Quick trek up Lingmoor Fell

Just a quick report - after a lazy morning having taken Alex and the girls to see Florence and the Machines at the Manchester Arena I took a look out the window and decided that I could either try and chase Allan doing his tour of the West Country or get myself out up a hill.

I’d been keeping Lingmoor Fell in my emergency bag as I suspected from previous reports that it was a fairly easy ascent. It isn’t an easy ascent but the punishment doesn’t last too long when you go straight up from Blea Tarn.

There were a few folk about including a group of ladies on the summit who I had a little banter with. Views were excellent in all directions - Helvellyn and Fairfield had a smattering of snow. Harter Fell, which I still have yet to do, was teasing me through the Wrynose pass.

I setup just back on the ascent side to the right although I had to shuffle around a bit to get the wire height above ground as good as I could atop the rolling summit.

An excellent run of chasers on 80m - thanks to everyone who came back to my call, and virtually everyone was crystal clear. This was the first outing of the FT-857 and I took both 4200maH LifePo batteries so although I was cursing that lot on my back on the way up I enjoyed the benefits of up to 100w power on the summit. The Lake District seemed to be having the better of the weather compared to the WX reports coming in from chasers, especially those down south.

I was going to 40m when I spotted another activator out relatively late in the day and was able to get a 20m S2S with S3VGU on SV/PL-138. After the chasers had died out I was dropping the pole to reclip to 40m when K3TCU called me - he couldn’t hear me with the antenna at half-mast so I rapidly got it back in the air and completed the QSO - nice to get a transatlantic contact.

Having then moved to 40m I found the band had uncharacteristic high noise (S8+) on most frequencies with a lot of QRM. I settled on 7.151 but to be honest it wasn’t the best with a very strong station around 3Khz up and then one 3Khz down (no idea what he was doing but he was causing a massive splatter). So apologies to the 40m chasers - I did try and find a better frequency but failed.

Switching to 2m FM the handheld wouldn’t turn on - must have left it on in the shack - so the flexibility of the FT-857 paid dividends as I was able to complete QSOs with Douggie and Sue albeit with high-SWR. I’ve been thinking about creating a coax wire colinear - I’ll try and get one built for the next activation.

Descent was in the growing darkness although out of the biting Easterly wind it was a fairly straightforward affair although i did manage to do a nice bum slide at one point.

Date: 24/Nov/2018 Summit: G/LD-040 (Lingmoor Fell) Call Used: M0NOM/P Points: 1 Bonus: 0

Time Call Band Mode Notes
14:22z G4WSB 3.5MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:23z G0RQL 3.5MHz SSB Don
14:25z G0FEX 3.5MHz SSB Ken
14:25z M0MDA 3.5MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:26z MW0XOT 3.5MHz SSB John 50w
14:27z G0MGV 3.5MHz SSB Colin Essex
14:28z G0GWY 3.5MHz SSB Geoff WAB: LD44
14:29z DJ5AV 3.5MHz SSB Mark
14:30z MM0XPZ 3.5MHz SSB Steve 25m W of Glasgow
14:31z G0RPA 3.5MHz SSB Ian Poole
14:33z G4PCE 3.5MHz SSB Richard Solihull 10w
14:34z G0TDM 3.5MHz SSB John Penrith
14:35z G7LMF 3.5MHz SSB Graham Telford FT897 100w 20m longwire
14:38z ON4VT 3.5MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:39z G8VZT 3.5MHz SSB Dave Wellington
14:40z GW0JAI 3.5MHz SSB Glyn
14:42z G3UHN 3.5MHz SSB Peter Harpenden WAB: TL11 MHL: IO91ut
14:46z G4BYY 3.5MHz SSB Keith Southampton WAB: SJ27
14:48z G6HQ 3.5MHz SSB Peter Wirral WAB: SJ27
14:49z G6LKB 3.5MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:50z IW3AGO 3.5MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:51z ON2WIM 3.5MHz SSB Wim
14:52z DL6MST 3.5MHz SSB Clous
14:56z SV3GU/P 14MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
14:59z F5JKK 14MHz SSB Eric 100w dipole @ 7m
15:00z SV2OXS 14MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:01z G0TDM 14MHz SSB John Penrith
15:05z EA2DT 14MHz SSB Manuel
15:06z SV2OXS 14MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:08z K3TCU 14MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:14z IK2LEY 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:15z S57ILF 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:16z OE7HPI 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:17z DL4FDM 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:20z F4EQN 7MHz SSB Eric Geneva
15:27z HB9AGH 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:29z HB9FXL 7MHz SSB Remote via Cambodia
15:30z SP9AMH 7MHz SSB Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:32z ON2WIM 7MHz SSB Wim Ultrabeam @ 12m ICOM 7610
15:41z G7CDA 144MHz FM Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040
15:42z G1OHH 144MHz FM Thx for QSO from SOTA G/LD-040

I bought a case for the FT-857 from eBay based on dimensions designed for a GoPro and accessories. I use some anti-slip matting to protect the rig when packed, it seems to be working just great!

The photos are here
.
Regards, Mark

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Location, Location, Location

Hi Mark

Sadly we missed the s2s today after having some really good contacts lately :frowning:.

56 in the log today whilst on G/DC-005 Christ Cross so a big ‘Thank You’ to all the chasers.

As you can see below I was in the mist and rain compared to your glorious weather :frowning:. I hope the sun peeps through for High Willhays G/DC-001 tomorrow

73 Allan GW4VPX


Comms Tower on DC-005…that was my only ‘view’

Best of luck with the weather today Allan. At least the radio is making up for the lack of views. Since having a week of rain about 15 years ago I have yet to persuade my wife to go back to Cornwall!

We are off up to Penrith for my daughter’s hockey - will take the radio gear in case I am able to fit it in for a chase.

Regards, Mark.

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Update on the coax rollup antenna - last night I built one following M0ZPK’s instructions and it works just great. Took about 30 mins to cut the various sections. I have had QSO’s from home simplex to M0PVM on the hills above Settle and both the local repeaters GB3LD (2m) and GB3LF (70cms) are accessible with no issues.

I’m going to try building a 4 or 8 section collinear next to hang from the 10m sotabeams compact mast.

Mark