This weekend wasn’t meant to happen for me… walk 9 miles (for the fun of it, not just going up the hill) and after setting up antenna, battery and listening 20m activity… I realised that I had forgotten my KX3 Mic!!!
iPhone earphones didn’t work as just a mic so… I had a cup of tea and drove back home.
A number of broken tries everywhere! Storm Doris did more damage than I had imagined.
… so no activation report, just and off topic reminder!
73
Tasos
Easy done.
So folks what have you forgot in the past
Me, left me telescopic pole at home got 4 miles up road in car, had to go back and get it.
9 miles hike before OOOPS
Karl
I printed up a checklist of SOTA items and had it laminated at the office supply store. I found that you can write on the surface with a permanent Sharpie type marker and that it can be easily removed with rubbing alcohol (Isopropyl alcohol). I had the bandplan printed on the back of the paper as a handy reference.
Leave some room on the checklist for write-in items. I plan ahead and strike a line through any item I don’t want to take that day.
Things get checked off as they get put in the bag. A single slash / in the box for outgoing, and then a crossed slash to make an X when repacking on the slope. That way I know what I packed (I don’t always pack everything on the list), and that it’s back in the bag for heading home. The laminated sheet makes a nice place mat to set the rig on if the ground is moist, too!
Hope this helps,
Bruce
WB8OGK
Easily my best one was arriving at a climbing hut in Patterdale only to find my boots were still on the floor in the hallway at home, so I scaled down my plans the next day and climbed Little Mell Fell G/LD-037 wearing Karrimore walking shoes, set the antenna up on the summit and then found that the power lead for the rig was not in the rucksack, although I clearly remembered putting it in the previous day. So I enjoyed the view (fresh snow on the fells) and retreated with my tail between my legs. Back at the hut I found the power lead on the floor, where it had fallen when putting my butties and thermos in the rucksack!
Now I have a spare lead always in the rucksack…
Brian
learned something today after searching about the “hut” you said!
the YHA hostels as a backup plan if you don’t feel like camping (almost fully booked though).
I initially though it was a hut like the one local mountaineering clubs have in certain locations.
cheers
Thats what it was, Tasos, I’m a member of the local climbing club, the hut was the Agnes Spencer Memorial Hut in Patterdale. These huts are useful to know about, many of them are available for booking a small party, they tend to be basic but comfortable and inexpensive, and the hut I mentioned is convenient for eight Marilyns including Helvellyn.
Brian
When I used my KX3 for SOTA activations, I always had a little computer mike with, just in case of a microphone failure or a bit of forgetfulness on my part… With the KX2, I consider the built-in mike as my emergency backup. I also always take two batteries, even with the extra weight.
Dave, AE9Q
I never unplug it but that didn’t stop me forgetting the mast once. 73, John
Nice anecdote, but let down at the end by the somewhat outdated stereotype.
Murphy was, however, American. So whether that means his wife would have had an Irish accent is difficult to determine.
Murphy’s Quantum Law is better (but doesn’t involve cats though)
Anything that can, could have, or will go wrong, is going wrong, all at once.
On different occasions I’ve forgotten: The driven Element for Yagi (more than once), coax, battery, my food, drink.
If I had a check list I’d probably forget to looks at it !
Dammit, John, it was an Irishman told me that one! Have all the Irish jokes about the “Man from Mayo” become extinct?
Oh, it’s the old "some of my best friends are Irish* " routine. That makes it perfectly alright, then.
*add minority group of choice here.
Well frankly, I hardly know and care less what the ethnicities of my friends are, nor do I worry when my own ethnicity becomes the subject of a joke - as long as I’m not called “Taffy” as that is a river!
“Did you hear the one about the Englishman, the Irishman and the Scotsman …” ?
73,
Wlat
HI Tasos
I feel your pain happened to me once luckily it was a short walk back to the car, thought the damaged trees were from you unleashing some anger on the way home.
Some useful spares that I carry in the bottom of my rucksack stuffed inside my spare socks and woolly hat;
Microsoft Lifechat LX-2000 headset as a spare mic for the kx3 or headphones for other rigs
DC lead and two small DC connectors one for the FT817/MTR3b, the other for the KX3.
9vlt battery and spare rig MTR.
I tend to use Sods Law all that will go wrong will go wrong, Murphys law seems a bit more of a plastic Irishman expression to me.
73
Graeme
Added a photo
Regarding backup Mics,
What sort of mic do I need? Mono jack probably? Or ‘stereo’ like the one below?
In the new spirit pioneered by Colin, M1BUU I think you should not take a complete assembled spare mike, but rather a bit of wire, connectors, a few dynamic and electret elements, a capacitor for dc isolation (optional) and a switch, plus a gas powered soldering iron to assemble it on site, then invite reports on microphone comparisons. There is nothing more guaranteed to bring people out of the woodwork than a microphone quality test. Just ask “is this good quality, or communications quality?”. That should fill your log.
Never taken a mike, but on different occasions I have forgotten:
the straight key (made-do with a twin wire with 3.5mm stereo plug one end and two banana plugs on the other ends - ratty sending though),
The CW paddle
the power lead (now carry two)
The battery
The aerial pole
Went on Welsh summit with a Swiss friend (who shall remain nameless) and he forgot his co-ax. We managed with one of my spares (!), plus an EFHW.
Moral, go with someone else, he (she) may well have remembered to double-up on the item you forgot, and you can make do with his (her) doubles.
Les
I usually make a sheet up with summit info and a map with the route to the top.
On arriving at one summit last year I decided that as there were no paths to follow the map was not required, so I duly made my way to the top and started my activation. I wasn’t far into my first contact before I realised leaving the map & info behind was a mistake, I had “forgot” the summit reference. It didn’t take long for the chaser to work out where I was.
I now make sure I take the sheet.
I also write the summit name & ref in my log sheet before I leave the house.
