Just a quick heads up on my UK SOTA aspirations and thought process therein.
VHF/UHF operating - perusing the activation stats it seems 2m and 440cm FM has enjoyed success in UK (well more so that W6-land!!) and with that thought I plan on starting all my activations with VHF/UHF using a 5W Yaesu VX8 and a Slim Jim hanging from a mast. If the WX is “hostile” I might well bail after that!
HF operating - I have my KX2 and and an LNR End Fed that I will use for SSB contacts and WX permitting will always try and do an HF activation especially on last or only activation of the day.
Have fun and grab some points - the former is easy but the later is dictated by WX so we will see how well I fair.
Spotting is via whatever I can make work; text from phone, text from DeLorme inRaech, SOTAWATCH via web or 2m APRS.
Rough timetable;
Sunday May 28 - G/WB-009 (Worcestershire Beacon) - try my hand at FM as described above
Monday May 29 - G/SB-001 (Cheviot) long drive to trail head but assuming WX holds up will try this using VHF/UHF and HF
Thursday June 1 - GM/SS-286 (Lamberton Hill) - FM only and really just “association bagging” for this trip
Saturday June 4 - Wednesday June 7. G/LD visit. WX predication looks quite variable so really cant say what I’ll end up doing at this point but my “fantasy” is a bunch of point building peaks. I’ll try for 1-3 peaks per day although I might have family in tow for one of the hike days (Sunday) which might slow things up.
I have alerts up for the above which includes place holders for the more nebulous G/LD part. I hope I can nab one of the iconic 10 pointers while in G/LD.
Hope to chat with some of you over the next two weeks while enjoying unusually stunningly nice British weather.
Paul
