I was just reading the new Ofcom guidance on the amateur licence and that reminded me that you can only use 5MHz when portable if you have mobile phone coverage and that Ofcom have your number.
Doneā¦on my Variation. However things have changedā¦do they still hold that information? There is a long discussion regarding 60m/p somewhere on this Reflector I think.
Iām local to Ilkley Moor, I live across the valley near Haworth. The summit has always been a bit of a black hole when it comes to VHF for some reason. 2FM is pretty dead around here, weāve actually got some nice repeaters but they donāt have a lot of traffic.
Donāt get me wrong, itās possible to have some QSOS from G/NP-028 using 2m and 70cm, I have worked into Devon and Scotland from there on SSB. HF works well from Ilkley Moor, Iāve often qualified it on just of few hundred mWs of CW. (See the LA1KHA challenge thread). Weāre experiencing some pretty poop propagation generally at the moment, so donāt be discouraged.
I would ditch the mag loop though and get a dipole instead - dipoles are so easy and hassle free - set and forget.
As others have said, buying a handheld just above the budget ones is well worth it. The cheaper range of Yaesu handhelds are nice solid units, with better filtering than the budget brands, on TX as well as RX. A lot of the budget brand handhelds have been shown to have extremely poor TX filtering (I suppose itās to allow operation over a wide range of frequencies), in some cases this probably actually contravenes regulations in use.
73, Colin M1BUU
[quote=āGW4VPX, post:22, topic:15650ā]do they still hold that information?[/quote]They carried my mobile number across from my 5 MHz NoV to my main licence. It used to take a little finding on the Ofcom website, but it was in a sensible place when I checked early last weekā¦
Thanks Rick. Their website is down at the moment as it is being updated. Iāll have a look next week to see that they still hold the info.
73 Allan
In theory yes, you are supposed to be ācontactableā.
In practice if my phone rings when I am busy operating on a summit (or anywhere else for that matter) the probability that I will actually answer is about 0.1%. I probably wonāt even hear it. It will go to voicemail. This is exactly what will happen if I am out of coverage, so in reality coverage makes no difference.
At worst they want me to close down. I am going to do that pretty soon anyway.
Obviously everybody has to make up their own mind, but as a QRP station operating for a short period I donāt think it is a risk worth worrying about.
Martyn M1MAJ
Hi Richard
Welcome back to this hobby we share. Quite a few differences I expect in some areas, have a great SOTA and look forward to hearing you.
M0AZE Mike
So I did another activation on Saturday - Scafell Pike G/LD-001. Once again only managed one QSO with the Baofeng so still no points. Hoping to activate Snowdon and maybe a few other Welsh peaks in the next 3 weeks. Iām in the process of building a 2m SlimJim so plan to use that with the FT817 on top of a 4m fishing pole.
Frustrating for you Richard
If youāre taking an FT817 try HF to give yourself more options. A better antenna for VHF would also help. Apart from that alerting, self-spotting (if possible) and if all else fails enjoy the walk!
Good luck next time!
Thatās bad luck Richard. I was between summits then, in GW/NW, or Iām sure I would have heard you. I managed to work James M0JCQ/P on G/LD-014, just with the hand-held whilst on foot. I must have only just missed you.
I managed to activate Snowdon GW/NW-001 today and had 9 QSOs on 2m FM, so success at last! I used my FT817 on 2m FM with a Slim Jim (made from 300 ohm ribbon cable) on a 4m fishing pole. I was around 10m below the summit in one of the few places that wasnāt crawling with people. I could just lean the pole against the rocks but bungeed it just to be safe. The contacts included two S2Ss so I got my first chasing points too.
So Iād like to say thanks to those who I spoke to. But also thanks to my 10 year old daughter, Hannah, who patiently sat and listened while Daddy played radio.