OK, I won’t bore everyone with every trivial detail of my G/SP-004 activation yesterday. Suffice to say, it was a long busy day, with some big pile-ups and a degree of patience demonstrated by the chasers, which was a credit to both Amateur Radio and SOTA.
The FT-857 threw a wobbly on the 70cm band and so I abandoned 70cm in favour of the 2m band. Looks like a trip to the Yaesu hospital for the 857, as the problem is far beyond the few brain cells I have remaining.
Anyway, a total of 244 contacts were made on 2m fm and 4 on 70cm fm, making a grand total of 248 for the day.
The number of S2S, /P and /M stations I worked, almost beggared belief, no doubt due to the schools breaking up and a shed load of folk heading off on their holidays…
Suppose I could have stayed longer, however, even the 20Ah SLAB was just about to chuck the towel in (that’s FM for you!) and quite frankly, I couldn’t be asked to connect the H/H to the collinear.
Thanks to everyone who called in, it was my pleasure to work all of you…
Hi Mike
You are a bit of a slacker om - I see you had an early night too, having posted this at only 03:06!!!
Stamina just isn’t what it used to be - talking about your 20Ah slab of course…
Regards
Dave
Well done, Mike. I activated two summits yesterday, G/SC-004 and G/SC-002, but only made 76 QSOs in total. (All on 40m CW, so no chance of a S2S with you!)
Fuel cost for the day = £50 = 66 pence per QSO :-(((
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
P.S. I see 'TUB was the last station to activate these two summits before me!
However, the cost pales into insignificance because:
A) I got to look at Ben Alder and Ben Bheoil all day.
B) I got my blood sugar down to 5.8 even after scoffing 3x Jordan’s Freusli bars, 1x MARS bar, an ASDA grain bar and a bag of peanuts.
C) After a slap up roast “that couldn’t be beat” (c.f. Alice’s Restaurant) and a couple of snifters of Glenfarclas I was still only 6.4 this morning.
Cheers Walt.
Next weekend is the Horncastle Rally, so I plan to take in G/TW-005 Normanby Top on Saturday. However, with only 201 FM contacts ever being made from this summit and despite someone insisting there will be a big lift on VHF over the weekend, I fear the pickings won’t be quite so rich.
Well done, Mike. I activated two summits yesterday, G/SC-004 and
G/SC-002, but only made 76 QSOs in total. (All on 40m CW, so no chance
of a S2S with you!)
I didn’t bother with HF antennas, Walt. TBH, I’ve no real interest in bands below 17m and as the higher frequencies have been rubbish, did’nt think it worth the effort.
Fuel cost for the day = £50 = 66 pence per QSO :-(((
Historically, the further South you go, the more expensive things get
P.S. I see 'TUB was the last station to activate these two summits
before me!
I predict, he’ll bag a thousand activator points, before I get to a hundred
:-))))
No that’s petrol, diesel was £1.389/L at that garage. In fact petrol in Perth, 60miles from Grangemouth refinery is cheaper than petrol in Livingston 20 miles from Grangemouth.
My local Shell station is being refurbished and has closed for a month. Morrison’s opened a supermarket a few years back and undercut all the petrol stations till there’s only it and the big Shell station left. At which point Morrisons was mainly 1p/L cheaper than Shell. The Shell station closed and Morrison’s price went up by 2p/L overnight. I complained to the manager and he said “Well we don’t have to price match till they reopen.”
Capitalism at work.
It’s 5p/L cheaper at Morrison’s Kendal according to a colleague who was on holiday there last week. Pence/L doesn’t sound much till you convert it pence/gallon then you can see the enormous margin differences in play. So that’s 4s 6d a gallon cheaper.
When we last used pounds, shillings a pence a gallon was only 5 shillings anyway!
Did you find the trig point at Staple Hill?
I found it, eventually, hidden away in the woodland.
Hi Tubby!
Yes, I did find it. In fact I located it on my previous visit last year. It is deep in the woods, but you can get to it quite easily from the Forestry Commission car park which is about 1 mile along the minor road which runs eastwards from the B3170. From the car park, there is a well-maintained trail running back westwards, roughly parallel to the minor road. If you walk almost 1 km along this trail, it takes you within 100m of the trig point. In fact, as far as I can see from the OS map, the whole of that trail and the car park itself are all within the activation zone. The very gentle ascent from the car park to the trig point is only about 11 metres vertical height!
You can still get diesel in Scotland for £1.335/L ?
I’m sure I saw a Sainsburys advert on the telly last week …something about spending £60 in the supermarket and getting 10p per Litre off of fuel? Useful if you’ve got a big tank.
When we last used pounds, shillings a pence a gallon was only 5
shillings anyway!
In 1973, I bought an ex British Rail, Morris Commercial J4 diesel van. IIRC, my local Shell garage was charging 60p/gallon for petrol and 30p/gallon for diesel. There were so few diesel cars about (maybe a few Peugeots) in those days.
In 1973, I bought an ex British Rail, Morris Commercial J4 diesel van.
IIRC, my local Shell garage was charging 60p/gallon for petrol and
30p/gallon for diesel.
73
Mike 2E0YYY
Hi Mike,
Yes, inflation was rife in those days too! In 1960, Esso Golden petrol was
5 shillings a gallon, so had more than doubled by 1973, and diesel was
still much cheaper. But why has diesel now become dearer thn petrol? And
paraffin, which was somewhere between 2 - 3 shillings a gallon in the 1960s
is now more expensive than petrol.
Hi Dave
I’m sure I read somewher, a barrel of crude produces more petrol than diesel and with about half of UK new cars being diesel powered, I suppose it’s a question of supply and demand.
And
paraffin, which was somewhere between 2 - 3 shillings a gallon in the
1960s
is now more expensive than petrol.
… but like Andy, I’m out there for the fresh air, fitness and sight-seeing aspects… and of course the new experience every time I climb a summit.
73, Gerald G4OIG
P.S. The first gallon of petrol I bought was 6s 7d (33p) - 7.25p per litre. I seem to recall my holiday job paid me 3s 6d per hour, so a little under 2 hours to buy a gallon which allowed me to travel 42 miles in my minivan.
Looks like my Germany trip was a bargain:-
650 miles @70mpg = 9.28 gal or 50.6l @ £1.37 = £69.38
1650 miles @ 70mpg = 23.57 gal or 128.6l @ 1.37eu = 176.1eu or £160.11
Total fuel bill £229.49
number of contacts 1307
cost per contact 17.5 pence
Back again in September to Bamberg - no radio this time, only beer drinking!
If the issue on 70cms is feedback, then look to adding
a 4 turn choke on the coax close to the feed point of the antenna.
As for the FT-857, the problem appears to be both tx/rx on UHF. Seems everyone can hear me, however, I can only hear the very strongest signal. Even Karen 2E0XYL was a difficult copy from G/SP-004. I’ve put the rig on a SWR/Power meter and when txing into a dummy load at the maximum 20 Watts on 70cm and the power meter shows just 6 Watts, so clearly some issue there too. All the other bands are fine on tx into a dummy load.
Many thanks for the points from SP-004 the other day on 2m FM! I need you to use SSB - Travels so much better over longer distances HI
With regards the 857 and 70cm - I have had no issues with mine, however if you need some help with repairs and the thing is not in warrantee then Geoff at Castle Electronics (Near Llanfair Caerinnion) Welshpool area is one of the best rig repairers in the country. Furthermore you can then combine the day with some Mid Wales Activations!
Mid Wales is heavily underactivated IMHO - People always head to the larger hills in SW and NW and miss the beauty of MW!!!
As for the FT-857, the problem appears to be both tx/rx on UHF. Seems
everyone can hear me, however, I can only hear the very strongest
signal.
I would say the problem was receive rather than transmit. I could hear you a very solid 52 on 70cms (55 on 2m) but you could not hear me at all (I was using an 857 too)
I’ve put the rig on a SWR/Power meter and when txing into a dummy load at the
maximum 20 Watts on 70cm and the power meter shows just 6 Watts, so
clearly some issue there too.
Was it a power meter and dummy load designed to work at UHF Mike ? If not, the readings could be very misleading.
