Every so often someone posts on here that they left some vital component in their car or back at home. I think what amateurs! I’d never do something like that. Well on Saturday I got to the summit of Whernside G/NP-004 and took out all the kit from my rucksack only to find there was no pole. What an idiot!
Initially thinking it was going to be a disaster I wasn’t going to give up so I strung my EFHW wire between my two walking poles. The wire was no more than about a metre above the ground and dipped a lot in the middle. I started on 20m CW and was pleased to see an RBNHole spot almost immediately. I had 12 QSOs in as many minutes. Every time there was a new call or when I got a 579 signal report there was a big smile on my face.
I also got a few S2S QSOs on 20/30/40m but my CQ on 30m didn’t get a spot from RBNHole. I normally start my activations on 30m and it was only by chance that I started on 20m. I might have been disheartened if I had tried 30m first and got no response.
I also had my FT-65 with a long whip and I had a number of S2S including into Scotland and Wales as well as a few to neighbouring summits.
This was the first day in a few weeks with glorious sunshine after almost nothing but rain and gloom. Everybody else had the same idea to be out and Whernside, which is always a popular summit (Yorkshire’s highest and one of the Yorkshire Three Peaks), felt like Piccadilly Circus at times.
Don’t feel too bad Richard – it’s bound to happen if you activate often enough. I too rarely screw up but my worst case was leaving my correctly-packed rucksack in the conservatory, failing to transfer it to the car due to some last-minute distraction. I noticed the problem only shortly before shoving loads of coins into the pay-and-display machine at the parking for the walk up.
For a horizontal EFHW one reads that the optimum height for 50-ohm matching using a standard 49:1 transformer is generally 0.25 to 0.5 wavelengths above the ground. Clearly, your walking poles are not that long. Okay, so there’s some loss of RF power into the ground but not so bad that one can’t get and give good signal reports. And for NVIS on the lower bands (e.g. 60m) it’s actually an advantage (but probably higher than walking pole height).
I think that’s what happened. Due to recent snow and below zero temperatures I decided to take my microspikes. I had to find them and check they fitted my new boots. And I had to remember how to actually fit them to boots. I’ve carried them a few times but have never needed them. Of course I didn’t need them on Whernside although there were a few icy bits mostly where streams cross the path, but they weren’t too hard to avoid. I think dealing with them just broke the normal flow of getting everything in the pack.
I’m activating Pendle Hill G/SP-005 tomorrow and I have checked that the pole is in the rucksack at least 3 times. Hopefully I haven’t forgotten something else.
Needless to say, on Schehallion I got allot of attention. I am sure it was just people checking that it wasn’t wearing socks. + ….. That would have been terrible.
I sometimes have dreams where I’m walking or running outdoors barefooted but I presume you mean they were wearing inappropriate footwear.
I learnt this lesson first in the 80’s when, as a member of the Motorola (East Kilbride) walking club, our team leader decided we had to abandon our ascent of Ben Nevis (half way up) as weather conditions had worsened. On the way down the sleet started blowing horizontally and I was glad I was wearing my full winter clothes. We met a young couple going up wearing pullovers (no coats) and light shoes. I think the team leader gave them a good talking to.
I’ve done one better and left boots behind, polished and waxed at the front door. With sticks too. I only realised about an hour later. I ended up purchasing replacements en route.
Pole-free activation has become my default for work trips where work gear + radio gear = too much gear. There is generally a boulder or slope to hang a sloper off, or a pair or rocks or a gully to string a cloud-burner across.
Compromised setups but less of a compromise than leaving the radio at home because it’s all too much weight to carry. And not one failure to qualify so far with that setup.
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On boots - I did manage to turn up to work 4hrs from home with a pair consisting of two left feet once. Thankfully the boss used the same size and wasn’t intending on doing any actual work himself.
I also listened to a (govt) repeater qso where a Dept of Conservation Kyoto-carbon-monitoring ranger had to get a chopper to bring his pair of boots in having flown in for a multy-day remote off-track backcountry stint with just his camp-shoes. The local Visitor Centre radio is also tuned to that repeater, so I suspect I wasn’t the only one to chuckle at his misfortune.
….. That would have been terrible.
