Just wanted to thank all those stations who called me today on 2m SSB while I was on Slievemartin (MM-011). Sorry I couldn’t hear everyone. Band conditions seemed a bit flat and also I see from the spots that 144.310 was not a good choice of frequency! I am planning more activations from the Mournes and will post alerts.
73, Fred
GI4MWA
In reply to GI4MWA:
Hi Fred,
Thank you for activating MM-011. I had a listen for you down here in Cheltenham but any hope of hearing you was negated by a couple of rag chewing hams on 144.310, who to be fair, were occupying the channel for some time.
I wonder what you are using on 2m ssb when activating on a Mourne hilltop. When I activated some of the higher MM hills, I had no difficulty in working down into Devon (RQL), under flat conditions using a 4 ele and 50 Watts.
Sorry we did not make it and thanks again for activating.
73
Frank
Thanks for persevering from MM-011 Fred,conditions were a bit flat and as Frank said, there was another qso on 310 which I could hear also in Devon and made contact even harder.Equipment here Kenwood TS 2000 100w to a 10 ele Jaybeam at 14mtrs AG and qth 173mtrs ASL.
Look forward to the next one.73 Don G0RQL.
Hi Frank, Don,
Thank-you both for your messages. I was using a FT817 (5W) to a 3 ele beam. I have found that 4-5W on 2m is normally adequate to qso across the Irish Sea from MM summits, even using FM. For a small summit, Slievemartin has reasonable takeoff over the sea, and in the past I’ve done OK from there on 2m FM. I was keen to see how SSB would perform in comparison, but unfortunately propagation was marginal. For this reason I couldn’t hear the stations already on .310. After making some further unanswered calls on .300 I qsy’d to FM to complete the activation.
I was very pleased to work you again, Don - thanks for your patience in the difficult conditions. I think your well-sited station helped a lot, and I look forward to our next contact. Sorry we didn’t qso on this occasion, Frank - hopefully there’ll be another opportunity. Perhaps I may catch you when you’re activating a summit here in GI!
I’m planning some double-summit MM activations during the summer. For these, I will probably use 2m FM (4W) and 3 ele beam, as the rig is a lot lighter than the 817. However, I’m also looking for opportunities to use SSB and will post all activations on the alerts.
73, Fred