SOTA LD Weekend - Sunday Whitbarrow Scar G/LD-056

Activation Reports
1

I almost feel a little embarrassed posting this activation report!

On Sunday I had decided to try and work some DX from the excellent Whitbarrow Scar G/LD-056. I’d not tried HF in anger from this location, but figured I would have a couple of advantages over my go-to summit of Gummer’s How:

Whitbarrow Scar is a very special summit for adventure radio types in that it is not only a SOTA summit but also it’s own Park on the Air location G-0190, a WWFF location GFF-0233 and a Wainwright on the Air LDO-109. I figured an extended stay here from mid afternoon would give me a good chance of some long distance contacts, and I had been planning on doing a joint activation here with SOTA/POTA.

P1020168
P10201684000×2248 1.76 MB

Approaching Whitbarrow Scar from Witherslack Hall - the short & sharp route

IMG_20210912_132526
IMG_20210912_1325264000×2252 2.63 MB

P1020174
P10201744000×2248 1.65 MB

Equipment:

  • Yaesu FT-857
  • 4 x 4200maH Zippy Flightmax LifePo4
  • SOTABeams Band Hopper IV
  • Spectum Communication Slim-J
  • 12m mast

During the course of the afternoon I managed to crack a section of the mast (cue massive electrical tape patch up), snap the antenna in two places (fortunately I was only doing 20m at that point) and knacker a battery (don’t try and charge your phone from a spent battery). It was all worth it…

At just before 2pm I turned on the handheld attached to the Slim-J and could hear local activator traffic and was grateful to get Dave and Nick. I could hear Phil on GM/SS-170 - pretty good given my southerly Lake District location but he was 52 at best and sometimes faded into the noise. Not wanting to risk missing the contact I hurried to get the FT-857 connected up so I could hit him with 50w. As Phil couldn’t hear me on 5w this turned out to be a good plan.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
12:55 G3TQQ/P 145.300 2m FM 59 59 J . DAVID ( DAVE ) SOTA G/LD-030
12:56 G4OOE/P 145.300 2m FM 59 59 A.R.N. (Nick) LANGM SOTA G/LD-030
13:02 GM4OBK/P 145.325 2m FM 52 55 PHIL CATTERALL SOTA GM/SS-170
13:10 G6PJZ/P 145.475 2m FM 52 57 Andy Clift SOTA G/LD-029
13:11 G6WBS/P 145.475 2m FM 59 59 Shane Siggins SOTA G/SP-003
13:08 M0JKS/P 145.475 2m FM 59 59 Dave W Pegler SOTA G/LD-020
13:13 G7CDA 145.525 2m FM 59 59 Douggie Lancaster
13:15 G6LKB 145.525 2m FM 59 59 David WARBURTON
13:18 G6AEK 145.525 2m FM 59 59 David Molyneux
13:18 2E0BFN 145.525 2m FM 58 59 Wayne
13:22 M7MCG/M 145.525 2m FM 52 55 Mick
13:24 G8CPZ/P 145.525 2m FM 59 59 AJ Barth SOTA G/LD-050

Just before they were packing up I snagged Andy, Shane & Dave on their respective summits. Last in the log for the VHF activation was Andy @G8CPZ on Gummer’s How. I thought there might be half a chance to get a photo of him on the summit as it is visible from Whitbarrow Scar.

P1020183
P10201834000×2248 368 KB

Andy next to the trig point on Gummer’s How G/LD-050

On HF I did a little SOTA chasing to start with and it was great to get a S2S with Guru @EA2IF on EA2/NV-108 and Leszek @SQ9MDF & Violetta on OM/PO-013. Once I started working a frequency on 20m I spotted myself on SOTA, WWFF and POTA sites. Biggest surprise was the call from @VK5PAS Paul - OMG! I was stunned, although I did manage a thank you! Then John popped in KI6EAB/W who explained to me that he was in California but using a Florida based station remotely.

Other notable contacts: a nice chat with Geir LA5ZO/MM who was moored up at Cascais in Portugal - he gave me a pretty accurate position report from his onboard GPS but I was able to find his exact location later based on a Marine website.

image
image1280×1336 648 KB

Geir LA5ZO/MM who was moored up at Cascais in Portugal

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
13:30 EA2IF/P 7.032 40m CW 559 579 Op. Guru . SOTA EA2/NV-108
13:37 OM/SQ9MDF/P 7.170 40m SSB 53 55 Leszek SOTA OM/PO-013
13:38 OM/SQ9NOT/P 7.170 40m SSB 53 55 WIOLETTA SOTA OM/PO-013
13:45 OH3GZ 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 JUKKA " Jack " KOVA
13:46 SA4BLM 14.310 20m SSB 59 57 Lars Markus
13:46 EA2DT 14.310 20m SSB 41 51 Manuel
13:46 VK5PAS 14.310 20m SSB 57 53 Paul SIMMONDS
13:47 KI6EAB/W4 14.310 20m SSB 57 57 John
13:49 SP9TKW 14.310 20m SSB 55 44 Marek Klimczyk
13:51 YO8DRV 14.310 20m SSB 53 55 Cutuhan Victor
13:51 EA3EBJ 14.310 20m SSB 51 53 Roca i Balasch Salv
13:52 SV2RMR 14.310 20m SSB 59 55 Kostas Kousis
13:54 LA5ZO/MM 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 Geir
13:58 YO5QDT 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 Pedrou

SQ9NO-joint-activation
SQ9NO-joint-activation1782×1336 870 KB

OM/SQ9MDF/P & OM/SQ9NOT/P Joint Activation of OM/PO-013

IMG_20210912_183822
IMG_20210912_1838224000×2252 3.42 MB

Ouch

A few more SOTA S2S were a pleasure to work - Andrij & Andre on UT/CA-232 seem genuinely pleased to get me in their log. Stavros was his usual enthusiastic self on SV/ST-008 followed by Guille on EA1/SG-003 then a nice run of EU chasers.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
14:00 UW8SM/P 14.310 20m SSB 58 59 Andrij Yanulyavichu SOTA UT/CA-332
14:01 UR5SDL/P 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 Andre SOTA UT/CA-332
14:03 OE3AGH/P 14.310 20m SSB 51 59 Andreas Gall
14:03 SV2RUJ/P 14.310 20m SSB 57 59 Stavros Triadafyllo SOTA SV/ST-008
14:07 EA4FUA/P 14.310 20m SSB 41 55 Guille Lopez SOTA EA1/SG-003
14:08 S56FG/P 14.310 20m SSB 53 41
14:08 OE3IPU 14.310 20m SSB 55 53 Gottfried POELTINGE
14:13 IK4IDP 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 ANDREA Tommasi
14:14 OH1MM 14.310 20m SSB 59 55 Pasi Alanko
14:15 I4RHP/4 14.310 20m SSB 59 59 WWFF IFF-1888
14:16 HA0IS 14.310 20m SSB 57 57 Gyula -Julius- Vágó
14:18 OM5DP 14.310 20m SSB 59 57 MARTIN SUBA
14:20 SP5CCK 14.310 20m SSB 57 55 Marek Safarzyński
14:22 SP8LEP 14.310 20m SSB 54 54 ARTHUR LOPUCH
14:26 OH1CM 14.311 20m SSB 59 59 Kimmo Tuominen

Not sure what started the transatlantic ball rolling, but roll it did from around half three and continued on and off until half nine when I finally packed up. Certainly a large number of the US chasers were attracted by the POTA in my SOTA/POTA but on several occasions I was asked for my SOTA reference.

K2JB
K2JB1782×1336 865 KB

K2JB at 1,891m on W4C/WM-004

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
14:36 K9GLS 14.334 20m SSB 53 33 Gary L Scroggins
14:38 K9ICP 14.334 20m SSB 57 22 Bruce J Tisdale
14:38 KP3DR 14.334 20m SSB 59 57 Daniel Rodriguez
14:40 KE8LVA 14.334 20m SSB 58 53 Aaron M Frazier
14:42 KW2DX 14.334 20m SSB 59 56 JOHN H MAYER
14:44 EC7AKV 14.334 20m SSB 59 55 Jose Alfonso "Fonsi
14:46 KC3PMJ 14.334 20m SSB 59 33 John Kohansby
14:47 K4JDF 14.334 20m SSB 59 57 Bernard C Wimmers,
14:48 VA3KOF 14.334 20m SSB 57 53 Rick Markoff
14:49 WD5CSK 14.334 20m SSB 57 55 Ronald J Reid
14:50 YO2MHF 14.334 20m SSB 57 59 Feri
14:51 WC3N 14.334 20m SSB 58 57 GARY W KEGAN
14:51 ND1J 14.334 20m SSB 57 53 DAVID E BLUBAUGH
14:52 K8KP 14.334 20m SSB 59 51 Frederick A Baird
14:53 N3ARS 14.334 20m SSB 58 54 Gregory P Neil
14:54 K8HQ 14.334 20m SSB 55 55 Christopher Mertoia
14:57 CT1AED 14.334 20m SSB 58 59 Manuel
15:02 WB8CPG 14.334 20m SSB 55 55 JAMES S POPOVICH POTA K-1946
15:03 K3NM 14.334 20m SSB 59 59 JOSEPH BRUE, JR
15:04 EW3PA/P 14.334 20m SSB 58 59 Alexandra
15:07 IW0HLE 14.334 20m SSB 59 59 Johnny
15:08 AF8E 14.334 20m SSB 41 33 John F Adams
15:09 OE6GND 14.334 20m SSB 59 59 GERHARD GRUNDNER
15:10 SQ8GHY 14.334 20m SSB 58 57 Lukasz Luke
15:12 EA7ZC 14.334 20m SSB 57 57 Paco Osuna Caballer
15:14 EA1AF 14.334 20m SSB 51 55 David Garcia Gonzal
15:15 IZ3ATV/IS0 14.334 20m SSB 57 58

I broke off this run to work @M0JLA Rod on GM/SS-205 on 60m then decided to slot in a more local SOTA activation by working 60m and 80m. When I re-clipped for 20m I somehow managed to make my dodgy straight key sending stick with @K2JB Jimmy on W4C/WM-004, my first of three transatlantic SOTA S2S contacts. It was great, and sometimes extremely hard work, to get some Park activators in the States in the log, several of the chasers and activators said it had been their first POTA contact outside the USA. Last in this run was @VE2DDZ Malcolm - our second S2S apparently in the last three years, it was an easy QSO thanks Malcolm!

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
15:20 MM0JLA/P 5.372 60m SSB 58 57 Rod M0JLA SOTA GM/SS-205
15:22 G4IPB 5.304 60m SSB 59 59 PJ HODGKINSON
15:23 M0BKV 5.304 60m SSB 59 59 DAMIAN KAMM
15:24 G4WTF 5.304 60m SSB 58 57 Ian KIRKPATRICK
15:26 MW0OFA 5.304 60m SSB 59 59 Frank Hearne
15:28 GM4WHA 5.304 60m SSB 59 59 GEOFF HARPER
15:34 M1DYU 3.733 80m SSB 55 55 Garry
15:35 2E0FEH 3.733 80m SSB 59 57 Karl Kruger
15:36 2E0XUP 3.733 80m SSB 59 55 Stephen Davison
15:37 GW8UKZ 3.733 80m SSB 59 58 Andrew
15:45 K2JB/P 14.064 20m CW 339 559 JIMMY D BLAIR SOTA W4C/WM-004
16:03 EA5S/M 14.303 20m SSB 58 43 DUNCAN LINDSAY
16:07 NE1D 14.337 20m SSB 57 53 Dimitris Paliyannis
16:09 W4XYT 14.337 20m SSB 55 55 WILLIAM JACK MOORE,
16:11 W4XYT 14.337 20m SSB 41 55 WILLIAM JACK MOORE,
16:13 IW7DNY 14.337 20m SSB 59 59 Martino
16:15 K3VED 14.337 20m SSB 57 59 Clem
16:21 WA8S 14.337 20m SSB 54 55 Jose A Nazario-Del
16:23 KD8ATF 14.337 20m SSB 53 55 Ryan P Woods
16:27 VE2DDZ/P 14.347 20m SSB 44 55 Malcolm Harper SOTA VE2/LR-044

Stateside-contacts
Stateside-contacts1782×1336 840 KB

VE2DDZ/P summit-to-summit VE2/LR-044

Hearing an M6 call CQ I dropped backed to 2m to work him and then had a lovely net-style conversation with Nigel, Andy and Dave. Dave - ask four operators what your audio sounds like, expect four different answers! Really nice to have a chat.

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
16:34 M6YCE/P 145.400 2m FM 55 55 Stephen Boyce
17:10 M5TUE 145.275 2m FM 59 59 Nigel Wadsworth
17:20 G8CPZ 145.275 2m FM 59 59 AJ Barth
17:25 G6LKB 145.275 2m FM 59 59 David WARBURTON

And so to the final run of contacts. It was only really late in this list, as I’d been working a frequency and ignoring the contest stations, that it finally clicked that I was ‘desirable’ in the Worked all Europe contest, but not before a long string of State-side contacts including another S2S with N7NGY on W4V/SH-004.

What is really interesting however is that DX4EVM in the Philippines somehow found me on the frequency I was working! As you can see from the frequency, towards the end I decided to scan the band and pickup a few more interesting DX contacts before my cut-off time of ‘around 9pm’.

My best result to date for a single summit - 145 QSOs.

KC3ALL
KC3ALL1782×1336 923 KB

KC3ALL in Utah, one hell of a Park to Park contact

TIME CALLSIGN FREQ BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
18:24 YU3FMS 14.334 20m SSB 58 59 Filip M. Stanic
18:26 WC4Y 14.334 20m SSB 57 59 Gregory A Mann POTA K-8392
18:33 KC3QXO 14.341 20m SSB 55 55 Leon G Baker, JR POTA K-1418
18:35 W9AV 14.341 20m SSB 45 55 Julien C Sprott
18:37 W3GUY 14.341 20m SSB 45 53 Ernest G Wilson, II
18:52 KC1OCA 14.344 20m SSB 55 59 Michael D Laferrier POTA K-2455
18:54 KC3ALL 14.344 20m SSB 55 55 Kelly S Kulp POTA K-0828
18:55 N3HON 14.344 20m SSB 55 53 Michael G Wise
18:56 K4RXL 14.344 20m SSB 45 57 Robert Lambraia
18:56 WA1SAY 14.344 20m SSB 59 59 Sandra L De Pietro
18:57 K4VBL 14.344 20m SSB 55 57 VINCENT B LAMBRAIA
18:58 K8ETA 14.344 20m SSB 58 57 EDWARD T ALLISON
18:59 KO4SR 14.344 20m SSB 45 44 JOHN M TYMICK
19:04 K0PIG 14.344 20m SSB 34 44 Mark J Gasior POTA K-6465
19:06 KC1FUU 14.344 20m SSB 58 55 Jon S Foster
19:07 KO4FHS 14.344 20m SSB 57 52 Dianne B Martin
19:12 KH7FC 14.344 20m SSB 58 55 Samuel W Turner, II
19:12 IW0HOS 14.344 20m SSB 59 59 CARLO SANGIORGI
19:13 N1IBQ 14.344 20m SSB 56 53 RONALD J WILLSON
19:14 N4CWB 14.344 20m SSB 58 55 Craig W Bryant
19:16 AE4FZ 14.344 20m SSB 57 57 CHARLES R TROMBLEY
19:19 N7NGD 14.344 20m SSB 45 58 SOTA W4V/SH-004
19:21 6Y5HO 14.344 20m SSB 57 55 Othniel Hibbert
19:23 KC6ISS 14.344 20m SSB 57 55 VINCENT D ELIA, JR
19:24 KC3RUY 14.344 20m SSB 59 59 Jon Kelly
19:25 W3JPH 14.344 20m SSB 57 55 Joseph Hannon POTA K-4556
19:27 NW3Y 14.344 20m SSB 59 59 Charles C Allen, II
19:28 DX4EVM 14.344 20m SSB 55 55 SCAN INTERNATIONAL
19:30 K1CWB 14.344 20m SSB 45 44 Claude W Bellemare
19:32 K2HA 14.344 20m SSB 55 55 FREDERICK J SCHRAMM
19:34 W1SRR 14.344 20m SSB 45 44 Miguel A Acevedo POTA K-1881
19:37 W1OW 14.344 20m SSB 55 57 William R Smith
19:38 N4HID 14.344 20m SSB 55 55 WILLIAM E GANN
19:39 N4TPT 14.344 20m SSB 55 53 ALEK MURRAY POTA K-0724
19:39 KG8P 14.344 20m SSB 55 53 Thomas D Jenkins
19:40 N4PIR 14.344 20m SSB 45 55 Gary S Faust
19:41 NT2A 14.344 20m SSB 58 59 GENNADY MOSHKOV
19:43 VE3NEP 14.344 20m SSB 56 57 Frank Saunders
19:49 W4NDK 14.344 20m SSB 44 54 Nathan D Kline
19:51 NU4E 14.278 20m SSB 59 59 MATTHIAS KROMM
19:54 PY2UD 14.259 20m SSB 59 59 Guilherme Vaz
19:59 CE4JZO 14.241 20m SSB 59 59 Federico Edo. "Kiko
20:02 PY2CP 14.238 20m SSB 59 59 (Henry) Enrique Mar
20:03 NY6DX 14.236 20m SSB 59 59 John Nistico
20:06 PV2K 14.215 20m SSB 59 59 Leonardo Zucon CONT
20:17 4L2M 14.205 20m SSB 59 59 Mamuka Kordzakhia
20:18 K3AU 14.201 20m SSB 59 59 South Shore Amateur
20:19 K9RS 14.196 20m SSB 59 59 RAYMOND L SOKOLA
20:20 PY2NY 14.189 20m SSB 59 59 VITOR L A SANTOS
20:23 PZ5RA 14.184 20m SSB 59 59 RAMON KAERSENHOUT
20:25 WS9M 14.171 20m SSB 59 59 MARIAN KIS
20:25 N2QV 14.169 20m SSB 59 59 Tariq Mundiya
20:26 PY5ZHP 14.165 20m SSB 59 59 KAZIMIERZ (Casimiro

SouthAmericanContacts
SouthAmericanContacts1782×1336 599 KB

South American Contacts

SouthernHemisphere
SouthernHemisphere1782×1336 596 KB

Australia & The Philippines

Forgetting the radio, this is a wonderful place to spend a few hours. The sunset didn’t disappoint.
Cheers, Mark.

P1020209
P10202094000×2248 616 KB

PANO_20210912_191353
PANO_20210912_1913533452×928 1.17 MB

P1020207
P10202074000×2248 458 KB

IMG_20210912_191506
IMG_20210912_1915064000×2252 2.68 MB

1020199
10201994000×2248 1.53 MB

P1020191
P10201914000×2248 1.08 MB

All photos here

18 Likes
2

Just… astonishing Mark. You must be deservedly chuffed. :slight_smile:

1 Like
3

Thanks John. Now just watch me fail to qualify the next summit :rofl:

2 Likes
4

Amazing great results, Mark!
Congratulations!
Thanks for your call for our S2S.
73,

Guru

3 Likes
5

So true. And so often you get the summit to yourself. Think I’ve already sung its praises on another topic about activators’ favourite SOTA summits. Fine view from my upstairs bedroom of it 7km away across the Kent estuary tempting me back again.

Re your final photo Mark, nice view of Arnside village with Arnside Knott G/LD-058, the smallest Marilyn in England behind it, only 10 minutes drive away for [almost] daily dog walks. But yet to activate it in 2021.

2 Likes
6

Wow, well done Mark thats just amazing. I knew the bands were in good shape on Sunday morning when I switched the radio on at Greyrigg Forest and the first station I heard was a 59 JA on 17m (couldn’t get through the pile-up), but thats a fantastic haul. Wish I hadn’t been driving home during the afternoon!

Jonathan

2 Likes
7

Very well done Mark! You must have been

a) stoked
b) knackered

Cheers,

Fraser

3 Likes
8

Hi Mark,

That sounds like a great day out there. Wow :star_struck: that’s s a nice DX collection.

2 Likes
9

Hi Mark

What a great achievement and truly inspirational! I reckon you will be awarding all the prizes to yourself - hi hi!

Roll on next year!
73
Nick G4OOE

3 Likes
10

I meant to ask in the pub Mark, how long does those LiFePo4 batteries last when using the 857 on high power?

1 Like
11

Subjectively when activating I’d say about an hour.

3 Likes
12

Impressive SOTA DXing mark. Thanks for sharing

3 Likes
13

I think Mark’s Wizard Wheeze was posting a spot on the POTA site. This has led me to consider doing the same on the 6th for the Trans-Atlantic QSO party. G/DC-003 is in the Tamar Valley AONB which is a POTA site. It’s also in a UNESCO World Heritage site** but I don’t know if there are any chasers for those. :slight_smile:

** Cornwall & West Devon Mining Landscape.

3 Likes
14

100% spot on there @M0WIV John although I think it is a little bit more subtle than that - you’ve got to be there the right time and on an appropriate date as well.

Wouldn’t have worked this weekend that’s for sure! Wall-to-wall contest.

Cheers, Mark.

3 Likes
15

Crikey Mark, what a logbook full !
Great stuff ! Soo happy to be first in the log cannot wait till next year
73
Dave

3 Likes
16

I agree, all down to things like those pesky sunspots, CMEs and Italian contest stations**. None of which we have any control over.

** Only joking,
Solo scherzando

2 Likes