Saturday 9th April double sota hike

Activation Reports Pre-Planning
1

Hi,
I am fortunate to have the whole of Saturday to myself which means only one thing, Sota Activating. The added bonus is I dont have to walk to the speed of my 6 year old who enjoys a good sota hike. This means I am hoping/planning on doing a double sota activation. Any thoughts on double summits around 2 hours drive from North East? 2M and/or HF I dont mind. I have mainly done 2M/70cm FM activating this year to be fair so HF might be a nice change, although it means lugging around my TS480, but I have now got a LiFePo battery so its not that bad anymore. I’m still saving for my FT817.
I have already done great whernside this year so the double with buckden pike is out.
I feel like 4 pointers are best done at winter as they effectively double in points value(almost). But I’m not totally against a 4 pointer making up one of the two summits if i have too.

Any thoughts would be gratefully received.
73
Anthony
M0VED

2

Hi Anthony,
The way HF conditions are at the moment, don’t be surprised if getting contacts is more difficult than you expect. Apart from that good luck & stay safe.

Ed.

3

Well I’m in the same position as you on Sunday Anthony. I’m planning to go over to do LD018 & 011, which is about 2 hrs away (NE as well).

4

Good shout. Is the road from pately bridge to hartsop open to get to the start?

5

I’ll be going over the A66, so I don’t know Anthony

Once you get to Kendal it’s certainly open, I was there at Easter. Let me know if you do go, it would be nice to get the completes - prob have to be HF though

Good luck

6

yeah I’ll go A66 too.
I know you cant get to keswick from ambleside the road near thirlmere i think is completely gone and only a bus they run is allowed along the other road th eotherside of the lake i think. I think the rest is ok. I’ll either do stony cove and high street HFSSB/2MFM/70cmFM or possibly go the other way and do st sunday crag, fairfield, seat sandal and back depending on how long i actually have. I’ll have a think and put some alerts on the site tonight before i go to bed.
73 Anthony

7

Actually, they have come up in the last day or so, I would try the higher bands if that is your thing !

Pasted image950×576 601 KB

30m around 1730 local time. 37dBm out to a piece of wire.

Predictions look better too.

I might give it ago, but I don’t have a time machine.

Jonathan

8

what software is that map from?

9

That is a snippet of my WSPR beacon running here on 30m this afternoon.

http://wsprnet.org/drupal/wsprnet/map

You can use simple embedded hardware such as a Raspberry Pi, or use your HF radio. I use my KX3 controlled over the serial port using K1JT software. Take the audio input and output from your PC and let it run over a course of time.

You can plot your own graphs with the data - very useful if your interested in propagation.

Jonathan

10

Yes conditions getting better - heard VK6IR on 20m this morning, but local contacts (i.e. up to 1000 Km) don’t seem to be any better at the moment. - at least not from here.
Ed.

11

The potential is there, its like everything else in life - timing.

The only problem with WSPR is its duty cycle w.r.t PAs

Jonathan