My original plan was to activate Dundry Down on Friday 16th November. This turned out to be a very cold morning after a very frosty night and I just didn’t feel like being outside for very long. Saturday was a much warmer day so away we went.
This was to be somewhat of a test - would my angina let me carry my full pack the half-mile or so to the activation zone as described by Richard, G3CWI.
HF (using my G6DTN call) was set up with the inverted ‘V’ dipole, and while searching for a quietish slot I caught ON6DSL/P on ON-001 for my first S-to-S outside the UK. There followed O93VU (Can anyone help with a county for this prefix ?), GM4TOE, DJ5AV, ON6LY, PD9ND, DL4FDM, ON4ON, ON3CYV, and PA3CWG. This summit was a unique for several chasers.
On VHF I was affected by intermittent QRM from the local transmitters. I suspect that a NB filter on the FT 817 would have improved things. My old FT290 was much better at dealing with such problems. However, I was able to provide a chaser point for GW4BVE, G0RQL, GW0DSP, M3PXW, G4JZF, G0NES, 2E0NBR, GW0VMZ, G3RMD, GW7AAV and G0ELJ. My thanks to all for repeating information lost in the local QRM. Apologies to the other callers as by that time the quiet periods were getting too short to continue operating.
For VHF I used my M0DFA call, and this notched up my 100th properly activated (Minimum 4 QSOs) unique.
I will now be looking out for other angina-friendly summits. The reflector thread on wheel-chair access to summits is, I think, of interest also to those of us who have other limitations.
73s, Dave, M0DFA & G6DTN