Having felt the need to bag a couple of multipliers for the 12m challenge, I was torn between heading South to the G/WBs or North to G/SPs. As part of my job I go in to work at 0900 gmt every Saturday to take the weather readings – hence why I normally activate on Sundays, however I`ve had to cover the last 3 Sundays as well which means a later than normal start for SOTA activities. After some thought I decided on the Clee Hills pair & duly programmed the garmin-nav. A litre flask of Muligatawny soup was prepared (never heard of it before I went in the army), everything was stowed in the car so I could get on the road directly after doing the weather.
Just after passing Stoke on Trent I thought Id try some soup – oh oh! No soup, Id left it at home. Never mind Id look out for a burger van on the way. As it happened we didnt pass any food vans at all so I decided to drive past Brown Clee to go to the Cleobury café in Cleobury Mortimer for an all day breakfast. After consulting the menu I saw they did a London House Triple Belt Buster breakfast, 3 of everything and unlimited toast & tea or coffee. I wouldn`t normally go for that sort of thing, but the statement in brackets – “If you dare” was like a red rag to a bull & I ordered one. 20 minutes later and the waitress was taken back when I ordered a slice of chocolate fudge cake.
Anyway back to radio stuff, I parked on a wide junction to the West of the summit of Brown Clee, G/WB-002 & followed the track all the way to the summit, half riding & half pushing the mountain bike wondering if it was worth the hassle (it was definitely worth it for the descent). I set up a decent distance away from the commercial transmitters to avoid any breakthrough. I operated only 12m from this summit which netted 22 contacts including a s2s with Jacob M/DK3CW/P on Kinder Scout. Jacob was quite weak with me but gave me a 5/9 report. He went on to explain that a National Park Ranger had warned him not to erect his usual antenna so he was using some wire about a metre above ground. Now the fun bit – 5 minutes on the bike back to the car.
G/WB-004 Titterstone Clee Hill was next. I parked as near as possible to the trivial 5 minute walk to this summit. Once the 12m dipole was set up I switched on the ft857 which was still on 24.950 & heard Larry K1IED in Connecticut cqing at s9 + 30. I worked him first call & understood why he was so loud when I checked his qrz.com entry. A quick check around the band found Jacob still cqing on Kinder so another s2s was had. 23 contacts on 12m & 13 contacts on 17m. I had a last listen on 12m & heard CX3AT & PY2CX calling but I resisted the temptation to join their pileups.
As it was reasonably early I put Long Mynd G/WB-005 in the garmin-nav and made short work of the 22 mile drive. I parked in the car park just South of the summit which I reckon is in the activation zone & walked to 400m or so to the Trigpoint & topograph. I self spotted & only worked 5 contacts on 12m, one of which was CX3AT who was a bit of a struggle but we exchanged c/s & signal reports so I`ll claim it.
An uneventful 80 mile drive home was punctuated by stopping at Tikka Villa in Buxton for a take home curry which was eaten whilst watching Huddersfield beat Wigan at proper rugby. Thanks to all chasers who called in.
Brilliant Steve. I had to keep checking the username at the top to confirm it wasn’t one of my old reports.
Now you never mentioned what happened to the mulligatawny soup in the end. I once left mine at home on a Saturday activation day, and ended up having it for lunch at work on the Monday - still piping hot!
I might need to go down the SatNav route. Without a map reader sat beside me in the car, I am making hard work of navigating between parking spots and wasting too much time.
You’re doing better than me with the more exotic stations on 12m Steve. 12m was quite busy with plenty of Europeans ranging from PA to S5. But better still was getting some local ground wave chasers. I’ve been jealous of people like Tom who have some regular ground wave contacts but I now see Messrs. Ken GM0AXY and Jack GM4COX are starting to appear in my log. regularly This Sunday I managed 4x GM on 12m, Ken, Jack, Rob GM3YTS and Paul GM0BKC. It’s also nice to see some new blood in GM with Rob and Paul both going out activating as well as chasing. Now if only I can arrange for these 4 to chase me on every 12m activation I can start to garner a decent score in the challenge!
I’m not sure I could manage an activation after a belt buster cooked breakfast. Never mind a chocolate cake chaser. I do enjoy the works when staying away, but I’ve found I’m much better from a sustenance point of view with porridge for breakfast. Best with chopped dried dates and figs. I can recommend the Walnut and Date cake in the tea room on Shining Tor near the Cat & Fiddle, Steve. They do many other cakes and their tea and coffee is top notch too. Buy some cake and you can leave your car there whilst activating SP-004. A deal that is too good to miss. Yes I know I could have a pint of something at the pub but for us who shouldn’t eat cake, the cake and a walk is better than a drink and a walk.
I do enjoy the works
when staying away, but I’ve found I’m much better from a sustenance
point of view with porridge for breakfast. Best with chopped dried
dates and figs.
I have listened a few times when a G or GW pop’s up on SOTAWATCH for 12mts but I think I’m kidding myself for Ground-wave as I’m not close enough for any area except DC summits from my QTH. For GM 12mt contacts by sky wave have possibilities if they’re in the far north but otherwise doubtful.
So for me the 12mt challenge is definitely a challenge although I’m looking forward to a UK contact on this band one day perhaps.
Well I worked Les G3VQO on 12m CW via some form of sky wave yesterday, he was a big signal too. Not sure if it was uber short skip Es or backscatter, but Les’ signal was very clean and normally backscatter signals are a bit thin and wishy-washy sounding.
I don’t have any trouble walking on top of a belly buster cooked breakfast Andy. However, I struggled like hell last night on Shining Tor following a Weston Balti Raj take-away. The ascent, activation and descent were all accompanied by painful indigestion and heartburn. Lesson learned.
Yes Andy I forgot about back scatter. Need to point the beam away from the DX/summit of course. With the meteor shower today might be a good time. I spoke too soon about the challenge as I’ve worked 5 stations including both Peter and Inge in ‘I’ on 12mts so far today. Conditions good is it E or F2 propagation I wonder?
Conditions good is it E or F2 propagation I wonder?
I have heard a very few stations working today’s spotted 12 metres SOTA activators, but not heard any of the activators well enough to work them, even the instant I see a spot saying “Loud in Cornwall”. My money’s on it being E.
In reply to G1INK:
Thanks very much for the two S2S contacts on 12m, Steve.
I was told by a patrolling Ranger, that a large antenna setup, which is fixed to the ground for example by guying ropes (I tried to erect a 10m GFK pole, as I usually do) requires a special permission by the National Trust bureau. The reason for this requirement are ownership claims. These are different on each summit. This is why, a ranger on top of the Black Hill (G/SP-002) has’nt protested against my 10m GFK pole. Quite the contrary, she was interested in amateur radio and we’ve had a short conversation about RF Comms in general. The ranger on top of the Kinder scout told me, that the ownership situation on Black Hill could be different, why no permission was required.
The ranger allowed me to erect a small vertical antenna or fixing the pole on my backpack instead on the ground by using guying ropes. The second solution was’nt practicable due to heavy wind gusts. The permission is’nt needed for the large pole in general, but for fixing a large pole to the ground.
I used a 10m end-fed longwire 1m above the ground, fixed between two stones for HF (12m) and a ATX 1080 MK2 (vertical 80m-70cm) for 2m SSB. Anyway, I got HB9MKV via sky wave among other stations from the UK over groundwave on 12m.
12m was a quite profitable band for me during the activation of Black Hill the day before Kinder Scout. I made 17 QSOs on 12m SSB, mostly with European continent, especially spain (6 QSOs) including 4 S2S contacts (YO6PIB/P, OK2BDF/P, G4ASA/P, EC2AG/P). Antenna was a 10m vertical end-fed longwire + radial.
On International SOTA Weekend 2009, I was approached by no less than three different sets of rangers during my activation on Kinder Scout G/SP-001. I had several antennas set up at the time, and was jointly activating with M0GIA and M0HGY (then M3EYP). The rangers were all just genuinely interested in what we were doing, and all left us content for us to continue the activity.
Seems the exception rather than the rule that restrictions are imposed by a patrolling ranger, but of course when this happens, you must comply!
We had 40m and 80m halfwave dipoles on one pole, and a groundplane vertical for the higher bands on another. Also there was a SOTA Beam set up on a WASP Special kit and trekking pole.
