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Old Reflector
81

On Friday 10th June 2011, I decided to wheel out the 18MHz groundplane (MM17) aerial. I arrived on the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 fairly early, but soon hit problems. As soon as I got the MM17 out of the rucksack, the radials broke away from the feeder and driven element. I twisted these back together as best I could, and used an extra cable tie to secure all this to the pole in such a way as to avoid strain on the repaired bit.

Somewhat amazingly, the pole was guyed vertically without problems, and the SWR indicated was flat. But so was the 17m band. After working Mark G0VOF, there was a long silence before 9A8W and OM5TF were added. But that was the lot on HF. There was still a good result in there, for G0VOF was my first G station on 18MHz CW so far this year - so another point for the G3WGV UK CW Table.

GW7AAV and 2E0LVO/M were added to the lg on 2m FM before I descended and went to work.

73, Tom M1EYP

82

On Saturday 11th June 2011, it was a return to Gun G/SP-013, which unlike The Cloud G/SP-015, is within a WFF area - GFF-014. I was awake by 4.20am BST, so decided to go and have a play.

The weather was lovely with bright clear views and only a breath of wind. It was rather chilly though. It was a return to 20m, and a productive activation of 1 hour 51 minutes saw 108 QSOs entered into the log - so the clock just about beat me! Best DX was JA, worked at 0627z.

I couldn’t stop any longer, for I had to be home by 9am for Liam’s birthday trip to Waterworld - which is where we are about to head right now! I will be a little tired by this evening!

Tom M1EYP

83

Things were getting silly by Sunday 12th June 2011. This time I was awake by 3.15am BST, chillingly confirmed by my shack clock downstairs as, in reality, 0215z. With an extra hour to play with, I added the 40m dipole to the rucksack, and added 7.032-cw to my alert.

At least the fitness is paying dividends. I skipped up to the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 and barely felt or noticed it. The 40m and 30m dipoles were hung from the same pole at right-angles to each other. I sat down by the topograph and set the radio side up.

The activation comprised 25 contacts, 15 on 30m CW and 10 on 40m CW. The highlight came at 0554z when after 16 minutes of calling in the pile-up, I worked YN2GA (Nicaragua) on 10.104MHz split. That was a brand new DXCC for me, and made the whole outing most worthwhile.

It was, as always, nice to be called by several of the stalwart SOTA chasers.

Tom M1EYP

84

The problem with going to bed early is that you get up early - too early! But once awake at 0250z on Monday 13th June 2011, my mind was soon focused on an early morning walk and possibly some DX, rather than drifting back off to sleep for another three hours.

A bowl of coco pops later and I was on the road in fine drizzle. This was still coming down, and slightly worsening as I arrived on Cloudside at 5.30am BST, so I donned waterproof overtrousers for the ascent. The walk to the summit is becoming quicker and less noticeable as my fitness continues to improve. The view across the Cheshire Plain was dramatic, as visibility was good, but yet a dark and menacing ceiling of cloud threatened from above.

I had selected the 20m vertical antenna for the activation, and after setting it up, I huddled down inside my bothy bag as the drizzle persisted. I was having a nosy around the band to find a suitable frequency when I heard something with a ‘V’ in it. Further monitoring identified the calling station as VP5/W5CW. When I called in, I got him first time, 599 both ways, so that was a nice bit of DX to open proceedings.

Nearby, I then heard XE2SQI at 579, but he didn’t hear me, or anyone else in the fast-growing pile-up that wanted to work him! When the pile-up became a wall, and the XE2 was still calling CQ and not hearing anyone, I decided that the chances of me working him were virtually non-existent.

I worked Ranko 4O3A (a station that many of us would envy - 4O3A Signature - Home ) before settling on my own QRG. I finished with 43 QSOs, including four at the end on 2m and 70cm FM. I enjoyed a good chat with Dave M0TUB and was delighted to learn that he had now done 39 SOTA activations since my club talk at Warrington ARS. Richard G3CWI/M and Graham GW0HUS were also on frequency as the social conversation became more repeater style (in the best sense, naturally) than SOTA style.

Tom M1EYP

85

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom
Thanks for the chat & the point from the Cloud this morning.
I nipped off later on in the morning to Burnley to conquer the last of my G/SPs, Boulsworth Hill 008. Karen 2E0XYL was awaiting my arrival to complete her G/SP chasing collection successfully too.
So now it’s 40 hi hi
Onwards and upwards
regards
Dave

86

My 23rd consecutive day of SOTA activating coincided with the 70cm session in the RSGB UK Activity Contests on Tuesday 14th June 2011. I had some extra time to play with so decided to do some 20m CW for 45 minutes or so before the contest began. Alas it was not to be. Not only did I manage to snap a radial off my aerial, but there was no interest in my CQ calls anyway.

So it was back to Plan A, and the 6 element SOTA Beam for 70cm. It was a reasonable night with lower activity than the previous month, but yet more multiplier squares worked. Conditions on the summit were mild and still, but operating was difficult when about 50 very noisy runners arrived at about 9pm. They excitedly shouted and yelled through their seemingly never-ending photo-shoot at the trig point and I was glad to see the back of them!

A couple of highlights of the activation were S2S contacts with other SOTA stations taking part in the contest. These were Matt M3WDS/P on Cleeve Hill G/CE-001 and Robert GM4GUF/P on Tinto GM/SS-064. DXCCs worked on 70cm tonight were G, GM, GW, GI and GD. The final total was 64 QSOs and 13 multipliers, with 62 on 70cm SSB and two on 70cm FM.

In keeping with my current health kick, I swerved the Harrington Arms and drove straight home, entered my contest log and went to bed.

Tom M1EYP

87

Getting up at 6.15am after 4.75 hours of sleep on Wednesday 15th June 2011, was challenging! But I remain determined to persist with my regime, even if the back-to-back scheduling of the Tuesday night contests with the early morning Wednesday activations does test it to the limit!

The original plan was for 20m CW, but with that aerial now requiring attention, a late change to 40m CW was made. An unremarkable 11 minutes saw five QSOs enter the logbook, with stations from S5, OE, DL and F. Nobody walked over the summit during my activation, and nobody replied to my CQ calls on 2m or 70cm FM.

Tom M1EYP

88

In reply to M1EYP:

It was a night for runners everywhere Tom! During my brief visit to SE-002, a group of around ten guys arrived, apparently half-way through their sixteen-mile run through the Surrey countryside. They didn’t stay long, and the normally-busy summit had just a few visitors as dusk approached. With my FT-817 and a whip antenna, orientated horizontally, I worked four stations in the contest (all I could actually hear) in three different squares. Then it was home for a well-deserved beer.

73 de Les, G3VQO

89

In reply to M1EYP:

Getting up at 6.15am after 4.75 hours of sleep on Wednesday 15th June
2011, was challenging! But I remain determined to persist with my
regime, even if the back-to-back scheduling of the Tuesday night
contests with the early morning Wednesday activations does test it to
the limit!

The word “obsession” comes to mind, Tom! :slight_smile:

Many thanks for the contest QSO on Tuesday evening. You soundly beat me in the contest with your QRP … well done! I cannot compete with The Cloud as a VHF/UHF location.

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

90

In reply to G3NYY and G3VQO:

Walt,

I cannot compete with The Cloud as a VHF/UHF location…

Except that only 3 weeks have passed since you DID beat me!

In contrast to that rebuttal, I am entering a plea of ‘guilty’ to the “obsession” charge. With 1097 activations submitted to the SOTA Database, including 424 of G/SP-015, any other plea would be laughed out of court.

Les,

There are always runners on The Cloud on a Tuesday night. Except that they are normally in groups of 2 or 3, quiet, and spend no more than two minutes at the summit. This was a group of about 50, made a total din, and in my judgement rather outstayed their welcome :wink:

Tom M1EYP

91

Now tomorrow morning should be interesting. I have repaired my broken 20m SOTA antenna. All by myself. I haven’t been round to G3CWI’s and I haven’t been round to M0GIA’s. I didn’t even destroy anything with my soldering iron. All good so far. But will it work? Join me from 0545z, Thursday morning, 20m CW to find out.

Tom M1EYP (the most unpractical radio amateur ever)

92

In reply to G3NYY:

Many thanks for the contest QSO on Tuesday evening. You soundly beat
me in the contest with your QRP … well done! I cannot compete with
The Cloud as a VHF/UHF location.

Says it all really, Walt. The Cloud as a VHF/UHF location almost defies belief. It’s very nearly on par with Shining Tor, which is an astonishing 216m higher than The Cloud. It’s no shrinking violet on the higher HF bands either. If HF conditions were just half decent, I’d be up there like a shot, working the 15m band with me old Antron 99 CB antenna.

73
Mike 2E0YYY

93

I don’t know whether conditions were half decent or not on the morning of Thursday 16th June 2011, but 20m CW seems to work regardless! Driving through Gawsworth and North Rode, I was more concerned as to whether my aerial repair would be effective. Had I taken enough care to avoid shorting the antenna?

A light drizzle just started as I arrived on summit, but action required was no more than putting my hood up on my coat and laying the Exped Drybag over the top of the 817. The antenna repair was effective in terms of structure and strength, and the vertical was soon standing upright with no strain on the repaired section.

Turning the radio on revealed a lively sounding 20m band, and a nudge of the paddle indicated flat SWR. I was happy! I was even happier when my first contact was a regular SOTA chaser - Mike DJ5AV - responding to my self-spot, and two minutes later when a pile-up formed in my honour! A couple of times I was asked “REF WFF?”, to which I replied “NO WFF SRI, HR SOTA” - but the callers concerned still worked me anyway.

An activation of 53 minutes returned 57 contacts, all on 20m CW, and the best DX was K6VVA in California. I had operated until 7.54am BST, so there was no time for calling on VHF prior to descent. A pleasing activation, and the conditions were certainly good enough for 20m.

Tom M1EYP

94

I was up mega-early at 4.45am on Friday 17th June 2011, but decided to put that time to good use as extra activating time. But maybe the radio amateurs out there are getting a little bored of me on 20m CW now. Although I operated for 101 minutes compared to 53 minutes the previous day, I made exactly the sam number of contacts - 57. But this time three of those were on 2m FM.

All good fun nonetheless, and I will persist with 20m CW as I reacquaint myself with the WFF crowd from Gun G/SP-013 on Saturday morning.

Tom M1EYP

95

I was up giga-early at 4.00am on Saturday 18th June 2011, and set off to activate Gun G/SP-013 via a bowl of Coco Pops. It was a bit breezy at the summit, and the best shelter was on the face of the trig point that affords the least comfortable sitting position.

QRV on 20m CW, it turned out to be a quiet morning. Laci HA7UG was there as usual, but the other SOTA chasers or WFF collectors were not. After a slow-going 22 QSOs on 20m CW, I took the antenna down and replaced it with the 40m dipole. This garnered 23 QSOs on 40m CW, but none on 15m CW. Some interesting contest calls were heard on the latter, but try as I might, ZC4 and 3V did not hear me. Neither did Norby DL/LX1NO/P for a S2S on 40m, so that one will have to go in the SWL log.

I was back at home, as intended, at 8.55am BST. Weird to be feeling disappointed with 45 QSOs all before 0700 UTC!

Thanks for the contacts. BTW, I keep winning all these votes with a vote of one, of my own, at present. I will continue to do so, because I only do requests when I am asked.

Tom M1EYP

96

Up at 4am on Sunday 19th June 2011, and out promptly after a couple of rounds of toast. Sadly, the rain intensified throughout my drive from Merebrook Road to the lay-by above Meerbrook village. So I donned full waterproofs, and thenset about the pleasant early morning stroll to the summit, noticing that the rain was drying up gradually.

It was quite windy right on the summit, but with a dipole rather than a vertical to deploy, there was no compulsion to remain by the trig. I dropped between the tree and bush that was the EYP-GIA campsite for International SOTA Weekend 2010. Attempts to send a spot via Spotlite failed from my position; I really must get that text number for SMS Spot and put it back in my 'phone! (Hmmm, just checked, and I think it is in there, just that I haven’t labelled it with something sensibly obvious!).

In any case, I doubted it would take long to be found if I mentioned WFF GFF-014 (Peak District) in my calls as well as SOTA G/SP-013 (Gun), and sure enough, the first QSO was made with UA3U at 0429 on 10.108MHz CW. I am now looking at the Russian prefixes more critically after learning (yesterday) that there are now callsigns with the numbers 2, 8, 9 and 0 issued to stations in European Russia, and that they do not necessarily indicate Kaliningrad or Asiatic Russia! How irritating!

Within ten minutes, I had worked RU2FZ, a station located in Kaliningrad! In just over half an hour, I had worked 18 stations on 30m CW, but then things went quiet. I listened across the 10m band, which sort of works on the 30m aerial, but nothing doing. However, a few strong contest stations could be heard on the 6m band. I worked two of them, both in nearby IO82 on 50MHz SSB. Also heard was GJ6YB/P, but they couldn’t hear me!

I was just about to revert to 30m CW when the SLAB ran out of juice and the rain restarted. So at the unexpectedly early time of 6.20am, I found myself packing away. Calls on 2m FM at the trig point did not elicit a response, so I descended and decided to add an item to the itinerary.

With a good 2.5 hour window remaining before I needed to be home, I decided to drive across to The Cloud G/SP-015 and take a walk up there. This time, I left the rucksack in the car and just took the VX7 handheld, and waterproof logbook in my coat pocket. It was raining again as I commenced the walk, but eased again as I entered the NT area.

Of course, with just the handie, there was no back-up in case of no replies, so I was pleased when Graham GW0HUS, Halkyn Mountain came back to my very first call. He was followed by Phil G4SCY in Stoke-on-Trent, so it was 2 on 2 on my 2nd summit of the morning. Nobody else was about, so I descended, and I was still home before 8am, after activating two summits!

73, Tom M1EYP

97

In reply to M1EYP:

You wrote:

I had worked RU2FZ, and indeed, this station is located in European Russia,
not Kaliningrad.

I think you’ll find he IS in Kaliningrad!

RU2FZ, Vladimir V. Grachev,
236018 Kaliningrad,
ul. Tolstikova 18-105
Russia

:slight_smile:

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

98

Thanks for that Walt. The note on page 1 of the latest ‘Monitor’ implies that the RU2 prefix is for European Russia, as distinct from Kaliningrad. Seems it is even more confusing than I feared.

Tom M1EYP

99

In reply to M1EYP:

Thanks for that Walt. The note on page 1 of the latest ‘Monitor’
implies that the RU2 prefix is for European Russia, as distinct from
Kaliningrad. Seems it is even more confusing than I feared.

I know. It seems they are going the same way as the Americans did some 20 years ago! It used to be a sensible “call area” system in the USA, when the numeral in the callsign gave you a reasonable clue as to the station’s location. Now you have KL7’s in Massachusetts and KH6’s in Texas. What a mess!

73,
Walt (G3NYY)

P.S. Did you hear the zoo on 6m this weekend? You didn’t stand a chance with less than a kilowatt and a ten-element stacked array. I was running 100 watts to a delta loop and getting 51 and 52 reports from G portables who were 20 dB over S9 with me. I DID work GJ6YB/P, though! :wink:

100

In reply to G3NYY:

Did you hear the zoo on 6m this weekend?

I lost interest, to a large part, in 6m when the power limit was changed to 400W from the old ERP limits. There always were people running over the odds, (always have been and always will be) but most people were around 100Werp and everyone stood a chance. I can remember a big gun dxer (from Blackpool) telling me he had a 5ele Tonna and a 25W PA. When I pointed out that was 4dbW over the limit he decided sheepishly it must be a 10W PA. I mean, if you are going to cheat, be bright enough to know how not to give the game away yourself. It’s just the same with the people who cheat at SOTA not being aware their cheating stands out like a sore thumb.

However, now I can just about string an exchange together with the old brass bashing technology I might be tempted to have a sniff about the bottom end of 6m and leave the baying loonies to the SSB portion.

Andy
MM0FMF