Heard you a couple of times Christos. My QRP and poor antenna wasn’t allowing me to respond.
73, Colin
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I decided very much at the last minute to join in with the fun. Hutton Roof Crags is a fairly short walk and one of my nearer one point hills. I know my way fairly well during the daytime but it’s amazing how different and disorientating it is on a dark and rainy night!
I took my FT817 and 80m linked dipole with G4YSS coils for 160m. I was a bit earlier than the alerts for G4AZS and GW4BML so I decided to start off on 80m CW. I worked 8 on CW including SP9AMH, which was a nice contact. Further CQs produced no replies, so I switched to SSB. 6 more QSOs were added to my log before contacts dried up.
I connected up the G4YSS coils and got set up for 160m. Adrian G4AZS/P was calling from G/WB-010 so I worked him on 160m SSB. I went down to the CW end and called CQ. I worked another 4 including Adrian G4AZS/P again, this time on the key. I had decided to give up at this point, it was 2130 and it was raining. I was just about to start packing up when HamAlert went off with a spot for MW0KXN/P. Rather later than I expected but Kevin’s signal was very good despite the noisy band conditions. I managed to work Kevin on CW from GW/SW-010, so it was mission complete!
I couldn’t find any cream cakes in the Co-Op, so I had to settle for a strawberry cheesecake to celebrate my S2S QSOs instead!
73, and thanks to all of the chasers.
Colin
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You were too weak for me to call you on Top Band SSB, just an occasional word when the QSB was favourable. It would have been easy to work you on CW but unfortunately I don’t have a key at present. Still, four out of five ain’t bad!
I had some success going top-band portable a few years back, using a homebrew AM transmitter/receiver. On at least three occasions I used an end fed quarter wave wire (40m) strung into a tree as an inverted -L, so about 10m vertical, then 30m horizontal, to a distant tree. It is more work than you realise getting this wire up in the air, so you need to be not short of time.
This element is worked against a 40m single radial. On one occasion (probably my best outine for sig strength reports), I clipped onto the top wire of a wire fence that ran for many kilometers. I used a series variable capacitor, a two-gang ex broadcast receiver piece, to tune out a bit of reactance.
The benefits of this scheme include absence of lossy loading coils, the disadvantages include the sheer effort in untangling two 40m wire lengths, and gettig it all set up! I’ve kept the antenna wires and pieces in a shoebox, and would be happy to set it up again sometime, if I knew there would be sufficient 160m activity to make it worthwhile!
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Hi Colin!
It is great to hear it, because my antenna is just a long wire 40 meter and the whole work makes the tuner!
From my side I copied GM0GAV and OH9XX.
Congratulations for your successful try!
73 de SV2OXS, Christos
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Many thanks for the QSO on 80m CW Colin, wishful thinking on my part that it was 160m but it makes for a complete. 
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I got my MG using nothing but an EF 80m HW. Never knew any better! Plus it was needed for those early-morning activations pre- current solar awakening, when there was no activity on any band except the morning weather-and-ailments net.
I did occasionally think ‘I could just roll out half of this …’ for daytime activations, but don’t think I ever got beyond the thinking stage.
Now, 160m … that would be more of a challenge. Real-estate wise. Any ZL’s keen to try for a 160m S2S?
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I’m hopefully coming over to ZL early next year Matt @ZL4NVW so if I’m close, we could do an activation? Not saying on 160m though 
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Always keen for a joint activation - if it can fit in with my erratic work schedule which crosses the Southern Alps twice a month! And available to be 4WD chauffeur for those wanting to get into the Central Otago ranges. Some amazing country in there, but big distances from paved roads.
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Activation report - Craig Y Llyn GW/SW-010 on top band
Activators:
Well, the first mid-week madness top band activation did happen despite the torrential rain we witnessed!
The planning began when I had to deliver a rally car shell with parts to a friend in South Wales, I messaged Kevin @MW0KXN asking if he was keen for a late night (he knew what I meant straight away) - of course he was and we invited Matt @MW0KAX who said he was keen to join when we were next out.
I loaded up and off I went on my 2.15 hour journey.
Once the car had been dropped off, the fun was about to begin! I met up with Kevin and Matt, ditched the trailer, and off to climb a SOTA summit we went, Craig y Llyn ‘GW/SW-010.
The evening started off well, no rain, nor heavy winds which was predicted…. we were on a winner 
reached the trig and a selfie was taken:
Now it was time to set our station up, which was a little different to normal set ups. We had to find a nice open area to erect 80m of wire in the sky. After scratching our heads a few times, we found a nice spot just below the trig stone beside a stoned track. It didn’t take long and everything was set, Kevin took the key, I spotted for him, and CQ CQ CQ SOTA was keyed once before the heavens opened and we received torrential rain 
we covered the radio over, I paused Kevin’s spot and we began building the small shelter, getting pretty wet at the same time - these 160m activations are always fun. With the 3 of us working together, it didn’t take long until we had a new office that was water tight, happy days.
Kevin took to the key again and managed to work a nice pile-up while Matt and myself chilled listening to the rain hit the shelter from every direction.
Once Kevin had finished on the key, I took over and managed to make 4 contacts to qualify the summit on 1.8-CW. While I was busy at work, Kevin and Matt were stuffing their faces with the lovely large cakes Kevin had collected from his local baker earlier on in the day.
Matt then took over and worked 1.8-SSB managing to work 4 stations to qualify on top band - it was a success for us all, job done! Me and Kev shared the mic putting a last call out also adding 4 stations to our log on 1.8-SSB.
It was a great night had, I must apologise to Adrian @G4AZS, we missed our S2S somehow - I think this could have been when the rain stopped our play for 10 minutes? But Kevin did manage a S2S with Colin @M1BUU - great contact, thanks buddy!
I forgot to mention, I also had a cake from Kevin too - it tasted bloody good!
I’d like to thank everyone who called into us - top band wasn’t working very well last night, maybe we were a little early to the party? What does this mean…… we’ll have to keep trying
73 all, the 3 amateurs 
BML, KXN & KAX
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Nice to hear about your adventure - on the met site I had watched the band of heavy showers approaching you and was afraid that you would be forced to abhort!
I was actually surprised at how well 160m was performing on phone, at any given time it did not look busy with perhaps a half dozen QSOs going on, but activity was steady and over the course of a couple of hours quite strong stations showed up from all over Europe. I didn’t try to work any of them, I was there for SOTA, but perhaps another night…
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Brilliant night gents (albeit a little moist) really enjoyed and look forward to another. Nothing not to like about playing radio on the mountain with friends
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Well, that was fun!
I activated from The Wrekin G/WB-010. This is a very popular area for walkers / runners / mountain bikers, and the AZ is quite small in the context of a 160m dipole. It is also criss-crossed with paths, so I had to choose a location where I could stretch out the wire in a straight line without strangling anyone in the dark. (in the event, quite a few people passed by on foot)
I found a good spot, with a convenient post for antenna support. Unfortunately it is on the Western side of the narrow rocky ridge, and fully exposed to the prevailing wind.
I set up the dipole with a centre height of 3m, and each end held 1m above ground with a walking pole.
The radio was an FT817, plus a Xiegu XPA20 amplifier which should have given me about 20W output. In the event it refused to produce any power, for reasons yet to be determined. Fiddling with it wasted a few minutes and the activation proceeded with 5W.
The band seemed noisy, with about 6 blocks showing on the 817’s S meter. Harsh constant hiss. I’m not sure whether this was QRN, or urban hash from nearby Telford, or the nearby TV mast.
Anyway, 9 contacts made on SSB, and 4 on CW, including S2S on both modes with Colin M1BUU/P. FB.
After half an hour operating, the wind chill had me shivering. I have pushed past this point occasionally, but found that it isn’t a good idea. Nowadays I take it as an absolute flag to pack up and get moving.
Sadly, that meant that I missed an S2S with GW4BML, MW0KXN and MW0KAX by a few minutes, though I only knew that when I arrived home and checked the spots.
The line disappearing to the South East is G4IPB in the Indian Ocean…
RBN spots, it might have been possible to work further into Europe
Many thanks to the “mid-week madness” team for inspiration and motivation, and to all the callers. I suspect there may have been a few that I couldn’t hear through the noise, but thank you for trying anyway.
73
Adrian G4AZS
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We encountered similar noise and were wondering if it was from the windfarm. Perhaps a greater problem for us was the slow and very deep fade with several contacts started at 59 only to be lost.
73, Kevin
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Hi Adrian… I put an amazing antenna strapped to side of the Tardis … seriously where is it picking the location from? I’ve checked the database and I think it is the right way round (54.6N, -2.1E)(Latitude, Longitude) but I’m suffering a bout of man-flu making the obvious less so.
I think SOTA MAPS generated the map - I’ve checked there and and the SOTA database and both seem to be pointing to this part of the globe (Long -2 Lat 54) so I’m a bit stuck trying to fix it… Please put me out of my misery and point out the *** obvious… S Thanks for the QSO that 5w into an antenna 3m off the ground was really working quite well considering…
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I’ll also add in my two pence - I had awful band noise too - it wasn’t local, it was the band conditions. I keep hearing what sounded like far off lightning strikes too.
I think we all need a pat on the back, going out in poor weather conditions on a dark evening and playing with a band where prospects of getting enough QSOs to quailfy are still marginal.
Lots of time taken this morning hanging stuff up to dry!
73, Colin
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I think it pulls from QRZ.com, unless you are on a summit.
(I did think it was the real reason why you weren’t on a wet summit in Northern England
By contrast I thought the band was delightfully quiet! In fact my location suffers severe local noise from about 2 MHz down to the 21 MHz band with 24 and 28 MHz much quieter so most of my chasing is battling S8-9 noise. Top Band is a holiday by comparison with the noise at about S4!
I had s9 noise and heard nothing at all from any of the activators. A pity when people go to such lengths to get out on the hills. 20m seems to be the only (relatively) noise free band here at home.
Well done all - I might possibly join you from WB-023 if we get a fine, dry and not too cold opportunity sometime.
73,
Rod
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I’d hoped to call in as a chaser last night but wasn’t able to get away from dinner duties. I had to lovingly prepare an M&S curry to be eaten while watching Big Bang Theory on Netflix. It’s a hard life.
As the nights draw in will this get earlier? If so I should find it easier to call in. If I can find 80m of wire maybe I’ll even have a go as an activator on G/NP-028. I’m not promising though!
That’s usually caused by latitude and longitude swapped. I’ve just checked the map for your activation and Paul has moved back home.
I think only if it hasn’t been set in the SOTA database.
It’s the same for me so almost all my SOTA chasing is 20m CW.
73 Richard
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