Date: 23/02/18
Bands: 2m, 20m & 40m
Activation commenced: 1000z
QRT: 1120z (because my battery was giving up in sympathy with its owner)
QSOs: 0 (excluding the person who kept sending a persistent tuning tone on 7.160, but as we didn’t exchange callsigns or signal reports, I cannot count it )
Mobile phone signal: No, so I couldn’t spot
Ground: frozen hard
Wind: 20mph
Temp: -8C
View: Mist with very occasional sunny spots
Soup: Chicken
Walk: Lovely!
Apologies to all the chasers for not hanging around for more than 4 contacts. Maybe next time
I honestly can’t understand why an activator spends 1h20 in the summit with a working station which is operational on 3 different bands, 2 of which were usually very populated ones (20 and 40m) and returns home with zero (0) QSOs in the log.
Since self-spotting was not possible due to the lack of mobile phone signal, I understand that it’s nowadays very difficult to be heard and called by a regular SOTA chaser in a weekday morning. However, I doubt that the bands were totally empty and I’d bet that there have been several stations calling CQ on any of those 2 HF bands in the given time period.
If I had the time to be 1h20 in the summit with a working station operational on 20 and 40m and no way on Earth to get a spot on SOTAwatch, I’m pretty sure I’d do my best to get any 4 QSOs with other stations CQing or even chatting on the band.
Andy, is there a reason why you didn’t make your 4 QSOs by just answering to some other stations CQ?
A few weeks ago, I spent 40 minutes on a summit and got one HF QSO, with self-spotting. I tried 20 and 40. I could hear other chasers calling two activations on 20 during that time, but I couldn’t hear the activators.
Hi Geoff, I actually alerted for both. Dodd Fell was the first and I decided to extend my time on that to try and get some contacts. I abandoned Gt Knoutberry due to the time I had spent on Dodd Fell. I knew about the other activations on 2m, but heard nothing. Good to know there’s a better path from Gt Knoutberry when I go back
Hi Guru good advice. I always mix my CQs with a bit of search and pounce. Sadly I didn’t come across anything to pounce on this time. Even the usual safety blanket of WAB didn’t help today.
Good excuse to go back (maybe on a weekend next time!)
Hi. Last Friday managed loads of contacts on 80m from NP006 Great Shunner - really impressed with 80 including daytime contact with SM! I keep thinking my antenna is broken on 20m, but it seems that the Sun is not playing at the moment. Still only another year or so to the solar minimum…
Sorry to hear you had a rough time. I remember freezing in a hollowed out snowdrift in 2002 trying to get 4 QSO’s on 2FM from Dodd Fell. It’s a dead zone for VHF. Pity about the tuner. He must have a valve rig! (Benefit of the doubt). I was around there activating the day before (22nd) and the road up to NP16 from Hawes was closed for 2 days. You must have come up from Buckden. I had to go round via Aysgarth to get to NP9.
Seems I was lucky with the bands, they were great the day before and now a wipeout it seems.
Better luck next time.
Don’t let it put you off.
73, John G4YSS
(GX0OOO/P)
Hi John it was fine yesterday. A bit of snow on the top road, but no problem for a 4-wheel drive. There was a sign further down saying closed for ice. I enjoyed the trip and am even wondering if I can get up early enough to do it for the VK/EU day in a fortnight. (Warm bed v NP-016? Hmmm)
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