Thank you for bearing with me on my first CW activ

Dear Roy G4SSH… thank you so much for bearing with me on my first CW activation. I was having so much trouble with QRM at S9+++ and it for confuddling me! I also heard G0VOF but didn’t manage to exchange reports as sigs were being obliterated my end. For the first time I have realised how much I need to upgrade the filter in the FT817ND. When using my TS480SAT at home I can listen to just one transmission and I find it far less stressful. Today while copying you, Roy, I could hear what seemed like hundreds of ops all within a fraction of a kHz.

Thanks again Roy, and thanks Mark for the spot and the effort.

Also, thanks to DL3HXX who I also managed to exchange reports with.

I was pressed for time as was supposed to have already got back home for dinner, and was feeling guilty about my detour…which didn’t really help with putting me in the right proper relaxed state of mind!

I promise to keep working at getting more proficient :slight_smile:

For info, I was running 1W from the FT817ND into a 20m long end fed inverted V (set up from a Racal military wire antenna and a fishing pole).

Many thanks again.

Pete M3KXZ

In reply to M3KXZ:

Well done Pete, you did extremely well under very difficult conditions. You were up to 599 with me in Blackburn but sadly the QRM was much stronger. I really don’t understand what people get out of it.

A narrow filter would not have helped with the QRM but would have given you less signals to have to make sense of.

As I said in my email to you earlier, there will always be more good operators than bad ones so please keep up the CW.

Best 73,

Mark G0VOF

In reply to M3KXZ:

Congratulations Pete; you did extremely well on a crowded 40m band, which brings in stations from most of Europe at 1745 UTC.

I was pleased to be one of your first CW contacts; your Morse was well formed and easy to read. Don’t worry about speed, that will come in time and anyone who wants a QSO with you will reply at your speed.

I hope to hear you many more times from other SOTA’s

73
Roy G4SSH

Roy and Mark, thank you very much for the support and encouragement. It’s much appreciated. G3CWI Richard Newstead pointed me in the direction of SOTA a couple or three years ago, and I’m really pleased to have finally taken the plunge.
Cheers,
Pete M3KXZ

In reply to M3KXZ:

Hi Pete - thought your callsign looked familiar! I look forward to hearing how you get on with some of your more ambitious aerials on hilltops.

73

Richard
G3CWI

In reply to G3CWI:

Thanks Richard.

I’m thinking about taking the vertical Moxon rectangle up at some point. Down side is that it takes longer to set up, and I have to start thinking about direction. I can see why “keep it simple” makes sense.

At the moment setting up end fed inverted Vs supported by one pole, and end fed slopers supported by a tree takes just a couple of minutes. It was watching your Youtube vid of how to put up and guy an inverted V that has helped me get it just right. Before I was poncing around sticking the pole on a stake and then guying it!

The Moxon rectangle takes longer and also means I have to carry more, which is ok if setting up for a couple of hours or more, but I have a feeling that I’m pretty much limited to an hour here and an hour there, when I’m either on the way home from work, or out walking the dogs. The past couple of days the wife has interrupted me mid-QSO wondering when I’ll be back and asking me to go via the shop for milk (and wine) - trying to set up for 2 hours or more on the way back will be right pushing my luck :slight_smile:

The CW improved a lot tonight - I called CQ on 7030 (after having no response on 10116) and had a more confident QSO with G0UTF, up north. Pretty pleased I was. Again though, the frequency got very crowded. Using headphones made things easier, and I seemed more able to separate G0UTF from the rest.

I’ll be getting up to either Ditchling Beacon or Firle Beacon during the coming week. It would be nice, I think, to get up there at same time as another summit is being activated so I can chase as well :slight_smile:

Cheers again,
Pete