Hope Mountain GW/NW-062 04/04/2007

After a reasonable days chasing, things were quietening down and the wx looked perfect, so I made a snap decision to bite my bottom lip and forfeit the third unique offered by Peter G3TJE/P and go for it.

There was method in my madness though, a devious plan was afoot.
I have been helping Steve GW7AAV with the dreaded dots and dashes and made a bet with our local amateur gang while out for a meal one evening, that I could get Steve up to speed and that he would earn a sota point or points using cw, by the end of April.
The bet, each member of our group was to buy me a pint on our next restaurant visit, if Steve made it in the stated time.
They should have known better.

Since activating Great Orme GW/NW-070 with Steve GW7AAV, I have been chomping at the bit to have another go on one of the “easy” summits.
I had been up at hope mountain earlier in the year, to test antennae but couldn’t gain access to the AZ via the farm because of the deep mud, so I decided to attempt it in the better weather.
I noticed that Richard G3CWI had put a tip on the summit info page, suggesting easier access from the radio station side of the summit, this was the route I took.

yesterday, unknown to a few, Steve held his first cw contact with me on air on 145.025 and it was then that the plan was hatched, that I would activate from Hope Mountain when wx allowed and contact Steve on the same frequency on cw as my first contact towards qualifying the summit.
He did it with flying colours, both sending and receiving qrs.
Congratulations Steve on your first cw sota point.

After the cw, I called Steve on 70cms FM and asked him to spot me so I could qualify the summit on 2FM, at this point Mike M1DAP called me and number 2 was in the log, this was going to be easy, or so I thought.

After my initial cq call and qsy to s19, my 817 was totally desensed by the radio masts near the summit and I had no option but to move. I must have looked very odd carrying my still extended pole and dipole across the field below the trig.
I called cq again from the new location and was greeted again with desensing and thought at this point that I might not qualify the summit, luckily though the desensing was in bursts and I was greeted by a string of regulars headed by Graham G4JZF. Mike G4BLH was next in the log and I had qualified the summit.

Thanks to everyone for the contacts and apologies for the difficulties due to the masts. I intend to do this summit again in the near future on 5Mhz ssb and 7Mhz cw.

Stations wkd…
GW7AAV, M1DAP, G4JZF, G4BLH, M3PUE, 2E0HJD, G0HIK, G4ZRP, G4VUK/M, G0NES, GW0WTT, G3CWI, M3JAO, M3IHC, G6LKB/M, M3PRY, M0IGG.

QSOs
144 cw 1
433 fm 3
145 fm 18

Pictures now on FlickR website

In reply to GW0DSP:
Thank you for the point today Mike. A good idea if you have desensing problems
is to turn the antenna horizontal which in most cases stops the desensing but
of course those that are only verticaly polarised would be at a disadvamtage.

In reply to G4JZF:

My pleasure Graham.
I wasn’t aware that swapping the antenna to horizontal would help with desensing, but I’ll certainly give it a go next time.
The antenna is a homebrew dipole with swivelling telescopic elements, so it’s easy to change the polarisation. You were a massive signal when the desensing stopped.
I will be back up there soon, activating on 30m and 40m, I can only do the “easy” ones because of a severe back problem, but I enjoy having a go, if only to give a tiny bit back to the regular activators.

73

Mike

In reply to GW0DSP:

Hi Mike

Thanks for the contact. There are several “easy” ones around. Cloud and Gun make a nice duo. Billinge is another one famed for desense problems - but is very easy.

I have only once had a problem on 40m and that was on Dundry Down where my activation was accompanied by background music from a local radio station. I think it was an FM station so the mechanism for demodulation is a mystery.

I did try to encourage Steve to have another CW contact (on 40m) but he claimed to still be shaking from his earlier one with you!

73

Richard

In reply to G3CWI:

There is easy and there is easy, hi. My problem is that I broke two vertabrae in my back in the early eighties and on a good day can just manage the likes of Great Orme or Hope Mountain, on a bad day I have to stay in bed flat on my back.
I would love to be able to do the bigger summits having been an outdoor man all my life.

All Steve requires now is plenty of practice to get his confidence and speed up. Our contact yesterday was at about 4-5 wpm and was good contact both ways.
I have explained to Steve that 99% of cw ops are more than willing to qrs for any newcomer to the mode.

73 good luck in OE

Mike

In reply to GW0DSP:

Mike

I would be surprised if you could not manage Gun (given your previous activations). It is as easy as they come!

73

Richard

In reply to G3CWI:

Thanks Richard, I’ll certainly take a look at it.

73
Mike