Tom Read - click to email meBDXC ISWL WAB SOTA RSGB IOTA - see my radio page for more detailsLiam & Jimmy

The Cloud 2006

 

    Click to return to summit index

 

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.

G3CWI/P Gun SP-013 Richard
GW4EVX Mold Ron
GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve

 

Radio equipment on The Cloud G/SP-015        10GHz Rover

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:

G3CWI/P Gun SP-013 Richard

 

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.

 
G3CWI/P Gun Moor Richard

 

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:

 
2E0NHM Warton Nigel J
G4BVE/M near Northwich John J
M3LQA Oldham Phil J
M3NJQ/M Beacon Country Park Charlotte J
G6DDQ Rossendale Myke T
G7KXV Preston Ian T
G4SEC Northwich George T
2E0GYO Orton Alan T

 

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:

M3GHI Winton John 70cm 2.5w
G0MMT/M Oswestry Les 70cm 2.5w
M1CUE Crewe Kevin 70cm 2.5w
G6GVI Bolton Ross 70cm 2.5w
M3NCB St Helens Dave 2m 2.5w
GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve 2m 2.5w
G0MXR Lymm Geoff 2m 5w
G8XVJ/M Beeston Eric 2m 5w
M3WVF/M M55 Glyn 2m 5w
G7SLS/M Wolstanton Steve 2m 5w
G4DEE/M Bury Tony 2m 5w

 

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:

GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve 70cm
GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve 2m
2E0PMM/M Worsley Interchange Phil 2m
M3XMC Wigan Mike 70cm
2E0PKU Rainford Dave 2m

 

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:

GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve
2E0GYO Orton Alan
M0GSM Droylsden Dave
G6CWM Stretham John
G3GAH Penketh Dave

 

Monday 12th June 2006, with the following on 2m FM from the Yaesu VX-7R handheld:

G0CSX Macclesfield Oss
G6GVI Bolton  
G0DFO/M A57 / M62 Jim

 

Monday 19th June 2006 was my 299th SOTA activation with the following on 2m FM from the Yaesu VX-110 handheld:

GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve
G7KDZ/M Ellesmere Port Joe

 

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.

Sutton Common from Bosley Cloud        SOTA Beam on The Cloud

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.

Antennas on The Cloud        The view from my operating position on The Cloud

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:  

GW7AAV Connah's Quay Steve
GW7KDZ Queensferry Joe
2E0OBZ Chester Dan
M1PVS East Lancs Road Ged
M5DZH/M Middleton Jon
M1EQD/M Thelwall Paul
M3OEP Chapel-en-le-Frith Stuart
G0AKF Knutsford Ken

 

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.

        Liam on The Cloud G/SP-015        Charlie G0PZO/P + XYL on The Cloud

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.

Liam thoroughly enjoyed his day, especially with the psychological advantage of it all being his idea. After a quick pint in the Ivy Leaf, I picked up Jimmy from Air Cadets and Marianne from home and went to the Weston Balti Raj for tea.

        Tom and Liam on Cloud summit        National Trust sign ahead of the summit area

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:

 

G0GWI Hale Peter
M0DWQ Warrington Roger
2E0TAK Mow Cop David
G0AKF Knutsford Ken