Set off for Gun G/SP-013 this morning and had no idea there was a lift on the 2m band. Set up the X-300 Collinear and put out a CQ on 2m FM. Dave M0TUB was waiting for me and duly spotted me. After taking a few of the regulars I started to receive some nice DX. A call from Hertfordshire and a nice trip to Epsom Downs followed. There were lots of new call signs entering my log.
I QSY’d to 40m and made about 28 calls and then a spell on 15m produced very little in the way of DX. However, N4EX Rich did manage to find and spot me, he really is a great operator.
As things were so tough on HF, I returned to 2m FM. Managed to work Jenny MW0BET in Llandudno who has been QRT for a couple of years, a call north of the Humber Estuary, a fine contact with Don G0RQL in Devon, M6KJF/M in the car park of Butser Hill (what a S2S that could have been) and then a great contact of about 240 miles with Chris GU3TUX on Alderney.
This was certainly a great day for the VHF Junkies. Shame I wasn’t on G/SP-004, another 800 ft ASL would have been very nice…
Any predictions for VHF propagation tomorrow?
Thanks to all the chasers, also M0TUB and G1STQ for all the spots…
Take a beam 10 watts and point it East, I was on 2m SSB in 2010 from Tor and worked Ipswich as well as hearing France. It is an excellent site so I prey that the Tropo Gods are obliging tomorrow Mike.
Take a beam 10 watts and point it East, I was on 2m SSB in 2010 from
Tor and worked Ipswich as well as hearing France. It is an excellent
site so I prey that the Tropo Gods are obliging tomorrow Mike.
Cheers Matt.
I really should take a beam, trouble is, I get fed up with turning the thing after about ten minutes. I’m hoping the Collinear will perform its magic tomorrow.
My rusty WX map to tropo prediction skills suggest this afternoon may be better than this morning looking at how the pressure falls. WX Front has already reached Edinburgh… 6C warmer than yesterday, blue sky and ice has gone to be replaced with grey gloom.
"This was certainly a great day for the VHF Junkies. Shame I wasn’t on G/SP-004, another 800 ft ASL would have been very nice… "
Hi Mike, as you were on a non point scoring activation of Gun, its a pity you didnt try the nearby HuMP of the Roaches. An extra 390ft higher, with a great take-off. The take-off in my view is superior to Shining Tor which may explain the popularity of the nearby Merryton Low site with contesters.
73.
The three best VHF take-offs in the area are all non-SOTA! (Merryton Low, The Roaches, and Shutlingsloe).
However, Mike’s MO is to work as many contacts as possible in his activations, so none of those sites will be able to compete with a qualifying SOTA summit, outside of the main VHF contests.
Isn’t that more to do with being able to drive up to the summit unlike Shining Tor etc?
I remember when contesting from Cyrn-y-Brain, results from next door summit Esclusham were always better. But you can drive up to the top of Cyrn-y-Brain (well I could, I had a key) so it was easier to take big heavy contest stations. With Esclusham you have a climb carrying the gear. I wouldn’t like to have had to carry our Henry Tempo 2002, PSU, generator and 4x 17eles up to the summit by hand!
Not (entirely) so. Merryton Low is a better site than Shining Tor due
to its takeoff.
During the last big VHF lift, I opened the Belfast repeater with a Wouxun H/H and rubber duck antenna from Merryton Low and proceeded to have a qso with a station in GM!
Hi Matt, The DX was a bit slow to start with but as the day wore on, some pretty good contacts were made on the collinear. A French station was wiping out my frequency and I nearly qsy’d! However, he did go qrt. Unfortunately, using the Wouxun H/H on the collinear during a lift, brought its own problems with big pager QRM and I was forced to relent and deploy the FT-857.
As the day moved on, I was receiving calls from all over the UK, including Norfolk about 6 times, Great Yarmouth, Heathrow, Devon, Kent, Surrey, Lincolnshire Cambridgeshire, Bridlington, are just a few of the DX contacts I can remember off the top of my head, there were many more including five or six into Barrow…
Total of about 120 contacts on 2m fm and about 40 on HF, making about 160 on the day. I wish I could have stayed longer, but the light was fading fast and even the 20AH SLAB was groaning at the appetite of the FT-857!.
May have done better on a beam, but I’m not complaining The X-300 performed beautifully.
Although only had 1 outing, so far very happy with my new Sotabeam I had for Christmas.
Today as you know I activated Gun SP-013 early doors. Using my new FT-60 (happy with that too…seems beter made than I was expecting :]) and my little plastic tube di-pole worked a treat.
Shame I could’nt stay longer as the DX was supposed to be getting better as the day got longer, but unlike some…work called!
Glad you had a good day Mickey.
ps…missed your phonecall as I was being dragged around Tesco and every little helps.
The X-300 performed beautifully.