Never on a Sunday a Sunday

Old Reflector
1

Decided to activate G/WB-005 late last night. Drove the 55 odd monotonous miles from Stoke-on-Trent, which takes an age on the lousy road network to Church Stretton. As it’s a very quick walk to the summit, I took 3 antennas, including my brand new X-300 collinear (the other one turned its toes and died after about 110 activations) and 32Ah of SLABS.

Trade was steady on 2m Fm although not what I would describe as busy. After about three hours I QSY’d to 20m were once again things were just steady into EU. DX was at a premium, with N1EU in the Big Apple, the only taker :frowning:

Tried 40m, not a single taker, so I guess something is amiss with the fishing pole antenna, the balun being the prime suspect …more than likely water ingress after all the drenchings I’ve suffered over the past month.

Anyhow, to finish off the day, back to 2m it was.

Some nice contacts found on the collinear, 110 mile hop into Barrow, a nice 125 mile contact into Wisbech, as well as Weston Super Mare and what would normally be a very difficult contact near Pontypridd.

Usually, I’m working on Sundays, so I don’t get too many chances to do an activations on Sunday. One thing I have noticed, Saturday seems a much better day, certainly if you’re after large numbers of chasers. Undoubtedly a lot more mobile stations are active on Saturdays, maybe more folk out shopping etc. Not a single SOTA S2S today, either!

Any other activators notice much difference in QSO traffic on these two days?

Thanks to all the chasers for calling in. Pleasant days radio with 131 contacts logged.

73 Mike
2Q0YYY

2

In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hello Mike i have only been up 3 times my frist one was busy but i did only get think 5 contacts 12 may 2012 today 13 I got 20 contact but if i had don it on a week day I would be busy I may not be up a sota all the time but I do call cq at home as well to know what it is like i injoy being up a summit so i will do move soon I have not dun a s2s yet.

Ricky

3

In reply to 2E0YYY:

and died after about 110 activations

Can’t you fix it? Assuming it’s not a mechanical issue such as it snapping into two then it’s only going to be open or short circuited connections.

Tried 40m, not a single taker

What is the arrangement? Dipole or what?

much difference in QSO traffic on these two days

Yes, Saturday’s are much quieter than Sundays on HF based on a statistical sample of one. There again, condx still felt depressed after the fun and games on on Wednesday.

Andy
MM0FMF

4

Thanks for the contact Mike!

I often wonder if I’m not putting out a good signal when I seem to be cq’ing endlessly with no takers. The cw mode has one huge advantage/reality check: when you’re back home, you can browse http://reversebeacon.net and do a skimmer spot search on your callsign. That will bring up all the signal reports from the skimmers within range of your signal when you were transmitting from the summit. Then you’ll have some idea of weather a puny signal was to blame or not.

73,
Barry N1EU

5

Hi Mike,

Colin and i heared you in Frizington, West Cumbria, but not quite strong enough to work.
:frowning:

I was hoping to get out on the fells but weather was very poor. Hopefully next weekend will bring better luck.

73

Liz

6

In reply to MM0FMF:

In reply to 2E0YYY:

and died after about 110 activations

Can’t you fix it? Assuming it’s not a mechanical issue such as it
snapping into two then it’s only going to be open or short circuited
connections.

The fault is with the SO239 connection in the base of the collinear. It’s broken and there is no replacement that I can find. The part seems to be unique to Sharman and an integral part of the antenna. I’ve tried Henry Westlake at one of the rallies and he was unable to help. The collinear had suffered a hard life, and to make matters worse, I lost one of the radials on a decent from G/SP-004. Collinears weren’t designed to be dragged up and down summits and as a result the seals disintegrated, These I replaced with self amalgamating tape making it was totally waterproof, if not very pretty to look at. Looking on the bright side, I’ve now got some spares for the replacement antenna.

Bottom line… The outstanding performance, measured by the sheer number of contacts, DX and the hours of enjoyment this antenna has given me, the sixty quid it cost to replace, pales into insignificance.

Mike
2Q0YYY

7

In reply to M6EPW:

Hi Mike,

Colin and i heared you in Frizington, West Cumbria, but not quite
strong enough to work.
:frowning:

I was hoping to get out on the fells but weather was very poor.
Hopefully next weekend will bring better luck.

Hi Liz,

The WX has been awful and certainly curtailed my activation plans.

Hopefully, catch you next Saturday from one of the summits.

73 Mike
2Q0YYY

8

In reply to N1EU:

Thanks for the contact Mike!

My pleasure, Barry…

I often wonder if I’m not putting out a good signal when I seem to be
cq’ing endlessly with no takers. The cw mode has one huge
advantage/reality check: when you’re back home, you can browse
http://reversebeacon.net and do a skimmer spot search on your
callsign. That will bring up all the signal reports from the skimmers
within range of your signal when you were transmitting from the
summit. Then you’ll have some idea of weather a puny signal was to
blame or not.

Thanks for the link…

The signal you produce from your home QTH on SSB is excellent. I looked on your qrz.com page and noted your antenna is the 3 Element SteppIR. How I wish I could take one /P. Sadly, my rucksack is already miles too heavy :wink:

73 Mike
2Q0YYY

9

In reply to 2E0YYY:

The signal you produce from your home QTH on SSB is excellent. I
looked on your qrz.com page and noted your antenna is the 3 Element
SteppIR. How I wish I could take one /P. Sadly, my rucksack is already
miles too heavy :wink:

Thanks Mike, but as you say, the real challenge is to put out an excellent SSB signal from the summit with low power and low burden. “Excellent” as in Q5 copy on 20M from 3000+ km distance.

73 Barry
N1EU