I did not do any SOTA activations in 2024 apart from one drive-up summit. The problem was my right hip had reached its “Best before” date.
At the end of last October I had a new hip fitted and today, 9 weeks to the day after the operation, I gave the hip its first test in the field with a gentle activation of a summit.
I chose G/DC-008 Hensbarrow Downs as the summit is only about 1.5km from the car park and the route to the summit is all on smooth tracks with gentle climbing.
I had planned to operate on 40m, 30m and possibly 20m but when packing yesterday I couldn’t find my dipole for these bands. I concluded I must have left it at the last POTA park I had activated, which unfortunately was in France so going back for it was not an option.
I’ve activated this summit twice before and thought I knew the way there but the last part of the road journey today proved interesting. They are building a link road from St Austell to the A30 which cuts across several local roads which are now closed. I ended up driving all the way round the summit arriving at the car park from the opposite direction to the normal approach.
It was a 25 minute walk to the summit. There was a light breeze blowing, but it was a cold breeze so I was grateful to find somewhere I could get down out of the wind for the activation.
I erected a 20/17/15m dipole from a 6m Decathlon travel mast (fishing rod!) and found a spare frequency on 20m without much difficulty. There is an advantage activating on Mondays, yesterday (Sunday) when testing my equipment at home it was very difficult to find space on the 20m band.
As an experiment I ran the QMX from a 3S LiFePo4 battery which fully charged produces about 10 volts. At this voltage my 12 volt QMX produces no more than 2.5W.
The RBN heard my CQ call and the magic of the SOTA system posted a spot for me. However, the first in the log was someone who I think just heard my call as he replied with the full nine yards of QTH, name etc. I explained I was doing a SOTA activation and got a “thanks and good luck with the SOTA activation” in response. It was sent as something like" TXS OM GL etc" which are common CW abbreviations I’m slowly starting to recognise.
I operated for only 15 minutes and logged 5 QSOs including a S2S with Bruno HB9CBR/P who was on the 4 point Le Noirmont HB/VD-037 in the Swiss Jura. The S2S was initiated when I heard “/P” being sent by Bruno. I was thrown for a moment and my mind went blank about how to respond. I just replied with “/P?” and we were off. It helped I found Bruno’s spot on SOTAWATCH of course!
I had the equipment to run a data mode and would have tried 20m FT4 but the Sun had vanished and a thick mist was now surrounding the summit. It had been sunny when I arrived. I gave 2m FM a quick try with my FT-65 but without any responses.
I was wary of getting cold as I wasn’t sure how my hip would respond. Walking is no problem but if I sit too long it becomes stiff. It is getting better each week but I went QRT to be on the safe side and after packing up, and double checking I hadn’t left anything behind like my last remaining dipole I returned to the campervan.
I had set a Lora iGate running in the campervan with a short magnetic roof antenna. The tracker was in a side pocket of my rucksack and afterwards I could see on aprs.fi that it had plotted me all the way to summit apart from the very last bit when I think the contours of the ground cut off the signal.
My scruffy log is shown below. It also shows I was slightly off-tune. It should have been 14.06230. Unlike my IC-705 the QMX does not have a facility to lock the tuning. This is something to watch out for the next time I use it. The photo also shows the QMX decoder output. I think the 73, the TU and EE is correct but the rest is gibberish! I don’t use the decoder for receiving but I did look at it when sending out CQ just be sure I was sending correctly. It is very accurate at decoding transmission as you would expect.
I operate the key with my right hand and have recently discovered with this small key I can operate it better putting my hand over the key with the paddles pointing away from my hand. I’ve found this steadies my hand better than using it conventionally.
Operating position, looking south with the sea in the far distance.
QSO Map.
A huge thanks to all chasers, my CW was poor at times but people were very patient. 
The log. Made with Polo Beta after the activation. I had intended to use it during the activation but forgot to bring a stylus.
