It just happen to be on Sunday 21st, a Winter Solstice day. I had my newly made 20m dipole ready, but never managed to make an extension to the mast, so had to live with only 2m of feed point elevation.
First, I went to a small EI/IE-045 (Preban Hill) 2-pointer. I’ve started with my standard VHF routine, but didn’t get anyone, tried FM,SSB, CW - nothing within 15 mins. Although, worth mentioning a very faint and short CW burst on .050, pretty sure it sounded like HB9 … , however having it on 2m would be too good to be true with current condx.
I knew that my dipole needed to be tuned before use, so I did’t want to waste much time on 2m and moved on to 20m band. First SWR checks showed I am way off with 1:1.0 at around 11MHz. Not a bother, half meter wrap on each side and I am on 13MHz, another half meter and 1:1.0 is all across 20m! I’ve engineered the mast to be supported by my trusty VHF photo tripod and that worked well, resulting 2 meter feed point above the ground with each end at about half meter height.
After couple of CQs folks started to pick up with about one or two QSOs per minute rate. I am not used to such ‘pile-ups’ lately, especially in the field, running a straight key full time 
My FT-857 doesn’t have CW filters either, only DSP, however turning off AGC made the trick. 19 CW QSOs in 20 mins and I am off to SSB. 15 QSOs there and before wraping up a lonely VHF FM contact logged!
Next, I’ve decided to drive to EI/IE-060 (Gibbet Hill) 2-pointer just to see how the dipole works on another hill. There I had a bit of hassle in tuning. However, after several wraps/unwraps I’ve got SWR set firm at 1:1.0 on the band. CW QSO rate was similar, so I’ve got 18 CW QSOs in 20 mins. Next I’ve moved to SSB and there I’ve got fairly imressive pile-up of 49 QSOs in half an hour!
Now looking forward for another chanse to get out! Thanks to all the chasers for such an overwhelming support
73 de EI4JY, Alex
