Curious to know if the contest this weekend is strictly CW only, the last “WW” contest consumed almost all of the non WARC bands …
Jonathan.
Yes, CW only. There will be lots of CW stations on but the collateral damage to non-contesting SSB stations is less than when CQWW SSB takes place.
Good stuff, thank you Andy.
Hello Jonathan,
Thanks for the summit today.
I just see that Richard G3CWI/P & Tom M1EYP/P are tapping away on the higher bands. They should have a good tally with the CW contest on.
Mike
Edit:1725Z-10M wide open to NA. Wkd a number - heard here at 58-59 - strange band…
Hi Jonathan, both myself and GI4SRQ were calling you today on 145.550 but unfortunately you couldn’t hear us, you were a good 53 to 55 with both of us so not sure what was going on.
Ah well there’s always the next time, hopefully!
73
Victor GI4ONL
Hi Victor,
I also called Jonathan on 145.550 & was not heard. I mentioned this to him when I worked him on 40m SSB & he said he was quite new to 2m FM & would remember to open his Squelch a bit more next time.
Thanks & best 73,
Mark G0VOF
W7JET in Georgia W4G/CE-001 getting into Yorkshire very well this evening - logged at 1740z on 14094.5. MHz CW Rules OK!
Best Chaser QSO though of the day - OE7FMJ/P Franz on OE/TI-298 for a SOTA Complete.
73 Phil
Hello Mark, Victor,
Just got back !, I think the main problem was with the mountain directly in front of me - Carnedd Llewelyn, I had to side step away from the summit peak - only slightly better. The squelch wasn’t set particularly high, I was disabling it at times to check for marginal signals. I was using a homebrew slim JIM, which is much better then the duck obviously.
Pretty new to VHF, I have an electric handbag to repair here which does SSB too it may have a better receiver then the Baofeng handheld. I would be interested to hear your recommendations, I seemed to be getting out OK.
Homebrew worked brilliantly on HF, I am about to build MKII.
Need to keep up with the CW practice though, starting to feel there is a new world to explore here.
Jonathan
Ah perhaps you have just identified the problem…I had one of those and it was stone deaf on VHF, it worked fine on 70cms but was next to useless on 2M.
73
Victor GI4ONL
The handbag will have a better receiver. They could hear you well (53-55) you couldn’t hear them. The mountain was not the issue. So my advice for the Baofeng… if you have no morals, sell it to some sucker^Wbuyer on eBay. If you have morals, scrap it! There are some good Chinese own brand handhelds.
10mins a day every day. Don’t over do it. Up the speed when you get to about 75-80% correct.
Point taken - It was the first time I had used it in anger, I do apologize for the deafness. First time I had actually bought a " new" radio as it happens. I often believe owning commercial exciters is rather pointless in the self-education part of the license is significantly suppressed otherwise - that is why I try to build everything even if the economy doesn’t add up. But for £23 and to try VHF it seemed too good to miss.
I think the FT-290 will have to go on the bench this week, from what I remember it has a fault with the Audio, not one that I induced I must say I was given it.
Jonathan.
The audio output IC releases its “magic smoke” very easily. A common fault.
Hi Jonathan,
You were a good 53 & quite readable here in Blackburn with about 4 Watts from your Baofeng, yet my 50 Watts into an antenna with similar gain to yours didn’t register at your end.
I also own a Baofeng (UV5-R) & whilst it has limitations I have been quite pleased with its performance for the price. It isn’t a Yaesu / Icom / Kenwood, but for the price I paid I am not complaining. For what it does, £20 was a bargain!
If you can resurrect your FT290 you will have a very capable 2m radio, with a proper squelch control & great immunity from strong local commercial signals which make handhelds un-usable on certain summits. (G/SP-017 & GW/NW-070 (I think) are two that spring to mind).
Edited to add a link to this video showing what I mean about problems with strong"commercial signals".
Nice to hear you are progressing with Morse, if you would like some on the air practice at any time let me know. I’m quite comfortable with short exchanges at any speed but I really want to be comfortable rag-chewing properly. It would be practice for both of us 
My email address is mark@brownhill.demon.co.uk
Thanks for the contact & very best 73,
Mark G0VOF
Contests are a great way to test a new antenna.
I set up in the back yard with the HB-1B @ 5w on 40m after dark and got answers from JA and EA9 ZM VE .
Not to take part in the contest as such but to see who would answer me. 20m I got a couple JA’s and a couple JA’s and a SP on the new 15/17 link dipole I made up to add to my kit of antennas, with SOTA beams new 20/30/40 link dipole I now have my most used bands on two antennas . the kx3 got a run on 15/17 m.
Pity the HB-1B did not work from 40 to 15 m and forget about 80m.
73 de Ian vk5cz …
I think this thread will need a different subject before much longer it has gone from a simple question referring to this weekends CW contest, then to a recent activation, and now side tracked onto antennas. Probably best if a new thread is created Ian.
Andy, I think your right about the Audio IC. It may be the limiting diode across it yet but its around that area.
Mark, thank you very much, I need to do more on air listening, not familiar enough with the extended Q codes yet or some of the K N etc instructions that some people use. I am getting better though - using a program called “just learn CW”. It is such a beautiful thing though. I am keen to accomplish it.
Meanwhile here is a photo taken around 1/4 of the way down from Y Garn. I thought the sky was beautiful in the summer, but by god was it good this weekend !
Overlooking Anglesey
Tryfan
Jonathan
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Well my point was the cw contest is a good opportunity to test an antenna that’s all, lots more opportunities to be heard by someone on cw for a change.
Its relevant to the topic IMHO
Sorry if I disrupted your topic.
ian vk5cz …
[quote=“VK5CZ, post:16, topic:9801”]lots more opportunities to be heard by someone on cw[/quote]I guess so. My approach to antenna testing with CW is to pick a quiet time and make use of RBN, but that does rely on having enough folk running skimmers within radio-earshot on the bands in question, and VK’s a little short of those at present.
73, Rick M0LEP
It certainly is Ian. It’s also a good chance to work some exotica too. Of course one man’s exotica is someone else’s local QRM but such is life. I was intending to do just that this weekend but when I saw where the good WX was forecast and found a couple of wee summits and saw one hadn’t been on for 4+ years and the other for 15months I thought it was better to offer those summits to dedicated SOTA chasers (on 17m free from QRM) than just boost my exotica count. It seemed silly to travel some distance for some uniques for me and be selfish to the dedicated chasers. If I just wanted exotica on the contest I could have nipped up a local summit that is regularly activated
Whilst you’ll no doubt work many stations during a contest, I find it tells you little about the antenna!
As 5NN is the only report you get, that can mean anything from end stopping to barely above the noise.
At least SOTA chasers are, on the whole, fairly honest with their signal reports.
How many times have you ever received 219 in a contest (other than as a serial #)!
For me it’s RBN and recording myself on various WebSDRs.
Pete 
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