Once again to Place Fell G/LD-027

Activation Reports
1

Place Fell

SOTA ID: G/LD-027 Height: 657 m (2155 ft)
Grid ref: NY405169 QTH Locator: IO84MN
Lat: 54.543732 Long: -2.919839

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Low cloud initially this morning meant picking a higher summit could have proved a cold and damp experience. This is where Place Fell G/LD-027 often comes into its’ own. Being to the East of Fairfield, St Sunday Crag and the Helvellyn range it often escapes the worst of the cloud, and that’s the reason I picked it today.

Walking from parking at the Patterdale Hotel (currently £5 all day) through Rooking to the fell-side path, the consistent gradient setting you in a rhythm. After the path turns northerly you know there is going to be a punishing section before it narrows and a little rocky traverse brings the trig benchmark into view.

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Benchmark rises into sight

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View to the North End of Ullswater

A benchmark selfie was in order - always with careful footing required with the rocky aspect and steep drop off on three sides.

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There were a fair few folk about today, all knew about the existence of amateur radio and were genuinely fascinated that there are lots of us all over the world doing this!

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View to the West - Fairfield, St Sunday Crag & Helvellyn with Skiddaw and Blencathra to the North West

I was originally going to bring a trapped end fed sloper but as I couldn’t find my 6m pole I settled on the Super Antenna with lightweight tripod. I had the IC-705 with me with 4 cell LifePo4 for 10w. Antenna setup so I could dip out of the biting westerly wind. As the activation progressed the sun started making an appearance. Factor 30 was applied and it became very pleasant. Lots of room on the summit for activation without annoyance.

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Super Antenna MP1 on lightweight tripod

There was deep QSB on a lot of bands. Not sure what happened but I mostly ended up working S2S - my spots brought in a few chasers but not the usual crowd. The poor response to my 2m call wasn’t entirely a surprise using the FT1XD with stock whip but then I got Steve @G4TCU as GW4TCU/P on GW/MW-013 Corndon Hill at 220 km, so who knows what was going on! Certainly the High Street/Stony Cove Pike range seems to significantly attenuate signals to the Morecambe Bay area and beyond where a number of chasers reside.

TIME CALLSIGN BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
09:10 G0TDM 2m FM 59 59 John
09:21 GM4WHA/M 2m FM 55 52 GEOFF
09:22 M7AVT 2m FM 58 58 Aigars
09:23 M0DXT 2m FM 55 53 William
09:25 MW0IDX/P 2m FM 55 54 ROGER SOTA GW/NW-054
09:26 2W0IXM/P 2m FM 55 55 SOTA GW/NW-011
09:36 GW4TCU/P 2m FM 55 53 Steve SOTA GW/MW-013
09:53 IK1GPG 20m SSB 59 59 Massimo COTA I-02903
09:53 EA1CIU/P 17m SSB 51 52 Tomás SOTA EA1/PO-023
10:01 OH3GZ 17m SSB 51 55 JUKKA
10:01 EA3Y 17m SSB 59 56 Manel
10:01 G0TDM 17m SSB 59 58 John
10:08 YO9GSB/P 20m SSB 52 53 Danut SOTA YO/MM-001
10:09 SQ9MDF/P 20m SSB 55 55 Leszek SOTA SP/BZ-065
10:12 SA4BLM 20m SSB 59 59 Lars
10:12 EA1DHB 20m SSB 59 54 Ricardo
10:13 EA2/DJ2TG/P 20m SSB 55 52 Thomas SOTA EA2/BI-076
10:14 G0TDM 20m SSB 59 59 John
10:14 SM5LNE 20m SSB 59 59 Jan
10:14 EA3EVL 20m SSB 58 59 PABLO
10:16 OE5YYN/P 20m SSB 42 42 SYLVIA SOTA OE/NO-218
10:19 LB7KI/P 20m SSB 55 55 Johnny SOTA LA/SA-229
10:26 M6GYU/P 40m CW 599 599 David SOTA G/LD-004
10:41 EC2AG/P 40m SSB 51 44 ANTONIO SOTA EA2/BI-014
10:42 G0RQL 40m SSB 59 57 DON
10:43 OM1AX 40m SSB 52 55 VLADO
10:44 OK8CX/P 40m SSB 53 53 Olaf GMA OL/KA-014
10:52 HB9AFI/P 20m CW 559 559 KURT SOTA HB/VD-032
10:56 OE5JFE/P 20m SSB 59 55 Johannes SOTA OE/NO-008
10:57 EA3EVL 20m SSB 59 57 PABLO
11:25 EI3SB/P 40m SSB 52 33 SOTA EI/IE-008

HF ended up then mostly hunt and pounce for S2S contacts. It was nice to get @M6GYU David on Skiddaw G/LD-004 which was a ground wave, line of sight 40m CW QSO. Nice to hook up with Joe too @OE5JFE on OE/NO-218, it’s been a while since our last S2S. Also great to get LB7KI/P on brand new SOTA summit LA/SA-229 which looks to be a spectacular island location.

I didn’t explore any bands above 17m - I’ve been having some nice DX on 10m recently whilst operating non-SOTA portable, using the excellent Chameleon MPAS 2.0. It’s a bit heavy to carry up the higher summits however.

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Summit Tarns

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View towards Kirstone Pass & Brother’s Water

The walk back was very pleasant and warm. Once again a lovely activation on this wonderful summit.

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Green Valley Fields

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All European Contacts today

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New SOTA Summit Contact into Norway

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Local Contacts

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S2S 40m CW M6GYU/P on G/LD-004 Line of Sight

All of the photos & panoramas here.

13 Likes
2

Hi Mark, great report with photos, thanks.

Cheers Geoff vk3sq

3

Hi Mark

I’d seen your alert & a spot earlier in the day but it wasn’t for CW so I didn’t make a note of it. So It was a nice surprise when you called me using CW. I’d been out activating since Wednesday - miserable WX. Yesterday developed into a lovely sunny day. The best of the week!!

I like your aerial. It would have been much easier to deploy that than my linked dipole which was a struggle for me in the previous days as it was so windy on the tops.
David

4

Many thanks for the brilliant report Mark. The photos brought back memories of when Paul G4MD and myself activated that summit… when there was snow lying. The view out to the west was on my computer desktop for many years. :grinning:

I did listen for you on 40m, but heard nothing, indeed there were very few signals to be heard. I’m not surprised you mainly worked S2S with signals being so poor. That’s where the low noise level on a summit really pays off.

73, Gerald

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I seem to be finding excuses not to activate CW, today I wasn’t on limited time but couldn’t spend all day up there. I am planning on only taking the handheld and my Mountain Topper at some point and seeing how that goes!

Mark.

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6

The views are indeed handsome aren’t they Gerald, especially with a reasonable drive from my home QTH. Your comment about noise floor is pretty spot on I think - a lot of the SOTA stations were very weak with me and indeed I was pleasantly surprised to be heard for the most part. There were a couple that just couldn’t hear my 10 watts however.

No views to the East yesterday - Cross Fell can be quite spectacular but it was too hazy for that distance.

Mark.

1 Like