After a couple of failed attempts at activating a local POTA spot (…… I’ll save that story for another time!) it was time to get back up to G/SC-003 Beacon Batch one cloudy Tuesday afternoon on Feb 8th. I only had a couple of hours free and as this is my closest summit, it gave me an opportunity to try out v2 of the homebrew 20m EFHW.
Once again, I parked up at Ellick house, set an Alert and then headed up to the trig point which is only about 15-20mins walk from this parking spot. It was very wet and boggy underfoot in areas. Although it was cloudy, the wind wasn’t very strong but it seemed enough to deter the usual dog walkers that seem to appear from all directions!
I set up a short distance from the trig point and was ready by 1340z. I then checked the EFHW on the Nano VNA. My previous tests on this antenna were carried out in my back garden and I’d had worked out that the difference in setting it up as a sloper or an Inv L usually required a 6” - 9” adjustment. Today it was set up as an Inv sloping L and once the adjustment had been made, I replied to a couple of CQs to check all was working okay and then spotted myself. Within 3mins a s2s with OM5CMB on F/AM-535 was logged and 7mins later I was being chased once again by Lars SA4BLM and Jose EA7GV (thanks!). After an enjoyable 1/2hr in total, I had logged 14 QSOs.
Unlike previous visits, I had the summit all to myself this time and really enjoyed it. The pole was brought down and I was packed up and ready to head back to the car in 5mins. Sometimes, a quick activation is just enough to clear the head and recharge my batteries.
73, Lea M0XPO