Apologies to all chasers who were unable to contact us on Watch Croft today. The Yaesu 817 has been playing up now and again - I have had occasions when none of the buttons would work on the summit and then it worked fine again back in the shack. Today, it completely flipped its lid and kept going into scan mode. I could correct this only by unplugging it and then finally even this didn’t work so we had no choice but to abandon the activation. We had the 2m / 70cm handies but these are of little use at the far end of Kernow. We had qualified by this stage but apologies to the chasers who were waiting for a QSO. There will be another opportunity next year. I think a visit to ML&S early in the new year is in the pipeline.
Best 73s
Alastair & Sarah
M0TYM & M6HBT
PS. Sarah now has an intermediate callsign but she couldn’t remember whether it is 2E0DGM or 2E0DGB!!! Clearly, she isn’t doing enough SOTA!
I think I was your last contact before the 817 packed in for the day. I am glad you qualified it though. Watch Croft was my first SOTA activation so I remember it well. Unfortunately for me it was totally misty on the summit so I missed out on the expected excellent views, I hope it was OK for you.
It sounds like your FT-817 is needing some Service to start the new year in perfect shape.
I hope it won’t be too expensive. Good luck!
73 de Guru - EA2IF
Sarah should be able to track down what her intermediate callsign is by logging into the Ofcom website and then downloading the licence which will have the intermediate callsign on it.
Before you do that try a master reset if you haven’t already, page 76 in the manual. Its Home+ON.
Did you notice the very phallic standing stone by the ruined wall on the west side of the summit just past the little rocky knoll? I activated once with the pole fixed to it with Duct tape!