A gorgeous view of Lough Tay on the hike towards Djouce summit. It is affectionately called ‘Guinness Lake’ because it resembles a pint of the black stuff!
“I saw your (QSO), calling CQ in the rain…
Holding an HT, I, called CQ again…”
Yes, at the crack of dawn on Saturday May 2nd 2026 I decided it would be a good idea to make the most of the day by going for a hike and a bit of SOTA up a 10 pointer.
I was headed to County Wicklow to check off another one of the summits, this time I was headed to Djouce for some hiking and (hopefully) some radio therapy…
Heading up the boardwalk towards to summit. The area is vast, and gorgeous.
The Rain.
Djouce is a new summit to me. I’ve never ventured up it before so was looking forward to the experience. With it being a 10 pointer I was a little aprehensive but need not have been as, in my opinion, I found the hike really nicely marked out, easy to follow with plenty of boardwalks to navigate the boggier sections.
Mandatory trigslap.
The weather wasn’t a patch on the past week. If anything it threatened to rain the entire day (more on that later). As I approached the summit, the WX turned to a heavier mist across the top and it got colder quicker. I was pleased I had brought layers, arm sleeeves and a flask of hot tea.
Thankfully the rain held off and after setting up my Sotabeams Carbon 6 and Slim G, I called CQ on 145.500 and the Sun decided to make an (all to brief) appearance.
@GW0PLP was straight on the return call. We QSY’ed to .475 and completed our contact. Don was an absolute legend as he mentioned he would listen out for me on 144.050 to help me give 2 meters CW a quick tickle. He mentioned he’d just worked someone else up in the Lake District but sadly I wasn’t able to make contact with them.
Huge thank you to Don for the VHF QSO, I dearly wanted to make a 2 meter CW QSO today and Don came through like a champion. Thanks also to him for putting up with the poor keying as the Quansheng firmware requires a PTT press to activate the TX mode and causes odd-sounding keying!
A few more QSO’s were made on VHF FM over to the UK, specifically all in Wales. Nothing heard elsewhere, nor in EI. Even the 145.600 repeater was whisper quiet today.
Before wrapping up on VHF I did do my mandatory QSY to UHF and called CQ there. I made one contact over in Wales which was fantastic! I’d have been happy to carry on but I wanted to get through the rest of the kit I had packed so it was time to pack up the Slim G and mast.
Time to switch over to HF in that case. Before the weather turned as well, which it kept threatening to do at any minute…
HF setup at the summit.
The Juice. (Or Lack Of)
Setting up for HF didn’t take long. I took my usual QRP POTA setup along with me. Namely the Diamond RHM-12 and Manfrotto tripod, plus the Elecraft KX2.
In hindsight I almost wish I hadn’t bothered.
HAM Solar showed the reports to be in fairly good shape, yet 20 meters was an absolute slog. At one point I wondered if I was even getting out to anyone at all.
4 QSO’s later across Europe on 20 and I gave 40 a try. Nothing. Nada. Not a sausage.
I hopped back and forth between SSB and CW on HF but it really was an immense struggle. Not even CW was able to rescue this one. The odd occasion I was able to receive a response I got stepped over by stations tuning up, calling CQ, QRL and all the rest of it. It just sounded like a pileup, but not a fun one, rather a QRM one.
I was starting to get the shivers so safety first I packed up the HF kit and cracked open the flask of hot tea. Just the ticket! I supped on some nice hot tea while trying VHF and UHF on my FT-65 and RH-770. A couple more QSO’s came in over in Wales and after that, nothing heard.
Cold was setting in as I’d been up on the summit a good while. Time to pack up and get back down to the Austin Maestro.
POTA Ploddin’.
7km hike and SOTA activation completed, I still had to get a run in today. I drove over to favourite park haunt IE-0136 and set off for a tempo session around the trail and hill.
40 mins and 7.something kilometers in and I was done, finishing accidentally on purpose in front of the great coffee wagon/caravan thing I mentioned in a recent report. How timely! Might as well get a coffee in that case.
I had an alterior motive for coming to the park today. In my other bag I’d packed a random wire EFHW which I’d had for months but never used.
I’ve never actually deployed a wire antenna anywhere before in any capacity so wanted to test the setup of the antenna and see how well it would tune and if it actually works.
In addition, I’d recently purchased a Helinox Chair One (re) High Back and a Helinox Side Table S. This would be a good opportunity to try those out in the field too. This meant I could set up the chair under a tree and more importanlty, I could use the other side of the park, away from families and young children who might not see a stealthy wire antenna strewn across the place.
A good job I did stay well away as the wire antenna was massive! I definitely underestimated the space I would need but am glad I got to set it up, deploy on the Carbon 6 and see could I get the park activated.
A bit of QRP CW POTA to round out the afternoon!
I wasted no time going straight to HF CW. I made 10 QSO’s in 28 minutes, switching to 40 meters half way through and then back to 20 again to finish.
What is it about 40 meters that hates me so much? I never have any success on 40. Is there some sort of secret code to enter to gain access? Is there a secret handshake? A rolled up trouser leg required?
Can you see where I deployed the wire antenna? Stealthy!!
I keep trying but 40 meters just carries on rejected me, even with a MAHOOSIVE EFRW strewn across half the park.
CW was a slog and as the skies turned an ever richer shade of Vantablack and 9 QSO’s in the bag, it was turning in to a race against time to snag theall-important 10th QSO to activate the park.
DM1TBE/P came up trumps with a Park 2 Park right at the death as I was about to go QRT. Phew! 10 bagged, park activated, time to pack up and get out of Dodge before the heavens dumped their contents on top of North County Dublin!
The Vantarain that threatened to obliterate the area had miraculously held off. I packed up, called CQ on VHF and UHF again before I left but nothing heard this time (the repeater copped a deaf 'un as well - I was looking for a signal report to see if I was even getting out, but nada).
Time to go home after a very long day of activities. Although today was a bit of a slog, I got to try a new antenna, visit a new summit and made a 2 meter CW QSO. A successful day and 20 QSO’s scribbled down in my logbook!
The Morris Marina Supperleggera RR (Not mine, I spotted it in a supermarket car park on the way home to get my tea!)
As I walked back to the Morris Marina Superleggera RR, I contemeplated the past few weeks activities. I recently purchased a Wanderlust hiking book and thought about flipping through it with a cup of tea to pick my next SOTA activation when I got home.
Addictive stuff this SOTA business isn’t it?
BONUS FEATURE
For anyone who didn’t get the Oran Juice Jones reference. 
