Super Saturday on Hope Mtn

G/CE-002 and G/CE-005 have eluded me time and time again in my efforts to chase the full set of CE summits, so when Tom M1EYP/P and Jimmy M3EYP/P alerted their weekend trip to London, taking in all five CEs on the journey down and back, I thought it best to get on a summit myself to give myself a better chance of getting these two elusive summits.

I opted for my second home GW/NW-062 Hope mountain and after a quick breakfast and a mug of tea, threw the rucksack in the car ready for the off. My plans were very nearly scuppered at the outset, but luckily my long suffering xyl saved the day when she asked me if I had remebered to pick up “that big square heavy thing”. I had left one of my 7ah slabs on trickle charge since my last outing and very nearly went without it!!

On arrival at the summit the wx seemed to change instantly with gale force winds which went straight through you with a terrible chill factor, next minute the sun would break free of cloud and it would be summer wx until the next cloud came along.

I was in touch with (mission control) Barry M3PXW via 70cms on my FT-60R handie and was informed that there was no spot for Tom as yet and to not rush setting up. I erected the pole complete with sotabeam and 60m/40m linked dipole in approx ten minutes flat.
I decided that I would work Tom, give the regulars on 5Mhz and 40 cw the 1 point and then head for home, just requiring CE-005 on Sunday for the set.

What followed was extraordinary…

A tip off from Barry told me that Tom had been spotted on G/CE-002 so I swung the beam in his direction and was pleased to recognise Tom’s voice with a superb 59 signal, even though I have to use the beam horizontally polarised on Hope because of the chronic desensing from the commercial towers.
Jimmy was next for the s2s with the same signals as his Dad and I wished them both well and thanked them for the first of the two uniques required.
I was about to qsy when Graham G4JZF nearly melted the 817s front end with a crushing signal.
A further 20 contacts were made on 2-fm including s2s contacts with the trio of Myke GW6DDQ/P, James MW0ZZO/P and Matt 2E0XIS/P all on Snowdon GW/NW-001, Sam 2W0UPT/P on GW/NW-043, Fred G4MWA/P on G/LD-051, Jimmy M3EYP/P on G/CE-003, and Sam 2W0UPT/P on GW/NW-042.

Next band was 60m-ssb where a further 8 QSOs were made, led by Geoff G4WHA. After a few contacts I worked Glyn GM4CFS and was tipped off that Alain F6ENO/P was up and running on 7.032-cw on F/AM-241 so I made the swift QSY in the hope of yet another s2s contact. It was a nightmare trying to break through the pile up with my 5 watts from the 817, but remembering Rob G4RQJs suggestion on the reflector and the ideas gleaned from it, I just sent /P 3 times in succesion and the s2s was made, thanks for the s2s Alain and also to Glyn for the tip off.
10 contacts were made on 40m-cw, at this point my fingers were so cold that they were numb!! sorry about the poor quality cw.
I QSY’d back to 60m as promised and made a further 2 contacts.

While working Mike G4BLH/M on 2m-fm, he requested 70cms and I was pleasantly surprised to make the second contact with Mike using the 2m sotabeam on 70cms, I also had a contact with Helen GW7AAU on 70cms.

I nearly died when I looked at my watch, 15:20 local, I had “nipped out” for an hour at 09:00 local, oh no, in the mire again, but well worth it for a day like that!!

Total QSOs = 43
s2s contacts = 10
2m-fm QSOs = 23
70cms-fm QSOs = 2
60m-ssb QSOs = 8
40m-cw QSOs = 10

As always, many thanks for the spots and to Barry M3PXW and Steve GW7AAV for the many tip offs all day and to all stations worked…

M1EYP/P (s2s), M3EYP/P (s2s), G4JZF, M3PXW, 2E0FRO, M0AAS, GW7AAV, MW0KIK, 2E0OTE/M, G7EPN, 2E0HJD, G4BLH/M X 2, GW1LDY/M, G4WHA, G4FUJ, M1MAJ, G4CPA, GM4CFS, F6ENO/P (s2s), GW6DDQ/P (s2s), MW0ZZO/P (s2s), 2W0XIS/P (s2s), GW0VMZ, DL6KVA, HB9AFI, G4SSH, F8BBL, ON6NW, DL3JPN, GM4FAM, F6GEO, F6FTB, F5UOW, 2W0UPT/P (s2s), G4MWA/P (s2s), M3EYP/P (s2s) GM7PKT, G4RQJ, 2W0UPT/P (s2s), G6XYE/M, G0SOY, M3CGE, GW7AAU.

73 Mike GW0DSP

In reply to GW0DSP:

While working Mike G4BLH/M on 2m-fm, he requested 70cms and I was
pleasantly surprised to make the second contact with Mike using the 2m
sotabeam on 70cms, I also had a contact with Helen GW7AAU on 70cms.

A tip when using a 2m beam on 70cm is not to assume that the bearing for 2m will be right for 70cm. The radiation pattern on the third harmonic will be very different - often having a null directly in line with the boom as the main lobe splits into two with a null along the axis of the boom.

73

Richard
G3CWI

In reply to G3CWI:

Fed up with the rain I modelled a 3 element 2m beam being used on 70cm. The red trace shows the beam on 2m and the blue is the same beam on 70cm.

http://www.sotabeams.co.uk/2m_beam_70cm.htm

It looks pretty much as I described above.

73

Richard

In reply to G3CWI:

thanks Richard, interesting stuff and I’ll experiment withthat next time out. I did’t move the beam while working Mike and Helen, but will test next time.

73 Mike GW0DSP