GM4OBK/P Fixed station Today

Just to let you all know if you hear me operating on HF as GM4OBK/P this week I may not be on a summit. I was operating yesterday on GM/SS-071 Windy Standard but today due to the wet weather I am chasing SOTA from our cottage at Bartaggart Farm, north of Castle Douglas, Dumfries & Galloway region. Here is my station:

Yaesu FT-991A, Bencher (Black) Key, Heil HC4 headset, Lenovo Thinkpad & 40m-6m OCF Dipole at 10m AGL.

Therefore if I do not alert and send a reference for the rest of this week I am not on a summit, but will continue to sign /P at this holiday QTH.

Activators have been asking for my reference and I ain’t got one today, hence this message!

We got rained off today but we will be out activating on other days, weather permitting.

73 de Phil GM4OBK/P

PS I have no DATA capability for the last day of the Flavours Challenge!

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It was a bit wet over the weekend so if your weather was like ours you probably got a little bit damp.

I was away practising :mask: socially distanced contesting on 2m :mask:. Just a dry run with a new shack tent and new prime-mover to iron out snags and wrinkles as no RSGB multi-op contests running. Also if we didn’t put up a station we were all sure we’d forget how to rig everything!

Miserable and cloudy with occasional heavy showers Saturday. Dry by evening for socially distanced barbecue complete with Pink Gin aperitifs, we may wear same clothes for 2-3 days but we’re not uncouth savages! Sunday started with heavy showers at 600am to wake everyone, densest fog I have seen for years and a torrential downpour around 1030. Then the fog / cloud lifted, rain stopped and it got very warm with a gentle breeze, blue sky and fluffy clouds. Turned into a gorgeous day and all gear was dry by packup time.

We were using a Kuhne 144Pro transverter, what a revelation that was over 30 year old designs. Lots of mods done to the contest FT736s over the years but the Kuhne was awesome. Just as well when you see how much it cost :star_struck: :astonished:

WX is pants now so I hope it improves a bit for you later this week.

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Maybe /A is a useful alternative that would avoid the relentless “REF?” enquiries.

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Which finally caused me bucket loads of trouble both in the UKAC and this weekend - I have a (very dirty) 140 MHz signal within line of sight - FT736 falls over with noise sidebands 40 dB above background. Hence reason I couldn’t hear Tom last Tuesday (or a lot of other stations).

New 2m transverter in pipeline - FT736 may have to go the way of all flesh!!!

Yes Tom, but using /A suffix would mean applying for another Logbook of the World licence for the GM4OBK/A callsign and I don’t want to do that, so sticking with GM4OBK/P for the ARRL authenticated logbook situation.

73 Phil

There are plenty of intriguing “gotchas” in writing logging software. But supporting one operator using multiple callsigns isn’t one of them. It would be interesting to know who wrote LOTW software for the ARRL. Just so I can check they haven’t written any banking or medical software as a failure in design like this doesn’t make me want to use their products to look after my money or health. :wink:

Buy Kuhne 144Pro then I can borrow it!

I think that bit of the LotW design probably comes down to their making a strong connection between a callsign and the DXCC to which it belongs, and the old practice of using a suffix to indicate operation from a different DXCC… :confused: :roll_eyes:

Yes, I lived in Scotland full time in 1989/1990, then again part time on and off from 1999-2002 so already had a LoTW licence for 1000s of QSOs just as GM4OBK as I was fixed station with my QTH registered with OFCOM. Then when SOTA came into my life in a big way from 2005 onwards I had to secure a GM4OBK/P LoTW licence as well to cover that. It’s poor that one LoTW licence does not cover all QSOs with whatever suffix is used so long as the contacts are made from the same DXCC country, but maybe there is a reason for it that we do not comprehend…

Back to chasing then here, not doing so bad today with 8 SOTAs logged so far, in a few hours, from this rurally located Covid free holiday QTH safe in our little bubble…

73 Phil

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Yes, I think you are thinking on the right lines there…

Phil

I am a (very) poor pensioner but happy to accept donations to assist :joy:

Not a bad day chilling and chasing in our radio friendly QTH holiday cottage on a remote farm in Galloway, thanks to all activators. I think I missed a few EU workable ones when not paying attention:

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