Hi all, I will be travelling to UK in August this year and was wondering if I should bring my FT817 along and try to activate some of the easier to get to summits there. The travel itinerary has not been set in concrete apart from some accommodation bookings and flights in and out.
We will be in London for almost 1 week, then travelling to Wales to get a ferry to Dublin (1 week stay in Dublin) then back to UK up to Scotland for a week before heading south again and on to the eurostar to Paris for 4 days. then back home to VK3 via Singapore.
So if there are any easily accessible sota peaks roughly along the way I would like to give them a try.
I know the details are sketchy as far as my planned trip are set out here, but there still some time to do the planning before we leave and that may help to plan out journey.
In reply to VK3XL:
Yes Mike, bring your ft817 along. There are quite a few easy summits along North Wales for you to activate.
When you have time and dates drop me a line.
73
Roger mw0idx
In reply to MW0IDX:
Thanks Roger. we will leave Melbourne on August 1st. stop over in Singapore for 24 hours then on to London. the best part of 3 weeks touring UK and ireland. We will be hiring a car so I might put in a mag mount and a 2 meter whip as well for the mobile.
I will keep the reflector informed of my plans.
‘Bring your FT817’ - absolutely. If as you mentioned you are visiting GM contact me and I’ll set-up some fairly easy summits for you. (did say set-up, not help you up - hi hi!)
Hi Mike, if you are in Dublin, then Ben of Howth EI/IE-072 is a good option. Howth is worth a visit on a nice day anyway and the summit is only 15 minutes walk from the road. It is possible to get there by public transport from the city, but the walk would be longer…
In reply to G4AZS:
thanks for the replys so far.We will have a car for our trip around UK and Dublin, so it should be easy to get to a few summits. I aim to work from at least 1 from each association.
What is the most common band to use for ssb operation. Here in VK we tend to use 40 meters a lot and operate either side of the UTC day change over. That way the chasers get a double dip at the points ans it allows the activators to get home at a reasonable hour to keep the Minister for finance and nocturnal affairs happy.
On SSB, any of the normal HF bands (other than 30 metres, which, unlike in VK, is narrow-band-only). If the band’s open there’ll not usually be a shortage of chasers (though top band might be hard work)…
and operate either side of the UTC day change over. That way the chasers get a
double dip at the points
In reply to M1EYP:
Perhaps you would like to join in with a really old SOTA event of Cream Tea (not done one for several years) on a top somewhere ie English Lake District. Silly dress mandatory.
In reply to VK3XL:
Hi Mike
You can overnight with us as we’re on the way to North Wales, if you like. We do hospitality for Couchsurfers and Warmshowers members anyway so why not visiting SOTA activators? A good stroll up the Wrekin G/WB-010 the next day [it’s 1 mile off the motorway on your route] is a possibility.
In reply to M0YDH:
Sorry for my tardiness in not replying sooner. I have been inundated with jobs from the minister for home affairs. I am also off to Australia’s highest mainland summit this weekend (Mt Kosciuszko vk2/sm-001) so some planning for that has taken priority.
Thank you for your kind offer David. I will put that into the mix and see if it fits in with the tour planner (XYL).
Best regards
Mike VK3XL
