I’m back to training on the bike, hence not activating as of late…
I could combine the two, keeping it simple: 2m activations, only using an FT65 + 770 telescopic whip.
Has anyone done this in the GW/SW area?
Keen on nice days out (i.e. views), whilst ticking off a few summits at the same time.
It certainly can be possible from summits with good VHF takeoff. For example I used a similar setup on Waun Fach, GW/SW-002 on a Saturday afternoon recently and had 11 QSOs in quick succession ( 2 were S2Ss). I’ve had similar success from Pen y Fan, GW/SW-001.
I have also mistakenly tried to the do the same thing when Wales are playing in the Six Nations. Never seem to have the same results for some reason…
Good luck!
Matthew M0JSB
A perfect time for road cycling then.
Ok - I’ll have a look at the map. Looking for summits joined by green lines (if they’re accessible by bridleway, there should be no problems/restrictions by MTB).
Good point!
The title of your post got me wondering what you were on about…for an oldie like me, MTB means Motor Torpedo Boat. 
That would be lovely, but motorised transport to summits is forbidden. 
Here’s the whip (trigger’s broom - it looks slightly different now):
I can remember reading somewhere that typically these would be started up and before the engines had warmed up they would open the throttles and get up and moving. Bearing life was not considered important if a plane from the other side was coming in for a strafing run with 20mm cannon and 7.92mm machine guns as large holes all over the boat would spoil your day a lot more and quicker than heavy oil consumption and knocking main bearings.
That one in the picture, MTB102 was a prototype with 3x 57L W18 petrol engines. For those of us in the UK of a certain age, just think how many Green Shield Stamps you’d get when you filled up the petrol tanks on that baby 
South Downs Way is some of the best SOTA on a bike, off-road and passing pretty much all the peaks in this region without too much ascent.
Eastbourne to Winchester can be done in two days.
Thanks Tim - I hadn’t even considered summits in SE England for some reason.
I completed my first SDW trip over three days - first ever cycle tour, and I packed WAY too much.
It’s certainly doable in one day if I’m not going cycle the whole thing from start to finish (again):
Park at Petersfield, then West to East:
From Wilmington Hill, it’s about 7-8 miles to Eastbourne train station (mostly downhill). Take a train back to Petersfield.
I’ll get in before the pedants. It’s not, which is why I’ve activated USA and Cypriot summits by car.
Your station has to be portable, not powered by or touching your vehicle. Land owner permission is required, unless a vehicular right of way crosses the AZ.
Anyway, I knew what you meant. 
Super - so an e-MTB is the answer!
I’m training for an event at the moment, and I over-egged it in the past few weeks… ruined my legs. 
You’re being a meta-pedant. 
That sort-of reminds me of meta-wishes in Gödel, Escher and Bach. I’ll have to dig that out and read it again.
A heavy read
If you’re training you probably want a non e-bike?
There’s quite a few summits I think you could qualify on 2/70 if you ride to to the bottom and walk up (in MTB shoes) and do it on a nice weekend when lots of people are either out activating or chasing, and if you have patience to wait for the contacts to come.
GW/SW-013 and GW/SW-008 (maybe on the same trip) for example.
In the summer, you could also try activating during the 2m FMAC on the first Tuesday evening of the month (70cm is the second Tuesday evening).
If you can carry something to support a slim jim that will improve your chances. Maybe one of those fibreglass tent poles with elastic inside? I found the Sotabeams travel pole pretty uncomfortable to carry in a backpack on a bike and couldn’t find a way to transport it attached to the bike.
At some events, e-MTBs are allowed… they’re timed in a different class, but that doesn’t stop them getting in the way (passing you on the up, but procrastinating on the descents). Quite annoying!
I don’t think I’ll be carrying a pole - nowhere to put it on a FS bike realistically (not on a small frame anyway)… my 2m flowerpot is very good (at least as good as the RH770) but it needs supporting somehow.
Flowerpot:
Telescopic:
I use a Camelbak Hawg NV, it can comfortably holds my Xiegu 6100 and Carbon 6 pole inside the pack. I have managed to strap a Decathlon travel 6m pole to the outside of the pack but wasn’t keen on that.
The extra weight requires more air on my FS setup and I definitely regretted not been on my ebike in whilst Ireland last year
A Carbon 6 fits to the frame of my FS bike, and also across the bars.
No more spending on radio stuff.
2025 is about permanently shedding my bio-fleece… turning mush into muscle.
I can do that without an antenna at all, but I figured it might be fun to kill two seals with one bike.
Just to be pendantic 
a legal e-bike is classed as pedal cycle and needs to be peddled, although you can get up to 250w of assistance, upto a maximum of 15.5mph.
There are a lot of illegal e-bikes that are really electric motorcycles clouding the general opinion or legitimate e-bikes, although the press stil incorrectly likes to call these e-bikes
Indeed. You can cycle one to a summit, but can’t connect your radio to the battery.
Unless you remove it from the bike…
