Drizzle on Gummer's How

M0NOM · 22 January 2023 19:27

As a very poor excuse I used the worsening weather report today to press the 1 pointer DX button and activate my local summit G/LD-050, for the first time this year.

I took the FT-857, Sotabeams Band Hopper IV inverted V dipole, 10m compact mast, home made Inv-V for 17m/15m/12m & 10m and Palm Straight Key. The plan was to try 10m for DX and get my mandatory 4 CW QSOs for another Guru Memorial Key entry. Andy @G8CPZ kicked off the CW with a 70cm contact.

With the memory of reading about errant cows in my mind, I passed the bovine residents of Gummer’s How early on the path up. The couple in front with a dog took the wise choice of giving them a really wide berth.

I wasn’t sure how long I’d last today but the plan was to get the tarp up ready for the predicted sleet/drizzle. The benchmark still looks a little sad and I did think I should bring a small bag of mortar on each trip up and slowly re-build it.

Benchmark

I have misplaced my walking pole so I made use of two GRP hollow tubes I had lying around ready to be made into flowerpot antennas. They made a good support for the front of the tarp.

DD Superlight weight tarp taking the bite of the wind and drizzle

The activation started on 20m and proceeded briskly, although a few of the usual chasers must have been chasing other stations. Great to get a S2S with Jarek operating as SP15SOTA and finally got a S2S with Knut @LA9DSA after half a dozen attempts!

As I was using the linked dipole I wasn’t able to switch bands the same as when using the Chamelon MPAS2, so concentrated on 20m SSB and CW until I felt like I’d done it justice.

I then swapped out the Band Hopper IV for my homemade ‘high HF’ antenna and left it on the shortest 10m span. I was getting reports of bad audio at 100w so dropped the power to arond 40w which fixed the issue. It was great to get so many stations on 10m but it was a case of perseverence and respotting as well as leaveraging my POTA location. Best DX was Venezuela, followed by Dominican Republic and a good few contacts into North America. Of note was my 10m FM QSO with @KF9D Roger who caught me on SSB earlier - I think that is a new band/mode combination for me!

Finally KO4GAR confirmed that he was working me with QRPP at 1 watt. There was a little QSB on his signal but very pleased with contact given I had 5m of wire in the air!

Not bad for 2 hours on the summit - I called it a day when the cold started to creep into my bones. Had a few muggles ask what I was up to, one guy knew what SSB was and for once when asked if I was ‘doing CB’ I could reply ‘pretty much’! That particular guy was really nice to talk to, being a well heeled Lake District Fell Walker. He was rolling his eyes at folk climbing icy fell in wellies, trainers or wearing very little clothing. Helvellyn being the worst for these kind of folk, and as anyone who has activated it knows, there really is no hiding on Helvellyn from the elements!

Thanks for everyone being out there today, I felt like I made the most of the day given the weather conditions. Everything is now on a radiator drying out!

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR	SIG	REF
10:51	EA2AG/P	20m	SSB	59	59	Iosu	SOTA	EA2/BI-030
10:52	G8CPZ	70cm	CW	599	599	AJ
10:58	SP15OTA	20m	CW	599	599	Jarek	SOTA	SP/BZ-018
11:00	CT2HOV/P	20m	SSB	55	57	Nuno
11:02	IN3ADF/P	20m	SSB	59	57	Markus	SOTA	I/AA-196
11:07	IN3EYY/P	20m	SSB	59	56	NICOLA	POTA	I-1336
11:10	IU1KGS	20m	SSB	59	59	Carlo
11:10	OH3GZ	20m	SSB	59	59	JUKKA
11:10	E74A	20m	SSB	59	59	Edin
11:11	SP6KEP	20m	SSB	59	59	Radio
11:11	SP6BOW	20m	SSB	59	59	AUGUSTYN
11:12	SQ9MDF	20m	SSB	59	57	Leszek
11:12	F4ISZ	20m	SSB	59	55	Franck
11:12	EA3HP	20m	SSB	59	55	Daniel
11:13	F4IOQ/QRP	20m	SSB	59	59	DIXNEUF
11:13	EA2EVM	20m	SSB	59	55	Cesareo
11:13	SV3IEG	20m	SSB	55	57	Dinos
11:14	G4OBK	20m	SSB	59	54	Philip
11:14	DJ6DO	20m	SSB	59	59	Gerhard
11:17	LA9DSA/P	20m	SSB	51	56	Knut	SOTA	LA/HM-216
11:19	SQ9NIS	20m	SSB	54	59	Maciej	SOTA	SP/BZ-016
11:24	G0FEX	80m	SSB	59	59	KEN
11:25	GM4WHA	80m	SSB	55	45	GEOFF
11:25	M0JLA	80m	SSB	59	58	Rod
11:26	GW3YQP	80m	SSB	59	59	Chris
11:27	GI0AZA	80m	SSB	59	59	Esther
11:28	2E0FEH	80m	SSB	44	45	Karl
11:41	G6LKB	2m	FM	59	59	David
11:42	2E0VRX	2m	FM	59	57	Craig
11:43	G7VZS	2m	FM	59	59	Tony
11:44	GW4ZPL	2m	FM	59	53	Colin
11:45	M7CQS/M	2m	FM	59	59	Stephen
11:54	SP9LEE/P	20m	CW	599	559	Damian	SOTA	SP/BZ-014
12:02	EA1CBX/P	20m	CW	559	599	JOSE	SOTA	EA1/PO-019
12:05	I/F4IYY/P	20m	SSB	55	59	Leopold	SOTA	I/LG-309
12:14	Z35M/P	20m	CW	559	599	Vladimir	SOTA	Z3/WM-046
12:19	DJ2MX	20m	CW	599	599	Mario
12:28	DB2MT	20m	SSB	59	58	Tom	POTA	DA-0096
12:29	IU3OJA/P	20m	SSB	55	59	Alessandro	POTA	I-1452
12:34	IU5KHP	20m	SSB	59	55	Nicola	POTA	I-0287
12:37	EA2EZ/P	20m	SSB	59	57	Vicente	POTA	EA-2120
12:40	CT1DYH	20m	SSB	59	57	Carlos
12:41	VE1SK	20m	SSB	59	55	Stephen
12:41	SP8QC/P	20m	SSB	55	55	Andrzej	POTA	SP-0298
12:43	DK1MI	20m	SSB	59	57	Mike
12:43	SP5PZB	20m	SSB	59	59	Paweł
12:44	EA4TL	20m	SSB	59	59	LUIS
12:45	EA4GJP	20m	SSB	58	59	Angel
12:45	2E0ESY	20m	SSB	44	41	MIKE
12:45	DK5FF	20m	SSB	59	59	Florian
12:47	DL9SN	20m	SSB	59	54	Stefan
12:48	DD6FM/P	20m	SSB	59	58	Marco	POTA	DA-0016
12:49	IU3GKJ	20m	SSB	59	59	Riccardo
12:50	YU1KN	20m	SSB	55	54	Sasa
12:50	K1PCN	20m	SSB	57	52	PETER
12:51	IU3EDK/P	20m	SSB	59	59	Alessandro	POTA	I-1500
12:52	SN9PJ	20m	SSB	59	59	Paval
12:52	DH4KAF	20m	SSB	59	59	Herbert
12:53	DL3OBW	20m	SSB	58	59	Guenter
13:09	RA3RCL	10m	SSB	59	59	ANATOLY
13:14	SV2OXS	10m	SSB	59	54	Christos
13:18	YO6CFB	10m	SSB	59	54	“Lacy”
13:19	OH3ZM	10m	SSB	59	59
13:21	LZ1CLM	10m	SSB	59	59	Ivaylo
13:22	EA8DKV	10m	SSB	55	55	ALEXIS
13:23	R5VCV	10m	SSB	59	55	Michael
13:25	YV1SW	10m	SSB	55	56	Sixson
13:27	SV8JVH	10m	SSB	55	56	Ilias
13:28	YO2BF	10m	SSB	59	59	Oscar
13:28	KG8P	10m	SSB	59	57	Thomas
13:29	VE3PTA	10m	SSB	59	59	STEVEN
13:33	LZ2LH	10m	SSB	59	59	IVAN
13:33	W3MPG	10m	SSB	57	54	Rodney
13:37	VE1SK	10m	SSB	59	55	Stephen
13:38	KE4ZUN	10m	SSB	59	51	JAMES
13:41	VE2EH	10m	SSB	59	59	Pierre
13:42	N4EX	10m	SSB	55	44	RICHARD
13:43	HI8DAR	10m	SSB	55	55	Diogenes
13:44	RV4CU	10m	SSB	57	57	Eugene
13:45	KN4YSA	10m	SSB	57	55	STEVEN
13:46	VA3KBW	10m	SSB	57	57	Kevin
13:50	KO4GAR	10m	SSB	57	55	David
13:56	VA2YZX	10m	CW	519	559	Sylvain
14:01	SV2HJW	10m	CW	599	599	KOSTAS
14:03	KF9D	10m	CW	599	559	ROGER
14:07	GI4ONL	10m	CW	559	449	Victor
14:16	KF9D	10m	FM	59	55	ROGER
14:20	K2ERK	10m	SSB	55	55	Erik	POTA	K-8056

Mandatory Lake District Sheep Photo

View from ‘mid-station’

LA9DSA · 22 January 2023 19:43

Thank you for our first S2S today, I hope for many more. I went cross-country skiing to the top today. Unfortunately there was only a very short activation on LA/HM-216 Engulvsfjellet with -12C (10.4F) and 10ms wind. It will be -23C (-9.4F) effective temperature

M0NOM · 22 January 2023 19:59

Wow, what stunning scenery Knut, and no wonder you didn’t want to hang around! Thanks for sharing the photos and being there!

Mark.

KF9D · 22 January 2023 20:48

Mark, Thanks for the contacts today. What a thrill to be able to make contact on 10 meter FM!
Roger KF9D

MW0PJE · 22 January 2023 21:04

I saw your 10m FM spot and thought so I tried calling you but I don’t think you heard me, and I couldn’t hear you on the frequency either.

Looking at the 10m contacts I guess I was in the skip zone on GW/NW-042.
But I called CQ on 10m SSB and didn’t get any replies so maybe there’s a 28-29 MHz filter around the summit.

M0NOM · 22 January 2023 21:14

I had to persevere for 10m contacts Pete. I also saw a couple of activators using 10m but couldn’t hear anyone for a S2S. Not sure why but I always think that there is a chance of a local 10m contact, but without any reason behind it.

Regards, Mark.