Myself @GW4BML and Kevin @MW0KXN will be continuing our mid-week madness tomorrow evening (Wednesday 15th Feb) from the SOTA summit of ‘Waun Rydd’ GW/SW-004. We will erect a full size 160m dipole in the sky (yes 80m of wire) and call out ‘CQ SOTA’ hoping to work as many stations as possible! We will be running 10w out of the Icom 705 into a resonant antenna approximately 6.5m AGL. We plan to begin activating around 21:00 UTC +/- 30 mins on 1.8-SSB and 1.8-CW. We will then move over to 3.5-SSB and 3.5-CW just in case some stations can’t get us on top band!
I wonder will we be able to make a S2S this week - are there any more operators out there like me and Kev we’ll hopefully find out tomorrow evening if there is!
We really look forward to working some stations from this SOTA community and hope propagation is good so we can get across the pond - you never know!
Looking back in my log I see that in recent years I have only worked G4AZS and GX0OOO on top band for SOTA. Way, way back when I first got caught up in ham radio (late 50’s) top band was the number one choice for mobile operation, those huge clunky whips worked quite surprisingly long distances!
160m is a great band when it’s working well - we intend to test a few things out over the next few weeks @G8ADD Brian, so it would be great to work you
Hi Ben - will listen from home. The wx forecast isn’t brilliant so 80m of wire in a 29 mph wind on a boggy summit probably won’t work for me tomorrow, but with a good weather forecast I may well try Burnhope Seat which has a summit area big enough for a 472 KHz dipole. Probably just 5w from the 817 when I have a go!
The forecast shows a weak cold front passing through during the day but the barometer staying fairly high, the wind gusting to 14 mph, so it looks doable - fingers crossed!
And I lost the top of my home brew top band whip one night in 1982 on this railway bridge just off the A49 in Euxton, Chorley, after going out giving away WAB Squares on Top Band in Lancashire!
I’m interested in what the feed impedance of your low dipole is. It should be around 4-5 ohms plus ground loss resistance, ie. 100 ohms or more depending on recent weather and the local animals peeing acidic resistance resistance. Hook up an analyser and see what it says.
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA
We will have info for you later @VK1DA all being well! The centre dipole piece won’t be as high tonight, but it will be interesting to see the change in vSWR from 9.5m high to 6.5m high. We will share our results.
we’ll hopefully find out tomorrow evening if there is!
hahaaa
