Attempted activation at Kit Hill, area was criss crossed with footpaths making it hard to use the G5RV. Once setup i had a lot of stations coming in, and spotted a few times only for the frequency to become occupied shortly after. Once i found a clear frequency, i started calling but heard no response.
A lack of lights on the ATU drew my attention to a possible problem transmitting, which after some tests on FM which produced a carrier and atu activity, i strongly suspected the mic was not producing audio.
We packed up and i found a possible replacement on amazon available on next day delivery to a nearby locker. Having confirmed it working i hope to activate watch croft G/DC-007 on Monday.
I hope you get it sorted. I live near Plymouth and if you need any tools I may be able to help although I’m activating G/DC-008 Monday morning.
I’ve only done Watch Croft once but in terms of herbage Kit Hill is a lawn! You can stand a mast in the trig point but then have to do a circus act on the boulders which surround it to move around. It really is tricky!
Just below the summit of Watch Croft, on the west side by a ruined wall, there is a large and very phallic standing stone, which I have disrespected by fixing my pole to it with a bungee. This is a lot safer than the clitter of boulders at the trig point. In summer you can just see the climbers on Bosigran Head to the north.
It was a little frustrating, but being right next to the car park made it a little less so, id have been much more miffed if it were a summit with a proper hike. If i can get two hills down here done before i drive back new yrs day, i shall be happy.
What, no 2m FM? You should have been able to qualify the summit using a handie, especially with the ability to self-spot. Still, in some ways a complete lack of contacts is perhaps better than getting three contacts and being unable to get a fourth. Like coming fourth in the Olympics.
Hope the new mic works out okay and you get a pile up on Watch Croft.
At my age I want to keep my rucksack to about 6-8kg so generally I eschew redundancy in my radio kit (spare pencil notwithstanding!). The exception is taking a 2m FM HT as well as my HF-only rig (KX2). Taking both rigs has occasionally avoided a failed activation.
It works well. Mine including unun, antenna, counterpoise and winders weighs 110g. Most expensive part was the ferrite for the unun. Just like Fraser, it lives in the rucksack and is always there as the backup irrespective what the primary antenna is going to be.
I have tried the 2m handheld a few times, but i have tended to use repeaters mostly on 2m. My usual hangout is HF. On the occasions i have attempted 2m calls on calling frequency, its resulted in just static. Perhaps i’ll give it another try on the next one.
I was very tired from driving when i got to kit hill, i was actually just passing through the area, so incentive to call it a day and reach my destination was high. However kit hill will be getting another visit from me, hopefully on my way home weather permitting.
I shall take a look at the smaller aerials, certainly i love using a g5rv if i can find somewhere to use it, but a good lighter option thats compatible with a carbon fibre sotapole will be useful for reducing kit weight.
Either a KX2 in a home-made bubble wrap bag. Or an IC705 in a home-made bubble wrap bag. Bubble wrap is fabulously cheap, just like me and works perfectly. OK it looks awful but it works. Radio in its bag sits inside the rucksack. Most radios are remarkably hardy things and whilst they make get a bit shaken about in your rucksack they don’t suffer from high-G impact.
We managed to get the watch croft activation with the amazon mic, hoping to do G/DC-006 Carnmenellis later today, and another shot at Kit Hill on the way home.
Some summits are not VHF friendly or have few if any actively-listening chasers in range but it helps to alert ahead of time and - if possible - self spot when on summit.
Checking an old logbook I find that I qualified Kit Hill on 2m FM with six contacts in 2019. It could have been better than that but the rig was periodically desensed by pager transmissions from the array on the ventilator chimney. Some years earlier on Carnmenelis I remember working into northern Spain with S9+ each way via a summer Es opening on 2m. The antenna was a dipole at about 6 metres. Its worthwhile having 2m available as a back-up to HF!
