Kippure IE-005 - that was fun

Old Reflector
1

Hello all,

Well, finally I managed to get my first activation done. I was late, but I under-estimated Dublin traffic - I left one hour before, and it still took another 40ish minutes. Never underestimate Dublin traffic.

The weather went from bad, at the carpark (some 3Km from the summit), to worse at the top. Viz. reduced from 5Km to about 20m at the Kippure antenna mast.

I set up my FT-817, Elecraft T1, multi-band dipole (ala John Clifford GW4BVE) and 7Ah SLAB battery on the side of the road.

As I was going to connect the antenna, I saw the PL259 had broken off. So I had to stick the core into the BNC connector of the T1. and screw the braid onto the earth tap.

It seemed to tune up ok, and I started off.

I was calling to myself for about 30 mins until Pete, EI7CC responded, giving me 5/3 with QSB.

At least then I knew everything was working (ish).

I went on to work:

G3RMD, Frank
G0RQL, Don
G6WRW, Caroline
GW7AAV, Steve
GW3XHG, Dave
M3YHB, Helen

After that, some nice gent (G8CBU) continued to call on my frequency, 3.770, for about 20 minutes, despite my calls of frequency in use. Anyway, I won’t let that bother me.

I had intended on activating Djouce, IE-007, but I was cold, the weather was gettng worse, so I called it off. Apologies to G3RMD and the rest.

All-in-all a good day, and it earned me my first 10 points.

I thought I had prepared for everything (as much as I could), but there were some small “failures” in my system. These will be rectified, until the next lot of failures happen :slight_smile:

Thanks again to all who helped me out on my first activation. As the Gubernator says - I’ll be back.

73,
bernard/ei8fdb

2

In reply to EI8FDB:
Hi Bernard,
Congratulations on your first SOTA activation and I hope that it is the first of many. It’s great to see a bit of SOTA activity from EI, which has been rather quiet from a SOTA point of view recently. Thank’s for the summit and look forward to working you on many more.
73
Frank

3

In reply to EI8FDB:
Well done Bernard look forward to you getting 5MHz permission.
Was listening but only heard people answering you.
Had cans on and as many filters as I could adjust - thats 'till 'XHG
came on - just got my hearing back :slight_smile:

Here’s hoping the next time.

Roger G4OWG

4

In reply to EI8FDB:
Hi Bernhard,

congrats for your first activation. I feel with you, did an activation last year of Slievenamon. I remember the strong winds and rain showers on the summit, but also the fun I had. Was using a FT-817/5wtts, MFJ-Tuner and a simple wire lying on the ground. I have been in Clonmel for a service and hope one day to come back for another activation in EI. Unfortunatly I couldn’t be qrv during you have been on Kippure, will listening for you in future.

73’s,
Ralf DH3IAJ

5

In reply to EI8FDB:

Absolutely delighted to work you. I did not think we would make it as I had been listening for a while and only hearing the odd word or two, but then your signal came up and I took the plunge. After I worked you you got stronger to me before disappearing under the other signal on the band. Band conditions can be cruel at times and you did very well with the 817 under difficult circumstances, well done.

I am keen to get you in the log when you get your 5mHz NOV and I am sure lots of others will be keen to work their first EI station on that band so you should be popular. I hope to work you from many more summits in the future.

Thanks for your effort today

73 Steve GW7AAV

6

In reply to G3RMD:

Hi Frank,

Same to you. I appreciate the call in today. Hopefully I will have more time (now that I know the general score of things), as once I got organised, it wasn’t such a big deal to get up there.

I do hope to activate some during the week, as I will be left “home alone” for the week. And its either the hills or the pub! Hihi.

thanks, and looking forward to more,
73,
bernard

7

In reply to DH3IAJ:

Hallo Ralf,

Slievenamon is evern harder, but more beautiful.

Please do listen out for me. It would be great to get into Europe on my 5W.

Danke,
bernard

8

In reply to GW7AAV:

Hi Steve,

Thanks for the call in today. Yes, things were abit tough, but to be honest, it was better than I expected. If the weather was better, it would have been very pleasant.

I have the 5MHz form and am looking for the right way to fill it out. Once I have the extra allocations, I will be QRV.

thank you for the call,
73,
bernard

9

In reply to G4OWG:

Hi Roger,

Yep, as I said, the 5MHz is in the pipeline.

I know things were hard. I might look into a small 12V amp, but thats another thing to carry. That SLAB battery is bloody heavy already.

Keeping my fingers crossed.

73,
bernard

10

Tnx Bernard,conditions not good but great to work you on your first activation.
Hope to see you on the next and 5mhz when you obtain the N.O.V.73 Don G0RQL.