What a brilliant day. From the outset things did not go to plan but that was enjoyable.
Got up late, well I am on holiday, so did not make 11:30 utc. Reached Cyrn-y-Brain over a hour late. Set up the inverted Vee facing east/west on 8 sections of spiderpole which was bungied to St Watkins Tower marker post. Connected the FT817 and started tx on 7.085 but no response, strangely no qrn. Scanned around for a station to confirm tx ok and PD44FF did just that with 58 report. Back to 7.085 but again nothing heard. Moved to 7.160 and picked up M0NMI/P who disappeared in QSB and F/G6LKB. Heard other stations but insufficient signal to make contact.
Moved to 7.094 and called cq collecting ON5SWA, PD3DMN, DL1AIW and MM3PDM. ON5SWA Franz advised G stations were calling but sadly I could hear any of them. Perhaps this was my antenna orientation. Moved to 14.285 and contacted OH2BBG, EA2DT and CT1HIX before moving back to 40mtrs with antenna direction North/south. No further contacts achieved mainly due to station on 7.090 not qrp for sure.
Disappointed that I did not make NW-042 which could have been a problem with the inverted vee antenna. Will review antenna and hopefully attempt 042 on 3rd August
So summary of the day - conditions probably not the best for radio, perfect for 16 mile hike. 10kg of radio gear plus food etc took its toll so need to reduce this for next activation. FT817 not that good on receive but appears to punch through on tx. Note to me take the camera!!!
Thanks to all those stations above and to those who attempted to contact me.
Hi Neil,
Well done on the activation - often things don’t go to plan, that’s normal. Band conditions at the moment are not great, so I think the contacts you got were probably a good sample.
The FT817 receiver normally is fairly good, so you might want to check you don’t have an attenuator programmed in or something (I presume you had the RF gain turned up).
10 kilograms of radio gear is quite a lot as you found on your hike. I wonder where all the weight is?
In any case, well done on the activation, sorry I missed you.
Yup checked the IPO and ATT both off RF gain wide open. Now back Llangollen and have plenty of QRN.
Weight 817, atu (not used) 8 spare internal batteries , clipped multi band antenna with 1:1 balun, bungees, guys, pegs, heaviest piece is 8 sections of 12m spider pole left 2 top and 2 bottom sections behind thankfully.
At least my legs are still working :~)) should be good for Monday and 042 all being well.
Here’s a question: when using the inverted vee as two guys and a back guy which direction is the lobe if any.
With a low antenna, you’re more likely than not getting NVIS radiation however in the best situation the lobes will be coming off the sides of the antenna. Hence if you runs the wires North-South, your best reception and radiation would be East-West.
Looking at possibly getting out onto another summit myself next week, possibly Monday as later in the week is going to be too hot.