Having just checked the weather forecast for tomorrow, it looks like we are on for a very good evening.
So, come on, get yourself up your local hill for 18:00utc–18:30utc for 2-fm, then 18:30utc–19:00utc for 2-ssb, then after that, anything goes, band and mode to suit yourself.
Just alert as normal, stating your preferred bands/modes.
Please, the more the merrier, let’s make it the best evening yet.
Chasers/spotters, please keep up your superb job for those on the summits and also pass on any spots/possible s2s chances to the activators.
PLEASE REMEMBER, SAFETY FIRST ALWAYS, NO RISK IS ACCEPTABLE!!
Good luck to all.
Hope to catch you from the summit.
Please excuse me from this week’s “Fun”. Nanna (92) is coming for tea. I think the two mile walk home would be a little unfair on her, so I will do the decent thing, sacrifice this week’s fun evening and give her a lift down to the bus stop.
Just back from a very very windy & in the end a very wet SP-001 Kinder Scout. I used a bit of cheek & parked near Upper Booth Farm this time. I sample their drinking water on a regular basis so thought theyd recognise me if they came out - which they didnt. I operated SE of the summit to try & keep out of the gale force wind. 2m wasnt too busy tonight with few in the log. For some reason this summit at over 600m doesnt seem to deliver on VHF. Good sigs on 5Mhz, no room to squeeze in on 7Mhz & a good spell on 28Mhz - tnx for the spot Mike.
48 contacts:-
2m FM - 12
2m SSB - 5
10m SSB - 19
60m SSB - 12
Thanks to all who called & nice to work some new (to me) chasers. Thunderstorm started as I reached the top of Jacobs Ladder.
Well I thought the SOTA Fun Night went well the WX on TW-004 was good but it did rain as i was packing up but nothing bad.
Nice to have had a contact with Mike GW0DSP/P was 5-1 both way’s on NW-062 s2s & Steve G1INK 5-9 both way,s on SP-001 on 2m-ssb 2nd time round (s2s).
And I did contact a few new chasers as well so word must be getting around about the Fun Night’s, more the merry.
I would like to thank the chaser’s that spot me, sorry you got a bit wet Steve on SP-001 but a good signal on 2m-ssb.
I did get on 40m but it was hard to get in some where and nothing on 80m at all and I also tyred 10m but nothing again but may have miss out as did not go on till late.
All told a good night but shame the rain came along.
In reply to GW0DSP:
Sorry to say I completely missed the Fun Night, dammit! Would you believe that a salesman measuring us up for a new porch would take over two hours…and me with a sparkling new FT857D to try out!
Better luck next week…and look out for me from LD this Saturday, something in the region of Wasdale…would you believe a fancy dress climbing meet, mad, I tell you, mad!
A strange night for me, in as much that I spent the best part of the evening watching the sky and diving for shelter.
The wx was at it again good style on Hope Mountain, with gale force winds and two storms passing through and then heading straight for INKy on Shining Tor in the distance.
When wx condx allowed, I managed a total of just 24 QSOs including two s2s contacts with Terry G0VWP/P on G/TW-004 on 2m-ssb and Steve G1INK/P X2 on G/SP-001 on 2m-fm and an unusual 10m-ssb.
Shock of the night was no response to my 40m-cw cq calls, although to be fair, the static had risen to unbearable levels at that point.
I didn’t have much chance to do a great deal of HF activity due to the stormy wx and eventually had no other option than to make a sharp exit when static levels were rising and thoughts of Richard G3CWIs recent activation story began to play tricks with my mind, hi.
Thanks again to all chasers/spotters and to Terry and Steve for the s2s contacts.
Just to clarify Mike, I was on Kinder Scout SP-001, Not Shining Tor or SP-015 but I guess you knew that & it was a slip of the pen hi. My “waterproofs” are still drying out.
In reply to G1INK:
I altered it just before you posted, hi, force of habit with working Tom so often I guess.
Same here on drying the waterproofs, and antennas and pole.
Still drying out? It was a beautiful evening for my stroll on SE-002, with 20C, no breeze and excellent visibilty. Sadly the radio side was not as good. I heard nobody on 2m SSB, which is no great surprise given the distance between Surrey and the other activators, but, more importantly, only found two stations active in the 70cm contest. After sitting on the summit for around forty-five minutes I decided to come home for a beer. At least Leith Hill has now been activated on 70cm, if not yet qualified on the band.
Im confident we could have made it on 2m ssb Les, maybe next time. I only worked 4 on 2m ssb then after listening to white noise coming back to my CQs on 144.300 to all beam headings, I thought sod it, packed the beam up & went to HF. Incidently, I just noticed my activation of SP-001 puts it in the “century” club now.
73 Steve G1INK.
I did point the beam your way again in the hope you would be qrv on 2m, I think you only alerted for 70cms.
I never heard anything again though sorry, it must be a bad path.
I envy your wx. The storms that went through Hope Mountain, made a beeline for INKy on SP-001 after soaking me.
Maybe we will soon get that s2s, possibly on either 80m or 40m cw.