I’ll keep this short as I’m sure you all know Shining Tor inside out.
What a difference a day makes! Yesterday, I arrived at the Cat and Fiddle, to find ice cold winds howling across the car park. I duly abandoned the activation and headed to a non SOTA venue and worked from the car.
Today, it was if someone had waved a magic wand. Very light breeze on the ascent with some low cloud. Both the cloud and breeze disappeared after a short while.
I set up my station and started to work both 2 Metres SSB and FM, using my new home brew antenna. Had some great reports working up to 100 miles on FM.
John G1STQ, arrived a little later and set up an HF station. He got some nice contacts using his 817 and home brew linked dipole. Sadly, John was forced to pack up early, due to work commitments.
Trade on 2 metres was brisk. However, at the end of the day, I was forced to leave a pile-up having bagged 67 contacts, due to fading light conditions and ice cold cloud descending.
Apologies to those I missed and my thanks to all those who contated me.
Anyway, being the glutton for punishment I am, I’ve decided to try Shining Tor again this Saturday, without me even troubling the scoreboard and setting a target of 100 contacts. If you hear me, I’d be grateful for a call.
In reply to 2E0YYY:
If I could add my thanks to all those hf stations who made contact with me today.
Makes it all worth while
Until the next one…73’s
John G1STQ
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi, Mike, Glad to have made contact with you from Grike fell in Cumbria, I am off out again tomorrow to Lank Rigg which is another Wainwright.
73, Derek
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Hi, Mike, Glad to have made contact with you from Grike fell in
Cumbria, I am off out again tomorrow to Lank Rigg which is another
Wainwright.
73, Derek
Cheers Derek. Nice hop from Shining Tor on FM, IIRC. May nip out and do one tomorrow. Perhaps we can try another S/S.
In reply to 2E0YYY:
Great to work you today Mike, Just sat in the car with my old 2m hand held to make sure the charging lead still works in prep for a night on The Cloud and there you was booming in calling CQ SOTA!
Any details on the homebrew 2m antenna?
Hi Sean. Thanks for the call. Seems working conditions were a lot better than Tuesday. Worked a guy not too far from Hull who was using 1 Watt on a very old Trio IIRC, and another chap in Preston, who was using 500mW and giving me 5/9+!
As for the antenna, it’s just a simple dipole construction, which at 442.000 mHz and 145.000mHz I’ve managed to tune down to virtually no reading on the SWR meter, thus making the antenna very efficient.
virtually no reading on the SWR meter, thus making the antenna very efficient.
My dummy load has no reading on an SWR meter from 1.8MHz to over 1.4GHz. That must be one hell of an efficient antenna then. Should I use that instead of faffing about with wires and Yagis in future?
Hi Mike - tnx for the 2m contact. Managed to work John on HF as well. Not dx - about 4 miles. Strange on 20m John was only s3 with me & was getting splattered by an Italian 1khz hf. On 17m he was 5/9 & I did hear him ragchewing with a PA station on 40m but didnt spot him as it was the other guys frequency. I did pop up to see if you fancied a quick beer in the C & F but I didnt realise you were going to stay so long. I parked up near an old alfa & a new car (corsa?). It wasnt a waste of time though as I spent it looking around on the car radio. I received about 15 different stations from EI/GI showing a slight lift in that direction. (1035mb pressure) Today would be a good day to operate up there - its currently -3C in Buxton with wall to wall sunshine (probably about -5C on summit). Don`t forget, for those impulsive activations, you can check out the weather on the cat & fiddle webcam at :-
Thanks for G/SP-004 and G/SP-013 on 2M SSB over the last couple of days. The antenna your using is working fine. SP are difficult for me and you were a respectable signal with me from both.
No doubt work you S2S in the not too distant future.
Hi Mike - tnx for the 2m contact. Managed to work John on HF as well.
Not dx - about 4 miles. Strange on 20m John was only s3 with me &
was getting splattered by an Italian 1khz hf. On 17m he was 5/9 &
I did hear him ragchewing with a PA station on 40m but didn`t spot him
as it was the other guys frequency.
Yeah. he seemed quite happy until he had to pack up and go to work
I did pop up to see if you fancied a quick beer in the C & F but I
didn`t realise you were going to stay so long. I parked up near an old
alfa & a new car (corsa?).
Would have loved to join you for a pint. Perhaps another day? Mine was the Daewoo, BTW…
It wasn`t a waste of time though as I
spent it looking around on the car radio. I received about 15
different stations from EI/GI showing a slight lift in that direction.
(1035mb pressure)
Yep, there’s definitely been a lift on, I worked 80 stations from The Gun today. Either that, or my home brew dipole is even More efficient than I first though Just got to log them on the database now
Today would be a good day to operate up there - its currently -3C in Buxton with wall to wall sunshine (probably about -5C on summit). Dont forget, for those impulsive activations, you can check out the
weather on the cat & fiddle webcam at :- The Cat & Fiddle Webcam A537 Buxton to Macclesfield
80 on VHF is impressive Mike. But who was the “2E0YYY/P” that was spotted on Gun at 1754 today? Obviously not you - you wrote the post above before then! You surely didn’t go back out for some more - did you?
It’s more than impressive … it’s absolutely mind-blowing!!! Mick worked 68 stations on 2m on Wednesday (Shining Tor) and 80 stations, again on 2m, on Thursday (The Gun).
If I go out SOTA-ing on a weekday afternoon in this part of the country, I’m often struggling to make 4 contacts on 2m! I would be doing well to make 80 contacts on a contest weekend!! I just don’t know where all the activity comes from, up there in IO83. Does nobody have any work to go to?
It’s more than impressive … it’s absolutely mind-blowing!!! Mick
worked 68 stations on 2m on Wednesday (Shining Tor) and 80 stations,
again on 2m, on Thursday (The Gun).
Thank your lucky stars you didn’t have to log them onto the database, Walt!!!
Worked into Barrow-in-Furness on FM and down into Devon on SSB
If I go out SOTA-ing on a weekday afternoon in this part of the
country, I’m often struggling to make 4 contacts on 2m! >
What am I doing wrong? hi hi
You’re not using one of my home brew dipoles
Give me a shout on 2 Metres this Saturday Walt? I’ll be on Shining Tor all day, I’m going for 100 contacts and will be taking a 12 and 9 AH SLAB with me.
80 on VHF is impressive Mike. But who was the “2E0YYY/P”
that was spotted on Gun at 1754 today?
Not me Tom, I left The Gun about 1545 with a flat 12Ah slab. Had another in the car but couldn’t be asked to go and get it, hence, forsaking the opportunity of making 100 contacts today.
