Well, that was a bust! Too much QRM, struggled to find a clear frequency on 20m or on 40m. Only one station managed to find me on each, so the summit went unactivated. I even found a clear frequency on 12m to have a deaf UA station come up on top of me. I had a strict time limit on this one, and the rain, wind, and frequent antenna collapses left me over the whole thing. One point is not worth that hassle
Thanks to Don and Remy for making it back, and thanks for trying to Mike M0MDA who I could hear 5/7 but couldn’t hear me.
An enjoyable trip through the UK with a radio, I will post with links to my blog when I get all of the posts finished.
In reply to VK3ARR:
TW-004 is the only TW summit I’ve yet to chase, partly, I suspect, because it’s just the wrong distance from me (too far for ground-wave, too close for normal skip), but also because, for many activators, it seems to be one of those “been there, done that, and not coming back” summits. (My nearest, Botley Hill G/SE-005, is another.)
I could hear you as you were working G0RQL on 40m but the QRM was too much for me to pull you out after your QSO with Don
I have worked the summit on 12m before so when your spot showed up on 12m I thought we’d have a good chance of a QSO to help you qualify but the UA station calling CQ was 59-59+ and totally wiped you out.
Really sorry you didn’t manage to quality the summit.
I hope you have had a good time in the UK and I look forward to working you again, hopefully from a VK summit.
Don’t forget that if you got at least 1 contact, it is still an “activation”. It will score zero points, but it will still count towards your “uniques”. It is worth submitting the log even if you got fewer than 4 contacts.
Which rig were you using, some, like the FT817 can use the buttons on the mic as a paddle/key. It’s not very good but better than nothing in an emergency.
Which rig were you using, some, like the FT817 can use the buttons on
the mic as a paddle/key. It’s not very good but better than nothing in
an emergency.
An FT-857, bought relatively recently, so I haven’t found out about that particular feature yet. Given they share a lot of firmware, I suspect it’s possible. Thanks for the tip.
I like this summit! 12m was not open when I set up after a successful 40m operation. The band appeared dead. But after a spot I managed to work Phil G4OBK who is about 20miles away on ground wave. I was happy with a multiplier and had a long drive ahead of me so wasn’t going to hang about. I called QRZ, just in case and was rewarded with a booming 59+ signal from Matt VK2DAG. 53 with QSB and QRM was my report. Not bad for 4.5W of SSB into a 1/4wave GP.
EDIT: (The bit I forgot) though I suppose there are few longish QSOs there for midday on 40m. I’d have been pleased to have you in the log as I don’t think we’ve had a QSO yet.
