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Wednesday 15th February 2006, on The Cloud G/SP-015. The primary objective was to attempt a homebrew WBFM 10GHz microwave contact with Richard G3CWI/P on Gun G/SP-013. It was not a good day. Having taken the direct route through Gawsworth and North Rode, I ended up 30 minutes late at the small Cloudside parking area after managing to find both tractors that operate in the area and situate myself behind them for several torturous miles of country lanes. I then reached the summit only to find that the 2m handheld ran out of charge as I did. No chance of succeeding on 10GHz without a talkback facility, so it was back down to the car for the 817, which I had inexplicably decided I didn't need as backup! Returned to the summit, established 2m contact with Richard, beamed the waveguide onto Gun summit, switched on ... and ... "First you gotta speed it up, then you gotta slow it down...". etc etc. Yes - "Making Your Mind Up" - Bucks Fizz - Eurovision Song Contest. All across the tunable microwave band. I glanced suspiciously across at the Sutton Common (Bosley Tower) transmitter mast. I checked 106.9 on the 817, but it wasn't Silk FM. I checked 96.4, and it was Signal 1 (Cheshire relay). The wind across the summits was horrendous. I offered up G/SP-015 to anyone listening on S20 and made two quick contacts. And descended.
Richard made adjustments and we repeated the experiment on Friday 17th February 2006. This time I was able to receive Richard's tone on 10368MHz, but it was not strong enough to receive audio. Richard couldn't hear anything from mine. So it will be back to the bench to improve the transmitted signal, receiver sensitivity etc ready for the next test. Watch this space. Just one contact as follows:
On Thursday 2nd March 2006, I called in on The Cloud G/SP-015 on the way home from work to carry out the latest test on the homebrew microwave 10GHz radios with Richard G3CWI - who was situated in the parking spot for Gun. For the first time, I was able to receive voice audio from Richard, but other technical difficulties prevented the return compliment. However, the summit was activated courtesy of a single contact with Richard on our 2m talkback frequency of 144.525MHz.
On Mothers' Day, 26th March 2006, we had activated Gun G/SP-013 first thing. We then dropped back down the hill to Rushton Spencer, then turned left towards Leek, and right towards Congleton. A couple of miles later we turned right, signpost "Cloud Side". Other signposts in the area show it as "Cloudside". After parking the car, we proceeded up the concrete access road for the farm/dwelling at the top. Jimmy shot off up the steps for the direct approach, but Liam and myself fancied a change and continued to the top of the track and over a stile into the field. We then turned right to follow a wall slightly downhill, until another stile into a wood. Then there is a right turn option, which leads all the way to the summit. Jimmy was surprised to see the direction from which we were approaching and declared that he would return that way.
We wandered along to the rocks at the north end of the summit, sheltered in them and again used our handhelds to qualify the summit. Jimmy was the first ever contact for newly licensed Charlotte, 16 years old in Lancashire. Liam and myself took the usual direct return to the car, landing on the farm access road ahead of Jimmy who had descended around through the woods and fields. We were back in Macc before 1pm, so we considered it kind and thoughtful to allow Marianne another hour in bed by having a drink and watching some football at our local pub. Thereafter, picked up my mum from my nanna's, then Marianne from home, and went for a traditional Mother's Day curry at the Weston Balti Raj. A nice day, and somewhat weird having only used 3.5 hours of it to activate two summits! Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 5 watts:
24 degrees Celcius, not a cloud in the sky, shorts, T-shirt and sandals. No beam, no mast, no boots, no coat, no food, no rucksack, just the VX-7R in one pocket and a pen and scrap of paper in the other. The warmth of the late afternoon as I drove home from work on Tuesday 6th June 2006 deserved to be enjoyed. So as I reached Congleton and the "10 minutes from home" stage in the daily commute, I hung a left down to The Cloud G/SP-015. At the parking spot, I left all the hiking gear and most of the radio gear in the car, and tackled the 5 minute ascent as I was. The summit was beautiful, bathed in warm sunshine, and I sat on a large flat rock near the steep northern end of the summit and lapped it all up. I opened on 70cm, and quickly "qualfied" the summit with four contacts. I use the inverted commas as I have lost count of the number of times I have been up here with a radio this year, so the only points going begging were for chasers. A further seven contacts were made on 2m FM before I decided it was time to go home for tea. Thanks to the following stations, all worked in FM mode from the Yaesu VX-7R hand portable:
The following evening, Wednesday 7th June 2006, I was back for more! From Gun G/SP-013, I returned to the car and cut across the Staffordshire countryside to Cloudside for yet another ascent of The Cloud G/SP-015. The sunshine was just as bright and warm as the previous evening, and I perched on the same rock, admiring the views across the Peak District and the Cheshire Plain. In the heather, on the steep northern edge of the summit plateau, some folk were flying their radio control model gliders. These seemed to suffer some heavy crash landings, but were soon in flight again. Steve GW7AAV was worked on 70cm and 2m, and Mike G4BLH called in, but he couldn't hear me and I couldn't hear him. I was going to bring the FT-817 and beam up here today and provide for better coverage, but suffered a bout of indifference and laziness as I arrived at the Cloudside parking spot, and left the rucksack behind again. Thanks to the following stations, all worked on FM mode with 5 watts:
I was now well into the swing of visiting The Cloud G/SP-015 regularly on my way home from work in order to bump up the number of activations in the pursuit of 300. The next occasion was Friday 9th June 2006, with the following on 2m FM from the Yaesu VX-7R handheld:
Monday 12th June 2006, with the following on 2m FM from the Yaesu VX-7R handheld:
Monday 19th June 2006 was my 299th SOTA activation with the following on 2m FM from the Yaesu VX-110 handheld:
And then, Wednesday 21st June 2006 and my 300th SOTA activation. This was a rather odd activation in the end. I was a bit late leaving work and therefore a bit late arriving on summit. As I feared, the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 was extremely windy, and I dithered for a while about putting up the 40m antenna. In the end, I went for it, and managed, eventually to get it in the air, albeit a little lower than usual as the fishing pole was looking like it was going to snap in the wind when fully extended. The SOTA Beam even took a while to get up too as the wind was so fierce. The wind was consistently coming in from the south-west with no variation, so I was able to find a large rock to sit behind and lean on, and get right out of the wind. This had me sat at a steep edge of the plateau, facing north-east with a fine view across Sutton Common, Shutlingsloe, Shining Tor G/SP-004 and even Winter Hill G/SP-010 in the distance.
I opened up on 2m FM, and worked Steve GW7AAV, who never fails to catch me on this summit, followed by two more. Then I switched antennas and went onto 40m. I spent about an hour calling CQ on clear frequencies or trying to respond to others' CQ calls, but I didn't make a single contact. I did SWL a couple of interesting QSOs, and the DR2006G World Cup station though as I snacked on flapjack and water, so it was still worth erecting the antenna. The weather, other than the wind, was cloudy but dry, just as the met-office website had promised. Yet once I was settled in my operating position, I glanced around and saw what appeared to be a very heavy downpour approach quickly. The first raindrops arrived, and I braced myself. There was no way I was going to be able to pack everything up and escape it, so I decided to stay put and endure it. As it was, although it was a fairly heavy shower, and was quickly followed by another, the only things that got wet were the waterproofs and the microphone - all of which soon dried afterwards.
A return to 2m FM netted a further five stations, before I swapped beam polarisation and began calling on 144.300MHz SSB. However, my CQ calls on this mode were just as successful as those on 40m, as was my attempt to gatecrash the only existing QSO I could hear. Eventually, at 6.30pm and after over two hours on summit, I packed away and went home. My 300th activation had not been the party I had optimistically hoped for, but was interesting nonetheless. Only three of the eight stations worked were known chasers, but there were two that had ventured away from the popular GB3MN repeater to work me, one that wanted the SJ96CHS WAB area (but not the SJ96SFD area just a few feet away for some reason), and one that was newly licensed following a Foundation course at Macclesfield Wireless Society. Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM, the first four with 2.5 watts and the remainder with 1 watt:
The third and final activation of
Liam's chosen mission on Sunday 19th November 2006 was on The Cloud.
From Gun G/SP-013, we drove down to Rushton
Spencer, and then towards Timbersbrook before turning right to get to
the parking spot at Cloudside. We noted Charlie's car already there, and
then saw him on the horizon setting up his antenna as we climbed towards
the summit.
I shot a short
video of Charlie making a 5MHz contact, so apologies to him and his
wife for the unflattering aspect ratio problem mentioned on the
Gun report! Liam and myself found a sheltered spot
behind some rocks at the north end of the summit with great views
towards Manchester. We finished the soup, and just four contacts were
managed before the calls stopped being answered. Yet another great day with zero points. It was my third activation in 2006 of Shining Tor, third of Gun, and just the eleventh of The Cloud! Many thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:
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