Well not actually late, I arrived 10 minutes early on a very frosty summit. Mast up, aerial deployed.
Key and ear buds connected. 857 switched on. 10.118+_ busy. Tested tx, audio disappeared? Not had that before? Tried again, spinning tuning knob, same effect?
“Stranger and stranger said Alice”
Time passed no solution. Getting cold.
Tried a cq call. After 5 minutes a chaser, but the rig still has a mind of its own. This continued for 30 cold minutes or so and the qso’s were hard to complete. So after 90 long minutes I did what I never do, I left the pilup.
I apologise if I missed you, beaten by technology plus the cold and the damp?
Post script:
After a night in the warm, the rig is back to its normal self. I suspect damp on GW NW 034 the previous Thursday. We live and learn.
David
G0EVV
This happened to me many years ago with my FT817 on Fan Nedd. A very cold damp day and it was very misty. The rig would not respond with odd noises and complete rubbish on the display. Luckily I was able to qualify on 2m so not a wasted activation.
The following day I tried the rig and it was perfect. I think that the combination of a nice warm home then into a nice warm insulated bag and eventually a dry rucksack the emergence into the cold damp conditions on the summit caused condensation to form on the boards inside. It has worked perfectly since that day.
You did well to last on the summit for so long David.
I was operating a RockMite on Helvellyn but the QRM from a Scottish POTA station was too much and I had to give up after a few QSOs. The wind was much stronger than expected and I was shivering in a very short period of time.
I’d got the boxes ticked; RockMite tested, enough chasers to claim the points and an S2S with Richard G4TGJ on G/NP-008. As a fellow home brewer, I like to chase Richard as he tries to improve home brew his S2S score.
The fell top assessor agreed with my conclusion that it was a bit chilly!
