UHF Fun Weekend Sep 8/9th 2012

Old Reflector
21

In reply to M0YDH:

“I’ll try to work any cw callers who make it on the G4OIG calling frequency”

Hope you manage to get 432.222MHz warmed up David - it was distinctly cold and dead in the water (quite literally) over the bank holiday. I didn’t manage any contacts from north of the border.

“… cries of “Have you finished yet?” and missing my summit packed lunch.”

Packed lunches are definitely a post-activation activity, so eat it on the descent. Better still, when you get back to the car, like I usually do. :slight_smile:

Although 70 and 23 are my favourite bands, I am unlikely to be out this weekend due to family commitments. Unfortunately there’s a lot going on at present which is seriously restricting time for SOTA. :frowning:

73, Gerald G4OIG

22

In reply to MM0FMF:

Oooh, I’d forgotten about this. If the WX is OK (and the forecast looks quite hopeful at present) then I’ll hopefully be out on some local (Edinburgh) summit on one or both days, at the expense of development time for my 10GHz transverter, the receive side of which is now working!

I’ll monitor alerts and try to be there when others are, for possible S2S contacts.

If out I will be QRV on 70cm, 23cm and 13cm (!) with 2m if needed. Priority will be given to the higher bands. I can run SSB or FM (even AM if you want!) on all bands (SSB prioritised for the sake of the batteries), but sorry no CW!

Gear will be 8-ele for 70cm (bare FT-817), 15-ele for 23cm (4W, homebrew transverter) and the tiny 12-ele for 13cm (also 4W or so, homebrew transverter). All these antennas DL6WU.

Bare FT-817 for 2m SSB into 5-ele DK7ZB, may also take the FM handie and keep it on.

73
John GM8OTI

23

In reply to G8ADD:

In reply to G3NYY:

Lol! I remember seeing a demonstration of the Joystick at a club. The
Joystick really did work, although people reckoned that most of the
radiation came off the lead. Using the lead on its own was far less
effective! I wonder if any remain in use today?

I owned one, back in the day. Bought it from a club junk sale. AFAIR, it loaded up well and made local contacts, (using an old B2 spy set. wish I still had that) I don’t remember any DX though, and I didn’t keep it very long…

Adrian

24

Well, the weather this morning certainly looks conducive to good tropo conditions on UHF. Very calm, still, and foggy. Surprisingly, I see no spots and hardly any alerts for 432 MHz and up.

I may venture out shortly and try my luck on 70cm.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

25

May get on 70cm-FM at some point from LD24 on Sunday 9-9-12, but basic vertical j-pole for 2m-FM will have to be the ant. SWR is about 1.7:1 at 70cm. Token only. 73, John.

26

In reply to G3NYY:

Robin was 59++++++ on 145.425 frm Schiehallion to the Wirral this afternoon. I just hope there’ll be a tadge of enhancement left for when I go out tomorrow.

Andy
MM0FMF

27

In reply to MM0FMF:
Unfortunately it doesn’t look that likely, Andy, with a trough followed by a cold front moving across and the anticyclone shifting into Europe, but its worth a try!

73

Brian G8ADD

28

In reply to MM0FMF:

Well, I did go out to G/WB-023. Condx on 70cm seemed quite reasonable but the level of SOTA activity was very disappointing. Only 2 portable stations plus myself were spotted before 2 pm on SOTAwatch. I did work the other two portables, but my remaining 7 contacts were with fixed stations.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

29

In reply to G8ADD:

In reply to MM0FMF:
Unfortunately it doesn’t look that likely, Andy, with a trough
followed by a cold front moving across and the anticyclone shifting
into Europe, but its worth a try!

Hi Brian,

Agreed. It looks like the party will be pretty much over tomorrow afternoon according to Hepburn.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

30

In reply to G3NYY:
I had an hour or so from HuMP G/HCE-014 Liddington Hill-Swindon this afternoon, working Rod M0JLA/P on his last call (I think) on May Hill. A few other stations worked, but that was the only SOTA one. Best DX was my last QSO at 17:44 UTC which was Shane - EI4IK from Kilkenny in Southern Ireland. I was running 1w on 70cm FM and he was running 10w, so quite chuffed with that one! Distance wise it’s around 250 miles.

Jonathan
2E0CTW

31

In reply to G8ADD:

I think you’re right Brian. I had a look at the pressure map and it looks like it will be all gone by mid-morning. Never mind. I’m still going on a cross border raid. Hope to me Phil G4OBK coming down as I’m going up.

Andy
MM0FMF

32

UHF fun -

Well I had fun, not much UHF though!

I went out today with the intention of activating on 70cms. I couldn’t resist sneaking my KD1JV MTR into my bag though (help, I’m addicted to SOTA CW!).

After working quite a number of stations on both 40m and 20m, I headed on to 70cms - it seemed very quiet! After a few CQs on 432.222 SSB, Mark, GO0VOF, gave me a call, he must have felt sorry for me! Mark made it a triple, having worked me on both 40m CW and 20m CW beforehand! I guess Mark wanted to make sure he had bagged the 6 chaser points :slight_smile: (thanks for the QSO’s Mark, always a pleasure).

G4WHA/M and M0NWT/M made it into the 70cms log on FM before I gave up. A quick QSY to 144.055 CW found 2W0DAA calling CQ, so I gave Dave a call, thus concluded my ‘above HF’ activity.

Earlier in the day, I had chosen a clear frequency on 20m CW and tried to send a spot to SOTAwatch, whilst I was ‘negotiating’ with my new Android gadget to alert people to my presence, along came Jurg HB9BAB on HB/GR-111 and he claimed the frequency! I wasn’t at all bothered though because we managed a nice S2S, before I QSY’d and eventually managed to send a spot.

My mobile phone had been playing up all day, so I wasn’t able to send a spot for 15m for my last operating session like I had intended, CQ’s on 21.062 brought nothing, so I had a quick tune down the band, where I stumbled across Ali, JY4NE, after our quick ‘rubber stamp’ QSO, I pulled the plug.

Sorry Andy - I did at least have SOME QSO’s on 70cms - I’ll try harder next year!

73,
Colin
M0CGH

In reply to G3NYY:

In reply to MM0FMF:

Well, I did go out to G/WB-023. Condx on 70cm seemed quite reasonable
but the level of SOTA activity was very disappointing. Only 2
portable stations plus myself were spotted before 2 pm on SOTAwatch.
I did work the other two portables, but my remaining 7 contacts were
with fixed stations.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

33

In reply to M0CGH:

UHF fun -

Well I had fun, not much UHF though!

I had every intention of working UHF Colin, however, the 2m band was in such good shape, I couldn’t drag myself away from it.

Plan to do some UHF tommorow.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

34

In reply to 2E0YYY:

Well I don’t think 2m was as good today as it was yesterday but I certainly had fun on G/SP-005 Pendle Hill.

The weather was almost perfect, sunny, light cloud & cooling breeze.

I took 5 elements of my 9 element Tonna & a very short piece of RG58 (Anything decent I have would be too heavy) & did manage a couple of QSO’s on 70cms, the highlight of which was a S2S with John GM8OTI/P on GM/SS-064 Tinto. At the time, I was John’s first QSO on the band but I hope things picked up for him. There was QSB on 70cms, with John’s signal ranging from S8 to S1 but no problem to copy.

The real highlight for me though came on 160m, where for the first time I managed 4 QSO’s, therefore qualifying the hill on Top Band for the first time. Also G/SP-005 had never been activated on 160m before.

Thanks to John G4YSS for choosing today to activate G/LD-024 Pike of Blisco, otherwise I would probably stayed at home & been a chaser, as usual.
I was uncharacteristically early & was ready to go on 1832Kz ahead of my alerted time. I put out a couple of calls, which raised Mike G4BLH in Nelson who kindly spotted me. I was called by Frank G3RMD who was easy copy, but sadly my several replies with 5 Watts were just not enough to make it to Cheltenham.

I waited for quite a while for John GO0OOO/P to appear, & finally when he did he was a very good signal in the relative quiet of the summit & we worked quite easily, so that was another Top Band S2S in the bag for me & John :slight_smile:

Sunday is a popular day for local SSB / AM nets on 160m, so I tried to call in to one net, but they didn’t hear me, although their accents placed them in the midlands so not surprising really. I then carried on with various bands, but later returned to 160m where I was fortunate enough to catch the tail end of the Preston net & I was heard by Roger M0RWH, who called me in. There were only two stations left on the net, Roger & Mike G7ING who struggled to hear me with his high noise level, but after a bit of perseverance we exchanged reports. I was very pleased to have made 4 contacts on 160m, but I didn’t do a little dance this time, there were too many people about Hi!

I have been chasing using CW quite a bit & also enjoy the RSGB Club championships & Sprints, but other than for Top Band I have never really used CW on an activation. Today I gave it a go & quite enjoyed the experience, with several contacts on 3557 MHz. I was hoping to try 7032 but with only the standard 2.7KHz filter in my FT817, my ears weren’t quite up to operating in such a busy part of the spectrum. A quick check on 30m did bring in another S2S with Dave M0TUB/P on G/NP-010 Pen y ghent.

Thanks to all stations that called me & all those at the other end of the numerous S2S’s I enjoyed today.

A big thanks also to all who spotted me :slight_smile:

Thanks & best 73,

Mark GO0VOF

35

There appears to have been very little activity reaching Cheltenham today on VHF other than hearing the end of the RSGB News on 2m FM from Southampton.

However surprisingly Robert G0PEB/P on G/SE-008 was a booming signal on 70cm SSB (155Km via a cluttered North-South path at my end) and John M0VCM/P was also a good signal from G/WB-003 (95Km)

Stewart G0LGS

36

In reply to G0LGS:

Virtually NO activity on 70cm and 23cm at lunchtime on Mynydd Bodafon, Anglesey. Looks like all the action was yesterday when I was at work!

Let’s try an activity day or weekend for UHF again sometime - I’d love to give it another crack! Hope the rest of you fared better today.

73, Rob.

37

In reply to MW0DNK:

I worked 7 on 23cms FM. 2x GM 5x G. Of them 5x S2S, 1x /M station and 1x fixed. However they were all prearranged on 2m FM or 70 SSB. There again I only worked 3 on 70cms despite having upto 30W and a 6ele beam.

I think we do need a regular UHF (and up) Fun sessions and also a low band VHF session for 4m/6m/10m stations. All it needs is some to pick a weekend and publicise it. I’m guilty of not banging the drum enough for this one.

And yes, conditions didn’t seem special today.

Andy
MM0MFM

38

In reply to G0LGS:

Hi Stewart,

Tried 70cm today from G/NP-010 Pen-y-ghent. Worked Roger G4OWG, Mike G4BLH, three other stations and managed an s2s with Mark GO0VOF/P on Pendle Hill.

Bit dissapointing from almost 700m ASL.

73 Mike
2E0YYY

39

It seems Activators & Chasers have enjoyed today. I had four S2S contacts on 2M today from G/NP-004 Whernside including a nice QSO with Andy M0FMF/P who was activating G/LD-008 Blencathra.

My request earlier this year for a UHF fun day unfortunately fell on deaf ears. All the pieces of the jigsaw are there but obviously there is something not quite right. With a little more effort these VHF/UHF fun days could be excellent.

Just my two penneth.

Chris M0RSF

40

In reply to G0VOF:

Mark, I was very glad someone let you know I was there on 432.210! Many thanks indeed for the contact. I didn’t have a lot of success - fortunately Andy M(M)0FMF/P came up on Blencathra as arranged and I managed 2m FM (by accident, just happened to hear him starting up), 70cm SSB and 23cm FM with him.

The 23cm was pretty good, even with Andy down to his low power (200mW? 50mW?) he was perfectly copyable, just not fully quieting. The signal was probably better than on 70cm, though of course a 15-ele beam, though considerably smaller than the 8-ele for 70cm, probably gives a 3dB or so difference. I was sorry to have missed Karen 2E0XYL/P who I heard on 2m arranging a 23cm sked with Andy, but I didn’t find her again - it would have been good to try 23cm.

I called a lot on my alerted 70cm frequency but with no other responses; I also called on 433.5 FM but again no responses. So the hill wasn’t even qualified, though I did have some UHF fun which was the point of it - and the walk was good, even if I was nearly blown off the top.

Of course I could have sat there a bit longer with the 2m handy and qualified the summit without a lot of problems, but Tinto will be there another day. I had tried to contact Mike 2E0YYY earlier on 2m FM but he couldn’t get my call - in spite of the big collinear :wink: Sorry Mike, I didn’t hear you calling on 70cm at all.

Rob, and Andy - yes, I’d be keen to do more UHF and up sessions. A few of the “regulars” couldn’t be on today, and I’m sure we can do better. Happy to try in the winter but I’d really like to do this from Cairnharrow - not too far for me to lug up a selection of kit for more bands, and better for G / GW / GI / GD contacts.

Before too long I hope I’ll be ready for some 3cm tests as well - that’s some SOTA I’m really looking forward to trying!

Thanks to all who had a go at UHF today, here’s to the next time.

73
John GM8OTI