So … My XYL had a friend visiting this afternoon, so I thought I’d pop out to a local summit for a “pointless” repeat activation to pass the time, test a new antenna, and get some fresh air.
I like Garway Hill G/WB-013, so there I headed with my FT-817 and newly built 40m dipole, thinking to try it out in the warm sunshine. Arriving on top, the breeze was stiff, so I dropped a little way off the summit and opened my backpack. Funny, it had felt a bit light - the reason was the lack of a 6m pole, which I had left behind due to brain fade.
Some considerable time was then spent messing about with my walking poles, bungee cords and a convenient but spiky thorn bush to get any kind of elevation for the dipole. Then it seemed that 40m propagation was pretty long, the afternoon was wearing on and no-one answered my CQ’s. I had a couple of QSO’s by responding to CQ’s, so the antenna was working after a fashion 
At this point my XYL phoned to say that her friend had cried off due to a broken leg sustained while on a recent holiday trip to Greece, and my tribulations suddenly didn’t seem so bad.
Still : I had a nice afternoon on a warm hillside, got some fresh air and a bit of exercise, saw ponies, buzzards, skylarks, yellowhammers, and I had 3 nice QSO’s.
Look on the bright side, eh ?
Cheers
Rick
