|
This hill stands right behind Belfast as you sail into the city from the
Irish Sea. The crossing from Birkenhead on Norfolk Line ferries was very smooth,
and accompanied by a hearty evening meal, a comfortable bed and a full cooked
breakfast. What a way to travel! My last visit here in 2005 was just a few weeks prior to it being opened up
to the public under the National Trust umbrella, so prior permission was
required, and obtained. This time, Thursday 27th March 2008, it was a much simpler job of following
Jimmy's faultless co-driver navigating, and parking up at the National Trust car
park on Divis Road. At 0901 UTC, I called "QRL?" on 3.557MHz CW, to be immediately greeted by a
"GM de G3CWI". So Richard got the first contact of the tour, and it was
certainly one that kicked off an excellent, enjoyable and highly successful five
days. After Roger G4OWG was worked at 0916 UTC, it appeared I had cleared the
pile-up, and so it was time to test the all-important strategy we had been
preparing. Could Jimmy make himself reliably heard on HF QRP without using morse?
It seemed the answer was 80m SSB, and that's what I had been practising in the
weeks and days leading up to the GI trip. I sent "QSY 3.660 SSB", something that became commonplace at the end of my CW
pile-ups. We tuned to 3.660, but found it to be in heavy use. However, 3.659MHz
seemed viable, so I suggested to Jimmy that he call there repeatedly, and
hopefully someone would find him. Within only a minute, he was found, G3CWI
providing Jimmy with his first contact of the trip as well as mine. Richard
advised that John GW4BVE/P and Pete MW0COP/P were activating GW/SW-007 on
3.667MHz, so we quickly QSYd there and got the S2S contacts. Returning to 3.659MHz, Jimmy completed a further four QSOs, and myself
another two. Graham G4JZF was heard calling, but QSB got in the way of a
successful two-way exchange, so that one got away. The first activation in
GI-land had gone like a dream, and we were soon enthusiastically walking down
the long access track back to the car, and still confident of at least three
activations on our opening day.
|
|