Barry M3PXW contacted me to see if I fancied a late afternoon activation of Raw Head G/SP-016 and we made our arrangements that Barry would pick me up at 14:30 (nice to have normal clock time back, hi).
Barry was held up somewhat and decided to activate and take his xyl Sam and his three little terrors out for the walk. With this in mind I told him to go direct to the summit and avoid the extra mileage involved in picking me up and then dropping me off again afterwards. I made the decision to head for “the office” and offer Barry a S2S as I can see Raw Head from Hope Mountain.
As I pulled up at the radio station gate, the parking spot for NW-062 I was called by Frank G3RMD/M on his long journey home after his activation of Blencathra G/LD-008. I explained to Frank that I wasn’t in the activation zone, but would climb over the gate and walk up the tarmac road with the view to call Frank first and hopefully give him the 1pt from the summit.
I decided to just take the FT-817 and rubber duck antenna, not a method of activation I am fond of. I did however take a 3ah SLAB which would give me the 817s full 5 watts output.
As it happened, when I reached the top, I managed to work Frank with ease and informed him of Barry’s imminent activation of SP-016 and Frank said he would remain on the frequency and possibly pick up another chaser point while heading home.
To my delight Eleri MW3NYR/P called in from Penycloddiau GW/NW-054 where she was activating on 2m-fm along with hubby Ian GW8OGI/P who was “playing” on 4m. After our successful s2s I gave the frequency to Eleri who also managed to work Frank for his second /m chaser point of his journey. Frank managed the hat trick when Barry called in from SP-016 shortly afterwards. I think we all made our S2S contacts, even Ian later on as we were all ready for our descents.
A very short but enjoyable activation with a total of 10 contacts including the three S2S contacts with Eleri, Ian and Barry. Thanks to those who offered to spot me, but I had to decline in the quickly worsening weather, I had only just got back to my car when the heavens opened.
Thanks to all stations for the contacts and for the S2S QSOs…
G7ICY/M, G3RMD/M, 2E0OTE, MW3NYR/P (S2S NW-054) 2E0HJD (ssb), G4BLH (ssb), GW7AAV, M3PXW/P (S2S SP-016), M0SGB/M, GW8OGI/P (S2S NW-054
73 Mike GW0DSP