G/CE-005

Activation Reports Pre-Planning
1

Hi Gang,
Curious if anyone is in the area of this summit. I will be in Hemel Nov 21 & 22 on business. Is there chance of activation using HT only, or is there not enough coverage and amateur population within range?

Thanks,
Chris KQ2RP

2

Hi Chris,
Without knowing that summit, it looks to me like it’s a popular one and it has got a good number of QSOs on 2m. It’s been activated 242 times.
imagen
imagen

Cheers,

Guru

3

Hi Chris, as you can see from the call I’m not anywhere near the location you are talking about but make sure that you program in the UK simplex frequencies as they are different to the US. If you have a smart phone with you and can spot yourself on SOTAWatch - I would expect you should be able to drum up four 2m/ or 70cm FM contacts from the summit.
You might want to program in the HT, the local (analogue FM) repeaters as well, so that you can go on those and ask someone to swith to simplex to call you.

I suspect it might be Hemel Hempstead that you are going to, not just Hemel?

73 Ed.

4

Hi Chris, until I moved this Spring, Wendover Woods, G/CE-005, was my local summit (5 minutes drive from home).

  1. You should activate it at the trig point (51.781926, -0.710504) which is next to a public footpath that runs diagonally across a large grassy field, and not at the ‘Highest point in the Chilterns’ marker surrounded by trees near the cafe / visitor centre.
    You could try parking at the Aston Hill Bike Trail (51.782956, -0.709107) or just off the Tring-Wendover B4009 road at a little crossroads (51.782456, -0.721163) and walk 20 minutes up the wooded hill as I always did.

  2. If you intend to activate Mon-Fri during the day you may struggle to get 4 contacts unless you have a decent antenna. You will be on the Chiltern Hills surrounded by flat lowland for 50+ miles. But a rubber duck will not cut it - I have a 1/2-wave RH770 telescopic which greatly extends the HT coverage.

73, Andy

5

Thanks for the great details Andy. Yes, I have that antenna. I might fashion a makeshift wire moxon as well. Hopefully I can steal away sometime to get up there.

6

It’s about 25 minutes drive from Hemel Hempstead to those parking places I mentioned.
Have fun!