Lots will know that I like to cash in on winter bonus. I’ve been itching to get out into the hills but we had a period of yucky weather and also I’ve had a bit of a bug, not really full blown flu, but I’ve felt shivery and then hot, and had headaches etc. Thankfully I seem to be finally getting better, so yesterday I took advantage of the good weather forecast to activate Ingleborough and finally get my first winter bonus points of 2023.
The road past the Old Hill Inn out of Ingleton towards Ribblehead was thankfully clear of ice and seemed to be well gritted. I’ve spent quite a bit of time on icy roads this week and frankly, I’ve had my fill. We parked the car just off the road a little bit past the Old Hill inn.
I’d elected to take my venerable FT-817, not a radio I use often for SOTA as I find it too heavy. I put my station together and pressed the FT-817 power button and the rig wouldn’t turn on. 99.9% of the time I take a spare radio, but this time I hadn’t!
I inspected the fuse, wiggled the power plug in case the dreaded FT-817 curse had finally struck (broken power socket), but nothing I did could bring the rig to life. I gave the power lead a good inspection too and found nothing. I was just starting to pack up when I noticed that the positive wire had broken away from the Deans plug on the end. The heat shrink had obviously fooled me during my initial inspection. I was ready to give up, but then I thought what would Steve @wG0AT think of me if I didn’t think my way out of this problem? The terminals on a Deans plug are exposed but the negative terminal was still shrouded in heat shrink. I’d taken my first aid kit which contained a knife and some wound dressing tape. I stripped about an inch of insulation from the broken wire and then twisted the bare end around the positive terminal on the Deans plug. I used the tape to hold the wire in place. Imagine my relief as the FT-817 finally fired up! I think that’s the first time in my 19 year SOTA career that I’ve been forced into a ‘McGyver’ situation to qualify!
The contacts came quickly once I’d called CQ but my D-I-Y had used up a bit of my time. I’d opted to operate on 14.058 as a nod to Guru’s @EA2IF 58th birthday. The FT-817 was also chosen in Guru’s memory. My son was feeling the cold after I’d worked the pile up down on 20m, so with 32 QSOs in the log, I decided not to do any other bands.
Hi Colin,
I’m glad it finally went well and you didn’t surrender with that trouble. It’s always good when there is a happy end and you got some nice experience for the future (keep that aid kit always there!).
Thanks a lot for your effort in activating with your FT-817 and 14.058 MHz freq to honour Guru.
Great stuff that surgical tape. Over the years I’ve used more doing repairs on the kit than repairs on me. I even repaired a 2m beam with the ally foil from my sandwiches and tape on one occasion. Where needs must…
I was over in Northumberland yesterday activating a WWFF area and noted your spot, but you’d gone by the time I was free to take a listen for you. It seems it was warmer where I was as I spent three and a half hours activating sat in the sunshine and I even got lightly suntanned.
Hi Colin, I see on this occasion the fault turned out not to be the FT817 power socket itself. My 21-year-old FT817 has been very reliable [perhaps because like yours it sits on the shelf whilst I usually take a lighter more-modern HF rig] until a few years ago when the 12v DC power socket started to become intermittent.
I decided then, before it got worse, to get a PowerPole adapter [from SOTAbeams, maybe other vendors make one for the FT817] and that solution has been rock solid.
Thanks for the report. It’s been a few years since i activated Ingleborough. It beckons on the horizon from the higher parts of my village and surrounding countryside.
Don’t forget to order no wind too! There were periods yesterday on the Eastern fells where it was becoming difficult to stand up in the wind. There were occasional periods of sunshine and little wind too!
Yes, I’d noticed that you did a sneaky activation of Tarn Crag without me!
The secret is to look at the MWIS forecast for gusts and then subtract about 20mph to get the actual value. 20 to 25mph winds were forecast for me on Ingleborough, it was dead calm!
