A few things conspired to delay me so I self-spotted 28 minutes later than my (original) alert time - including the extra time erecting my 60/40/30/20 inverted V linked dipole - so much more fiddly than my inverted-L EFHWs and Cha MPAS Lite vertical - I often wonder if I really get any noticeably-better performance with it.
I don’t normally activate on 40m (CW) and - as in the past - found the QSO rate a bit slow [6 QSOs in 12 mins including Paul @G4IPB ] compared to (my favourite band) 30m. Normally, when the chasers ‘dry up’ I call CQ once more and quit / QSY if there are no more callers. Today, I stayed longer calling CQ a few times hoping Gerald G4OIG would call. 30m was lively as usually [12 QSOs in 16 mins].
There’s no shelter on Dufton Pike G/NP-027 and it started to hail, so I was getting cold despite some sunshine and wearing my winter clothes. I thought I would give 10m a quick go. The band was quiet and despite self-spotting I got no callers. Fortunately, SZ0WARD, a Radio Amateur Association of Greece (R.A.A.G) station was strong and replied giving me a decent report – so at least a 10m path was open to SE Europe.
I’ve never activated Ayr Gill Pike – there’s probably a good reason. My spreadsheet planner says it’s a 100-mins walk from 54.3158, -2.4717. I’ve loads of shorter-ascent summits on my shortlist which I’ll do in the Spring and leave the longer ones to the warmer weather.
