There is a station (GW4UPO/P) operating quite often at the weekends from Great Orme, but he is operating mobile from his car.
What may confuse chasers is that he gives the SOTA reference NW-070 in his contacts. The station concerned is not an activator and does not submit logs as such, and is probably unaware of the consequence of his announcing the SOTA reference! I note that he appears in several chasers’ logs on the SOTA Database. Such claims cannot be accepted towards awards.
It is always worth asking if an operation is SOTA compliant when the site concerned is accessible by road, and the operator is not a known activator in the Database. If they are not a ‘regular’, they may well be unaware of some of the rules.
I quite work a few stations who operate from Winter Hill G/SP-010 and it is quite common for stations on that hill to give the reference and be in the car. I always try to ask where they are operating from, they tend to not be aware of the rules. More than a few have got out of the car and walked to the trig with a handheld for me claim the points when I explained the rules. Even when none SOTA stations say they are genuinely hand portable it is important to ascertain if they are in the activation area. Ross G6GVI operates portable there all the time on 23cms and 70MHz fortunately he is aware of the rules and will let me know when he enters the activation zone so I can log it.
Perhaps spotting car operations as ‘None SOTA’ should be encouraged. If then every SOTA chaser works them and explains the rules, ignoring the fact that the last ten people did the same, they will either get the idea SOTA is worth doing properly or stop giving out the references.
I had the very windy pleasure of activating The Great Orme on Sunday the 27th Feb 2011. It was a pleasant drive from Warrington and the kids enjoyed the playground.
It was only my third activation and took very little effort to reach the trig point from the car park.
I used an Icom IC-E92D but suffered from a lot of interference/noise. This also happened to me at Billinge Hill and The Cloud - sorry Tom - I know I was trespassing but it’s all your fault having given a SOTA talk with Jimmy at Warrington Club! I’m beginning to wonder if the front end of the Icom handheld is up to it?
In case of any doubt!
shows a picture of me a couple of metres from the trig - to get a bit of shelter… I only worked 7 stations, which included my wife (MW6JBZ), who was in the car keeping nice and warm.
Tom
I sent a couple of emails to you but got no reply. Perhaps I have used the wrong email address. Can you ping me at M0TUB@hotmail.co.uk ?
I used an Icom IC-E92D but suffered from a lot of interference/noise.
This also happened to me at Billinge Hill and The Cloud - sorry Tom -
I know I was trespassing but it’s all your fault having given a SOTA
talk with Jimmy at Warrington Club! I’m beginning to wonder if the
front end of the Icom handheld is up to it?
If you had much of a problem on The Cloud then it’s probably not the radio to use for SOTA.
I used an Icom IC-E92D but suffered from a lot of interference/noise. Dave Given | Flickr
shows a picture of me a couple of metres from the trig - to get a bit
of shelter
Is that a mobile mag mount antenna? If so then it might be part of the problem since it needs a ground plane to work properly.
The old electric handbags, FT290MK1, TR-2300G are good in strong RF environments. I’ve got an Icom IC80AD which hasn’t misbehaved yet. Last time on Cyrn-y-Brain I could hear the noise floor pumping as something up there went on and off. The IC80AD behaved well on Winter Hill in the presence of DNA warping amounts of RF from the TV transmitter and a metric shedload of stuff on the wee towers.
Hi Colin
Indeed it is a mag mount antenna but it was attached to the proverbial metal baking tray as a ground plane and tested out fine at home.
Regards
Dave
Well I must say, I’m a little disappointed with the IC-E92D performance so far.
I’ll try it again a couple more times and if there is no improvement, I shall change its address!!
In reply to M0TUB:
Hi Dave,
I’ve used my THF-7E handie from the Great Orme many times, usually suffering with a lot of QRN. I use the attenuater button to stop the radio from being overloaded by near-by transmitters. That helps quite a bit. A yagi or other beam antenna aiming away from the local masts instead of a omi directional antenna will probably be quieter too.
Hi Roger
Thank you for the QSO - I was beginning to wonder if I would ever make it to 4 as the reception was so bad.
A portable yagi is on the list of things to get sorted out soon. I would like to make my own, just for the satisfaction of using it. I have a spare ZL special which is very good but it is a little too substantial to carry up a hill.
Using the “rubber duck” antenna - The front end held up OK.
Plugged into a 3 element beam - The front end was then as good as a
chocolate teapot - absolute pants! Could hardly hear a thing!
The Yaesu VX-8 (both R and GR) are just as bad. I’ve used both while activating WOTAs on the Lakeland fells. As a chaser I once failed to be heard by an activator who was using a VX-8R even though I was calling him using 50W.
The best VHF radio I’ve found for using with a good antenna on high spots is the Motorola GP-300 I bought for £1 at Blackpool last year. I think I’ll be taking that with me in future and leaving the expensive Japanese toys at home.
In reply to M1EYP:
I’ve worked him on the Great Orme as an M6 thinking it was a valid S2S. Mike G4BLH wasn’t having that for his summit to summit award. When I was called by him from the Great Orme last year saying S2S I asked if he was using the correct callsign. Perhaps sir what like to check if the antenna is attached to the car? I logged him as /M
