YouTube video here (with nice drone flyovers!). Read on below for the textual version and photos.
I left home very early, and in the dark the narrow roads even before reaching Beara Way looked dramatic. My dashcam recorded rabbits, sheep, deer and even two teenage humans coming back home from the Halloween party at 6:30 am whom I ultimately gave a lift. Only mildly intoxicated, they were very curious about why I had to climb so early, and told me a lot about deer hunting which is apparently a big thing in the area. I learnt that many Frenchmen come here to hunt, and that recently an 8-pointer was found killed. “8-pointer” is a term I learnt from them. I know nothing about hunting, but the fact is that many a deer crossed my road after I dropped the lads off and before I reached the tiny bay at 51.81393, -9.60098 on Beara Way where I parked my car.
This was about to be the first activation of Knocknagorraveela, the Hill of Midges (or the Hill of Mosquitos, or the Hill of Gravel – I found these translations in an old Irish newspaper). Whichever translation you pick, it is puzzling, because there were no midges, mosquitos, or gravel anywhere during my hike. In any case, since this was the first activation, obviously no trail had been registered on sotl.as. But the worse thing there were also no trails in the AllTrails app for this hill, and the Hiiker app only had one which did not look curated (the route lines were too straight). I had to plan my own trail based on satellite imagery. That imagery was deceiving; what I thought was barren rock in the upper parts of the hill turned out to be yellow grass. Along the entire route there are two fences which I had to cross. But really the only slightly challenging part was the gully at 51.811653, -9.608188. I chose to walk up the stream to avoid the heathers, but next time I’ll climb on the heather sligtly to the right of the stream – the stony brook got very steep in a few spots and I had to scramble there. Once I was past the gully and some tall grass which followed, I walked right (north) along the edge of the pine grove which is visible there on maps and satellite photos. In a few minutes I reached what is called Knocknagorraveela North East from which the views onto the Kenmare River and Iveragh mountains were spectacular.
The saddle stretching west-south from Knocnagorraveela North East is a shallow one and maybe 30-40 minutes later I was on the proper Knocnagorraveela summit. The weather was beautiful. The top is not marked in any way; there’s no cairn or trigpoint. The 507-meter summit is technically a part of Caha Mountains, but the main Caha range is south of it, and clearly visible from Knocknagorraveela.
My GSM singal was strong. As for the surface, there was only yellow grass and sparse outcrop. I put the antenna up, found myself a spot to sit, and started the radio work. Most of the time I was bathing in sun except for a momentary hailstorm (sic!) which went as fast as it came. Now, while the weather conditions were amazing, the band ones were not. I sat there for 2 hours or so, and had barely made 3 QSOs before I ran out of battery in my KX2. I felt miserable because I thought I hadn’t been successful activating the mountain before John EI3KA reminded me via WhatsApp that activation had actually been successful, and that 4 QSOs are needed to score points, not to activate. I had forgotten about that rule, and his message cheered me up a lot!
When walking back through the saddle, I met a man with two kids who were looking for their sheep. I told them where I had seen them, and he was curious about what I was doing. They were the only people I met throughout the entire hike. We chatted for a bit and then I went back to my car. I felt happy and accomplished, even though I didn’t score any points. This activation in sunny weather with beautiful views was such a change from the miserable conditions I had the previous couple of times.
I looked at your log. 3 QSO’s on 20m in two hours. Have you checked your radio and antenna since you got back? Worth carrying a spare 3S li-ion for your KX2 as well.
Wise words. Two of everything, well, mostly everything. (Three of lunch is allowed )
Great snaps and video. I thought the area looked fairly familiar as its just south of the Kerry Way Ultra route I ran a few years back.
The church at Kenmare is a checkpoint before you go up towards Killarney and through the national park (you’ve to do all the summits on your way through it too ).
Also handy if you need to refill water bottles or a bladder as there is a public tap beside the church, just before you go off the main road and back on the trails. Just a tip in case anyone is round that way in the future.
I did try 40m – zero luck. Now that you ask I did notice when disassembling the setup (after I’d run out of battery) that the connector on the coax on antenna side was loose – and it took little effort to separate it completely when I got back home. So that could have been one of the reasons. The cable will be replaced but I wonder if that caused the poor result.
It’s like going in to Easons (EI equivalent of WH Smith) and buying a single Bic biro for 50c (about 40p), then going online and finding the same biro with Elecraft stamped on it for €6812.99 (exc shipping and import duties).
@MM0EFI those little battery packs look brilliant. Maybe even worth nabbing a couple of the 6000mAh packs for a couple of quid extra. Do you just lop the ends off and chuck a barrel connector on them? Thanks for the link Fraser, I’m going to get a couple of each and have them sent up over the border to collect.
Thanks a mil. It’s hard work but trail running (particularly ultramarathons, iron-distance triathlon, endurance sports etc) I just find is my happy place. Maybe a future for TOTA? (Trails On The Air, or TROTA - Trail Running On The Air). Like what Ramon (QRP CW) does on his YouTube channel. Go for a trail run, do an activation mid-run, finish off trail run.
Easy enough to do, chuck a Quansheng (AND A KEY! ) in your running pack and make some contacts. Hmm, might do that over the Winter and combine it with SOTA!
Yes. Carefully! Cut one at a time and be careful not to short them. It’s safer to solder short tails onto your barrel connector first. Then slide some heatshrink on and solder your tails to the bared battery wires.
Ah nice. That’s what I will do so. Get a 3S for my KX2 and a 6S as an external battery for something else. I wonder could you somehow make one work with an FT-290R?
Thanks again for the link Fraser. Free shipping too. Lovely jubbly.
Food for thought! Has anyone looked in to a mod of sorts on the internal battery to have something work that way possibly? Wasn’t something similar done with the 817 internal battery (apologies if incorrect, I thought I’d seen that somewhere)?
@EI8JEB apologies, taken your report thread way OT!
Well… The x90 Mk1 radios have a carrier that holds 8x C cells. This can be removed to give a fair amount of space. It would be easy to make up a 4S LiFePo pack to fit inside with plenty of space, just simple bit of 3D printing. What you need to watch is to make sure you disable the NiCd charging circuits built into the set and probably have a series Schottky diode in the new battery +ve to stop any back-charging from an external supply. The x90 MkII sets have the removable clip on battery pack which has slightly less volume and a different internal shape than on the MkI so the 4S LiFePo pack would be different.
The question is why? They’re 40-50 year old designs of average performance. Sure it’s nice to be able to keep something out of the landfill and as I said, you do not get their QRP output to anywhere near their full power unless the voltage is 13.8 and not 13.2 or 12.6 or 11.1 volts. If you want to make an 18650 or 26650 4S LiFePo pack, do so and use it with a flying lead and keep it external so you can use it with any radio. (Remembering the x90 has a backwards wired barrel connector). You could also do like Rick M5RJC did and use up scavenged vape LiPo cells as he did here: 817/8 modern battery solutions - #3 by M5RJC
There’s a case for using them to drive uWave transverters where their deficiencies are less of an issue. Such as G1DFL’s 76GHz system here:
I wouldn’t be looking at using them for 2m/70 work when a 705 with its filters and DSP is much better. And a lot more expensive but you get a fairly tasty HF radio too! The only advantage is their low current draw on RX. Even then on my recent 2/70/13 activation in the recent extensive tropo conditions, I only used around 50% of a 4Ah LiFePo with a 705 running mainly FM flat out for 2.5hr.
So yes you can but that doesn’t mean you should. Looks about shack and wonders why there’s a TR2300, FT290 MkI, FT290 MkII, FT790 MkI and an IC202 looking for a use
I was looking in to the 290R battery idea earlier and found some rather wonderful fodder here that might interest fellow FT-290R fanciers.
Page 12 is where you want to be headed immediately for the Gospel according to Yaesu.
Side note: Bit gutted there that the fella who owns the shop on page 2 doesn’t have a first name beginning with B. I was hoping it was gonna be a lovely day too…
@PE1EEC Martin now that you mention it, I remember the KX2 ATU was taking much more time to tune the antenna during this activation, and it never tuned down to the low values I had seen before. So indeed it might have been the loose coax connector causing all those issues… Good idea bout spare coax-banana plug adapter. I didn’t know they existed!
Have you checked your radio and antenna since you got back? Worth carrying a spare 3S li-ion for your KX2 as well.
).
) in your running pack and make some contacts. Hmm, might do that over the Winter and combine it with SOTA!
Disgraceful! 
