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Have just spent today constructing one of the above but slightly different construction method (ive split the top 2m section into 3 pieces to make it easy for portable use and added 90 degree bends for the ends where the wires drop down and put couplers in the middle to join the 3 pieces
middle piece 1m long and 2x end pieces half a metre to make the 2m
instead of choc block for the top part where the 6.10m of wire connects i have used bolts with wing nuts again to make it easier for portable use and at the bottom where the 50 ohm coax connects i have simply fitted a bnc socket and made an adaptor to convert it to N Type for my coax
i will have pics on my website http://www.m3wds.co.uk when there is some daylight outside so i can get it up in the air to test before taking out tommorow night for the 6m contest
Catch you on the air tommorow night perhaps!
73
Matt M3WDS
In reply to M3WDS:
Good luck with the new delta loop, Matt! Make sure you can rotate it, because you’ll find it’s quite directional with sharp nulls off the edges of the plane of the loop.
I hope to be out this evening, subject to weather conditions.
Enjoyed listening to my QSO with EA5XC in your video from last month … hi!
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Hope we get the summit-to-summit Matt. Also hope to work Walt, again. It is a long time since those “Well I never hear Tom on a Tuesday night” days! (Candidate for a kiss of death I suspect).
Hoping for flat band conditions and lots of SOTA chasers!
Tom M1EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Hope we get the summit-to-summit Matt. Also hope to work Walt, again.
Me to i always seem to miss you during the UKAC`s and when i do find you calling you dont hear me but hopefully on 6m that will now change
ive just put it up on sota pole in garden at about 4 - 5m ish and SWR 1 : 1.2 and better from 50.000 to 50.300 
(im not to bothered about fm i dont think ive ever used 6m FM in the 4 years ive been licensed)
Hope to catch you both later
73
Matt M3WDS
In reply to M3WDS:
Good luck tonight Matt, Walt & Tom.
I used to be a regular competitor in the 50MHz UKAC, although only from home. This year I have hardly entered at all, but I will have my dipole up at home tonight to give away some points & will listen out for you all. I do have a very high noise level here though so unless you can get through that there will be no chance.
For Matt’s benefit,I am in Blackburn Lancashire, IO83SS
I will be running 100 Watts so if you do hear me, even if I don’t hear you I would appreciate a reception report on here after the contest if possible.
Good luck to all taking part tonight!
Best 73,
Mark G0VOF
Well, I could tell Walt’s voice was there when he worked Tom, but with S5 noise here on 50MHz, SSB was just not enough for you to be readable Walt 
CW would have worked though 
I didn’t hear Matt, & I don’t know if Matt heard me at any point. I only operated S&P tonight apart from a short spell on CW calling CQ, which actually brought two replies! The first was Tom M1EYP/P, who I had already worked on SSB & the second was G3TDH who I had not worked before, but I could tell I was a little out of practice HI!
Apologies for my very poor CW!
I will leave it at that for now as I am conscious of this being almost akin to a thread hijack.
Sorry Matt,
Thanks & best 73,
Mark G0VOF
In reply to G0VOF:
Well, I could tell Walt’s voice was there when he worked Tom, but with
S5 noise here on 50MHz, SSB was just not enough for you to be readable
Walt
Hi Mark!
I heard you on SSB several times during the first hour whilst you were working other stations. You were 55 most of the time. Sorry we didn’t make a QSO. I was only on for an hour … I don’t really like 6m and rarely use the band.
I encountered a very strange fault with the FT857D tonight … when the Morse key was plugged in, the microphone wouldn’t work on SSB! Weird! For that reason, I didn’t do any CW in the contest.
Matt was on … I worked him at 1947 UTC.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
Mark - Like you i was mainly search and pounce but didnt hear you
Antenna worked well altho i had a little bit of a sore throat so didnt really call much - sore throat seems to have vanished today tho
Heard Tom but he was down in the noise when i did hear him and when tuning around didnt hear him calling cq but heard him working others seeemed very weak even with the delta loop rotated in the right direction to get him at best strength
Overall 30 contacts and best DX GI4SNA - not great but due to sore throat its better than none atall
73
Matt M3WDS
In reply to M3WDS:
Well done Matt, contacts is pretty good going & I think is more than I have had in a m UKAC. My average is about 20-25 but I do have very bad QRM on the band at home. In previous years the QRM was such that I could orient my dipole to minimise the noise & work stations roughly North or South of me. Sometime late last year the noise moved, & now I can only minimise the noise by orienting the dipole so that I can hear stations East & West. Obviously being in the centre of Britain this is a probelem!
I did hear GI4SNA working somebody else but didn’t work him myself. I only had 16 contacts this tiem with my best DX into IO80 square, & with my noise as it is at the moment, Bryn G4DEZ is a guaranteed genuine 59+ 
Walt,
I have not come across that problem with my FT897D which is virtually the same as the FT857D internally. I was tuning round & found Tom just finishing working you. You were detectable here in Blackburn but with my noise at S5 on that frequency you were not readable. Without the noise I would have been able to give you a genuine 56 report. With the narrow filtering I have found CW will work better through the noise than SSB does, but there are only a few stalwarts I hear working CW during the 6m UKAC’s, Tom M1EYP/P, Graham G3ZOD who only operates CW although I didn’t hear him last night, plus another couple of big contesters who will give the mode a go if conditions are right.
Tom,
Thanks for the 3 contacts on Tuesday night, one for the contest on SSB, one when you answered my CQ on CW, & a third when I called you on SSB just to confirm that it was you on CW as your signal was so different. I suppose both our antennas being mis-aligned for the CW contact explains it
Thanks again & best 73,
Mark G0VOF
