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So, with M1EYP's EA8 set-up verified as functioning correctly, it was time to attend to that of M0HGY. "Will you test it for me dad? It's too cold for me to go out" he asked. Bless, little lad was only 22. Anyway, that gave me an excuse to go out again on an otherwise "nothing" Saturday - Marianne and Liam were at the X Factor Tour in Manchester, Macclesfield Town didn't have a game, and I didn't have a gig. It looked like there was a decent break in the weather mid-afternoon on Saturday 21st February 2015 - on the Met Office forecast at least. It wasn't bad, but was more eventful than expected! I parked in the usual spot opposite the main path up to Gun G/SP-013, then plodded through the gunge to the summit.
I set up the end fed wire antenna on mini pole as usual, and was about to connect it to Jimmy's FT-817 - which for some reason I seemed to recall had a problem on HF, even though it was fine on his usual 2m. However, my attention was drawn to a distinctive opaque wall to the north west of me, contrasting sharply with the crystal clear blue skies and sunshine elsewhere. As the wall advanced, and I began to feel a few pings on my cheek, I quickly got inside my bothy bag before considering my next move. A very heavy hail shower followed, and I decided to sit it out and wait before connecting the radio to the antenna. Ten minutes later, I was on air, and everything seemed fine with the 817's receive on HF SSB at least. I found the WAB net on 7.161MHz SSB and called in to offer SJ96 and the trigpoint TP3538. I did also mention the SOTA reference G/SP-013, but nobody on frequency seemed particularly interested in that.
It was a struggle with constant heavy QRM from EA stations on very close frequencies, but I did manage to successfully work six on the WAB net. I then retuned the ATU and the 817 for 20m, and experimented with sending a programmed CW CQ SOTA call to see if it would generate a spot. It wouldn't; presumably the CW skimmers only listen on the CW frequencies. Five stations were worked on 20m SSB, including KB1RJC in New Hampshire. That was enough of phone! I had done my duty and verified that everything was working properly in terms of HF SSB on Jimmy's FT-817, and used successfully in conjunction with the end-fed antenna and Z match (SOTAbeams Micro Z). I swapped the 817 for the HB1B and went to find a QRG on 20m CW. Aargh! BIG CW contest in full swing. I found the narrowest of gaps and called, and to my slight surprise, I was picked up by a skimmer despite all the competition. A further eight QSOs were added before I packed everything away. And after doing that, one more came courtesy of 2m FM on the HT. I fancied another short walk and activation, so drove over to The Cloud G/SP-015.
I had a bit of spare time, so took a drive across the valley to Gun G/SP-013. The rucksack was left in the car, and I just stuffed the VX7R handie and logbook into my coat pocket. After a brisk walk to the summit, I said hello to Mickey 2E0YYY/P who was packing up his kit, then leant against the trig point while making 3 QSOs, obviously all 2m FM. Most enjoyable, many thanks to all the VK SOTA activators, the other VK chasers, the EU activators and all the other chasers. SOTA was just pure enjoyment once again! Now I was looking forward to the home match vs Aldershot in Macclesfield Town FC's promotion push, and another gig that night, but with a completely different outfit - The Yellow Pad Band.
OK, activation reports for Saturday 14th March 2015 then. I kicked off with a visit to The Roaches in the Staffordshire Moorlands, not a SOTA but TP6422 in the WAB trigpoints award. 15 QSOs in 8 minutes as I ran down the net on 7.163MHz SSB.
The route back to Macclesfield took me by the parking spot for Gun G/SP-013, and I had a new antenna to try out. This was a 70cm alternative for the SOTAbeams MFD. This, I believe, is not in production yet but I had an opportunity to give it a test outing. It in fact wasn't the full MFD system, just a replacement part for the aerial bit, and mounted on the same tubing. I set it up using an inverted trekking pole and a guying kit.
Four QSOs on 70cm FM came from Crewe, Warwickshire, Wolverhampton and Macclesfield, so the antenna was certainly working. Something a bit different as well; I can't remember the last time I activated on 433MHz FM. After Gun G/SP-013, it was home briefly, then down to the SOTAbeams factory to return the test antenna and give some feedback and observations. Also to pick up a couple of antenna bags ahead of the forthcoming SOTA trip to EA8 Tenerife. Finally, I rounded the afternoon off with a walk up The Cloud G/SP-015.
Saturday 16th May 2015 - Gun G/SP-013 - SOTA 10m/6m Challenge So I thought I'd have a bit of a change and went up to Gun! The notoriously waterlogged path was bone dry, so it was OK to stay in trainers for the short walk. I set up the SOTAbeams SB6 antenna for 6m, and heard Italian and Spanish stations on the band. On CW, I worked a couple, followed by a couple more on SSB. I did't have any more luck than that though on the alleged "Magic Band". I swapped over to the 10m groundplane antenna, and heard lots of activity on the band. I didn't have much joy in getting back to most of the CQ callers though! One I did get, who was working by numbers and operating split, was T77C, San Marino. Another station of interest was AO150T - one of a number of stations celebrating the 150th anniversary of the ITU. I also heard another Spanish '150' station - and a Uruguayan '150' station - but didn't get in the log of either. Argentina (LU) was heard calling, but I was similarly unsuccessful. At noon, I decided to bring a long and slow activation to a halt, with just 15 QSOs in the log: 6m CW: 2 6m SSB: 2 10m SSB: 7 10m CW: 4
Sunday 5th July 2015, and I did my trick of slipping out early for a quick local activation. Except that I was nowhere near early enough. First problem was the disruptive strong wind across the summit, which meant getting the SB6 Moxon up was a real challenge. Eventually I did, and started making contacts. Two contacts in, and my mobile rang. My XYL Marianne "advised" me that I was needed at home. That was the end of that then!
However, on Saturday 11th July 2015, I managed to get out earlier and bag myself a "proper" morning activation. 13 QSOs may not set the world alight, but it was a significant improvement on six days earlier. The 10m band was working well into Spain, while Latvia was a nice surprise for my last contact on that band. I only got two QSOs on 6m, but both were rather satisfying. One was into Corsica, while the other was a summit-to-summit (S2S) into France.
Following the success of the previous day's joint activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 with Jimmy M0HGY, he accepted my invitation to nip over to Gun on Sunday 12th July 2015. Little to report as such, but Jimmy made 20 contacts, while I made just 8. It was good to get Simon G4TJC/P on Freeholds Top G/SP-011 on a variety of bands and modes.
I had an idea. My favourite SOTA antenna is the 20m quarterwave vertical with groundplane. This was originally inspired by Sean M0GIA, and proved to be DX beast. The most recent incarnation of this in my armoury was the same design made from a kit, designed by SOTAbeams for the 2014 YOTA Conference at Wolverhamton. Essentially the same antenna, but using better materials to be more robust, yet pack up considerably smaller and lighter. I have also been using the SOTAbeams Micro Z tuner unit with an end-fed aerial. What about using the Micro Z with the 20m GP to give me a multiband GP? First I removed the coax feeder and choc block connector from the original antenna. I then added banana plugs to the driven element and the groundplane (3 radials meeting together). These were plugged into the Micro Z, which was itself secured to the SOTA Pole with a cable tie.
I tried out the arrangement in the back garden and made an easy contact with IK2CIO on 18MHz. I didn't manage to make contacts on any other bands, but did manage to get spotted by skimmers around Europe on 7MHz and 10MHz. I could tune the antenna on 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 12m ,10m and 6m, but not, annoyingly, on 15m. Later the same day, Monday 17th August 2015, I took the antenna out for a spin on Gun G/SP-015 (I had already been out on The Cloud G/SP-015 that morning). I got the same results as at home - able to tune on 40, 30, 20, 17, 12, 10 and 6, but not 15. I started CQing on 6m CW, but elicted zero response, perhaps unsurprisingly. With nothing happening on the radio, I did capture a nice sunset, over in the direction of The Cloud G/SP-015. It was then I noticed on the spots that Jonathan G2HFR/P was activating that very hill! I retuned the system to the higher SSB part of 40m and gave Jonathan a call on 7.150MHz SSB for a S2S. Now plans were thrown into chaos, because (a) we got into a ragchew, and (b) this ended up with us agreeing to meet up for a pint. So my evening of slowly working through every possible band to see what my antenna could do, was no more. Quickly, I tried some 10m CW, bringing in 3 contacts from OM, OH and EA respectively. A passing lady walker was unusually fascinated by what I was up to, especially when I said it was Slovakia I was talking to! I found Jonathan again, this time on 20m SSB and told him that I was setting off. I suggested that he should therefore pack up in 15 minutes' time, then descended and drive to the pub. Upon arrival at the Robin Hood on the A54, there was no sign of Jonathan, so I got myself a pint in and played on the Word Soup game on the quiz machine. As usual, I made a tidy 100% profit on this game. By 9.50pm, and with last orders being called (country restaurant rather than pub), I decided that Jonathan was not going to make it and went out to my car. And that was when Jonathan pulled in! We darted back in for those last orders and a good natter. It turned out Jonathan had managed to get lost descending from Cloud summit. In fact, from what he described, he should have carried on from where he got to (a point that was about 90 seconds walk from his car!) rather than retreated to the summit and tried again!
17m wasn't the band of choice on Friday 2nd October 2015. Very disappointing in fact. Just 12 QSOs on 17m CW, plus two S2S on 20m SSB. It seemed 15m was livelier, but I didn't have an antenna for that band with me. 10m certainly sounded dead, as Mike 2E0YYY had been reporting. I was set up approximately halfway between the summit and the road, by the "milestone". Mike had the band of choice on 2m, for sure. Some great results there. I couldn't get through though, try as I might, either from home or /M as I was driving towards Gun G/SP-013.
I felt physically good after the previous day's long walk from Taxal, near Whaley Bridge, to the Cat & Fiddle, via Taxal Edge, Windgather Rocks, Pym Chair, Cats Tor and Shining Tor G/SP-004. Wide awake at 8am on Saturday 17th October 2015, with the rest of the family all fast asleep, I took my chance to nip out and activate Gun G/SP-013.
What I hadn't bargained for was the morning drizzle. This meant deploying the bothy bag on Gun summit. The rain was light enough for it not to bother me personally, but it was still too damp for radio equipment! Anyway, I wasn't planning on stopping long, so I got cracking. Like the previous day, working conditions was HB1B + EFLW + ATU: Operating 0913 to 0951z (38 minutes); 20m CW: 8 QSOs (EA, G, I, OK, S5, SP) 30m CW: 4 QSOs (DL, EA, HB, OK) 40m CW: 9 QSOs (DL, F, G, HB, PA) - S2S: HB/BE-110 + F/AB-506. Good fun. I thought I'd probably nip out later to The Cloud G/SP-015.
15m on Gun G/SP-013 seemed to be "where it was at", so I headed up there on the morning of Friday 23rd October 2015 after dropping Liam at college. I wasn't expecting to match Mickey's consistently impressive results with my 817, 5 watts and 4 quarter-wave bits of wire lashed to a fishing rod - the only thing that lot has going for it is that it is considerably lighter to carry than an 857 and an Antron 99 + mast. And indeed, as expected, results were far from spectacular with a frustratingly slow QSO rate even though the 15m band was busy with lots of juicy pickings everywhere. Several JAs, VKs, a VU and even a HL were heard, some incredibly strong, but none made it into my log. My 15m "DX" was limited to Gambia, Kazakhstan, Asiatic Russia, Turkey and 8 into the USA. The final tally was 61 QSOs, which were 29 on 15m SSB, 31 on 15m CW and 1 on 17m CW. Two S2S: F5UKL/P on F/PO-241 on 17m CW and HB9BCB/P on HB/BE-132 on 15m CW. Operating from 0930 to 1301, so 211 minutes - eek, even slower than I thought! At least a treat awaited for those long periods of auto-CQing from my Palm Cube memory keyer. Yesterday, we happened to be in a supermarket in Knutsford where I noticed half-price Baxters Lobster Bisque - my favourite. I got six cans (2 x litre flask worth), and so that was my sustenance on this summit. It's a marvellous soup made from lobster, prawns, fish, double cream, brandy and cayenne pepper. Every slurp a decadent delight. Activating in style I'd say. Glad I took the flask too, as it was very chilly out there today!
It turned out that Mike 2E0YYY/P was activating on Gun G/SP-013 as I drove in that direction on Tuesday 27th October 2015 - I later learned that he worked ZL (New Zealand) on this activation - very nice. I thought I was going to have to set up in one of the other spots - by the milestone, by CWI's wood or down a bit towards the farm when I arrived and saw his motor at the parking spot. Then I noticed he was in it and had made an uncharacteristically early finish. So I actually set up by his hawthorn tree where I stayed for some time. Thankfully, I enjoyed much nicer weather than what Mike later described! I made a total of 60 contacts, 11 on 12m, the rest on 15m. India VU2 was probably the best DX, with plenty of North Americans worked and ZA Albania of note too.
Inept. It's the only word for it. I drove up to Gun G/SP-013 on the morning of Monday 16th November 2015 after dropping Liam off at work. I placed the specially made 6m/10m GP Challenge antenna into my rucksack and negotiated my way to the summit. I say 'negotiated' because every footstep needed to be strategically considered and carefully placed in order to avoid drowning. I reached the trig point, extended the pole and suspended the driven element (with trap) from the top. I extended the four radials and pegged them out. It was then I looked at the BNC socket at the feedpoint, and it dawned on me I had not thought to bring any feeder cable... Packed it all away and tried to make a 2m FM activation out of it on the VX7 handie. And tried and tried and tried. After 15 minutes or so, I got one caller from Tamworth, which at least made an activation out of the escapade. A one QSO activation. All that remained was to dance and skip back down the "path" and see how unwet I could keep my trainers. All rather pathetic really. Upon return to my car, I got my hands on the errant feeder cable and placed it into my rucksack. An outing to The Cloud G/SP-015 was in order that afternoon I felt.
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