Re: The sudden interest in 4 metres due to the availability and price of the Wouxun rig.
Don’t forget if you use 4m from a hill and you have a beam please point it over to the east coast Scarborough direction. I have a 4m horizontally polarised yagi. The NP and SP summits are possibly workable from here even if you are QRP.
I don’t rate our chances though on a rubber duck or whip antenna and I don’t think a a 4m RSS wouldn’t fit in your rucksack unless it was in two or three pieces!
As I predicted a couple of weeks ago, the arrival of the Wouxun KG-699E will create interest on 4m activations. Sorry no 4m beam carried, vertical only and it will be an LD summit tomorrow, Pike Of Blisco, however, you never know with operating from over 700m ASL. Hopefully if the contact is made, it will be your 4m Yagi beam doing all the work… Hi!
Well I hope to be QRV at approximately 1200 hours +/- 30 mins on Pike Of Blisco, rain, hail or snow. If you are staying on Moel Famau till at least 1200 hours then I will activate on 4m first, would absolutely love the S to S contact on 4m, this would be my first. Will try to make the QRV time earlier if I can, so as not to keep you hanging around.
Will be monitoring S20 on both the ascent & decent if anyone would like to give me a call on more definate QRV timings.
Don’t worry about keeping me hanging around I will not be in a hurry!
I plan on doing 2m ssb first and then going on 4m.
I have not chased LD-024 before so I too am keen on a S2S!
After hearing the quality of TX from three stations on WOUXUN KG-699E 4M handhelds today I have to say I am impressed. Steve G1INK’s tally of 23 stations (last time I heard him) from Shining Tor (SP-004) on four metres shows there is growing interest in the band and the both the WOUXUN and Steve’s J-Pole were doing the business.
I still can’t make my mind up if I should go for the modified Icom E90 or the WOUXUN. Has anyone compared the sensitivity of the two? I suspect the WOUXUN being single band may actually win out.
Steve GW7AAV
Now monitoring 70.450 & 1297.500 as well as 145.500, 433.500, 144.300, GB3CR, 5.3985 & 3.666 most of the time.
In reply to GW7AAV:
Hi Steve My Wouxun has arrived today but not yet given it a test.Have you read Mikes (G4BLH) evaluation on summits database .Its worth a look.All the best 73 Geoff G6MZX
Unless you can get an Icom E90 real cheap buy the Wouxun.
As I’m now back on 23, is 1297.500 a recognised SOTA freq? Yes, I know it’s 23cms equivalent of 145.500 but is that the place that I should call when I’m down in G next April?
As I’m now back on 23, is 1297.500 a recognised SOTA freq?
I rarely bother to QSY Andy - I did once to 1297.550, but otherwise have stayed on the calling frequency. There isn’t exactly any QRM as contacts are a rarity.
We were testing WOUXUN KG-699E (4m - 70MHz) today on Tosc, S5/CP-013, 1021m a.s.l. We are very pleased with this little radio. ODX was 122km. We made 24 QSOs with very good reports.
In reply to GW7AAV:
Hi Steve.I tried my Wouxun on a sota yesterday.my furthest contact was MW1FGQ Flintshire from NP010 Pen-Y-ghent.This was just with rubber duck.Report was I gave him 5-9 recieved was 5-6.Thank and ATB Geoff G6MZ
I’m pleased to say it was a pleasure using my Wouxun yesterday on SP-003 and SP-006 despite the dire weather conditions on the latter summit. I was very pleased to receive excellent audio reports and to hear the excellent audio from the rig.
As Steve G1INK has demonstrated, this rig has a lot of potential for SOTA use. Maybe even more will be purchasing the rig over the coming months - I certainly hope so.
The original rubber duck antenna is very poor, not much better than a dummy load. For the best results you must have an appropriate full size antenna. I hope for some S2S QSOs this summer. :-)))
