CQ contest from G/CE-004

The weather was looking good on Sunday so I decided to kill two birds with one activation. Instead of operating from my usual contest site, the weaver hills where I can drive to the spot and set up my two 9 element Tonna’s with ease. I went to Bardon Hill G/CE-004 armed with my 3 element SOTA beam to work in the 1st backpackers 144 contest of the year using the club call of G3NFC/P. Realising that my station would be much under power than usual I intended to enjoy the activation and see if at all possible to work outside of the UK with so many contest stations QRV abroad.
I had used this hill for my very first SOTA activation and so I knew the route with ease. Parking with thought near the start of the path I geared up and started my assent. The WX was good and I was surprised only to see 2 other people on the way up, one young lady on her way down and a mountain biker on his way up. A 15-minuet walk and I was at the trig point. After setting up the station I had 20 minutes to kill before the start of the contest so I listened around the band to see what activity was at hand. I heard a very prominent contest station G0VHF/P calling over and over again with no response; so I knew conditions were going to be poor or very little activity outside UK. But I was there and going to make the best activation I could. 1100 came and so I called G0VHF/P for my first contact, and then moved around the band and made contact with all stations I could hear. Then I found a clear frequency and started to call CQ. This was the first time I had tried working in a contest from a SOTA location and I was surprised not to hear many regular chasers. But we carried on and worked 45 stations in 3 hours. The contest was for 4 hours but my little battery had died so we packed up and went home. I was surprised when I got home and checking the spots that my station was not on the list, after a 3-hour activation I thought someone might have noticed me. This explains the lack of usual chasers, as nobody knew I was there.
Still never mind I had a good day and fun in the contest plus 1 more point for activating a SOTA summit.
73 Dave

In reply to G0AOD:

Hi, Dave, I worked you at 1251 but couldn’t get into SOTAWatch at that time to post you. Access tends to be very patchy at times, here.

73

Brian G8ADD

In reply to G0AOD:

Hi Dave,

Good to work you S2S from NW-051 in the contest but just a couple of points in defence of our excellent spotting service!

I worked you as G3NFC/P but didn’t realise I was working G0AOD. The club call would not be recognised by most chasers as being a SOTA activator whereas your own call would be recognised straight away and would soon be spotted.

Secondly, as far as I am aware, you did not post an alert of your intention to operate from CE-004 so no-one was looking for you. It is within the spirit of the contest to post an alert because all you are doing is stating the location of where you will be operating from which is not the same as self-spotting or stating a frequency to be used.

Many thanks to all chasers who called me and to the two spotters who kindly put up an unsolicited spot for me!

Best wishes,

Ron.
GW4EVX

In reply to G0AOD:

I was running the contest from the side of the clee hill g-wb 004 on sat afternoon, i managed to work into Netherlands off my home brew 4 ele beam, contacts where quite hard for me to in this contest, i was running around 8 watts however there must of been some sort of lift on as i worked scotland twice as well.

Unfort i didnt actually go to the summit for the contest as the weather was really bad on saturday , the beam and mast only just stood up in the wind after being guyed up in to places.

I hope to work you again soon Dave, off another summit, i should be about this weekend some where!

73`s Tris

Secondly, as far as I am aware, you did not post an alert of your intention to operate from CE-004 so no-one was looking for you. It is within the spirit of the contest to post an alert because all you are doing is stating the location of where you will be operating from which is not the same as self-spotting or stating a frequency to be used.

I did post an alert and stated that I was using the club call, but no matter I was not meant as a bad comment just stating what had happened.

I intend to do more backpackers this year each time from a different SOTA summit for the fun of it.

73 all Dave

Glad to hear of some more 2mtr activity from the summits Dave.
Dont forget to point the beam to Devon,I was calling your club call not knowing it was you.Sorry we never made it.73 Don.