SOTA FUN EVENING IS BACK!
Yes, I know I’ve been cheekily calling it “SOTA Fun Evening” everytime I go out for a Tuesday evening activation. But few of them genuinely are; at least my perspective is that if I’m the only one doing it, then it’s not really a “Fun Evening”. Having said that, when I post the notices on the reflector, I am always hopeful that at least one other person will decide to join in.
Tuesday 1st May 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015
This time though, it really was a Fun Evening. For I was not the only SOTA activator involved. My friend Paul G4MD was on Billinge Hill G/SP-017, so it really felt like the Summer Fun Evenings were back - well, apart from the “Summer” bit. It was great though, because Paul was the very person who first suggested the Tuesday evening SOTA activating tradition, and started doing them, all those years ago.
The radio activity was good. The weather was not so good. May Day? It was cold, there were intermittent showers all night - and I’d forgotten my bothy bag. I made the decision that I would quit and go home early at the first sign of heavier rain. This never quite happened, and so the skies toyed and teased with me, successfully maximising the torture.
On 2m, I made 122 QSOs. 39 on FM, 1 on CW and 82 on SSB. So not too shabby, although there was a hell of a lot more stations on that I didn’t work.
DXCCs - 7: EI, F, G, GD, GI, GM, GW.
QRAs - 19: IN99, IO51, 64, 73, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, JO00, 01, 03.
Not a bad return, but coming away without IO70, 71, 72, 75, 80, 95 and JO02 still leaves a sense of frustration!
Here my QSO maps for the FMAC and UKAC respectively:
