G0VOF	6m	SSB
G3UFO	6m	SSB
G2ANC	6m	SSB
M0VAA	6m	SSB
2E0BMO	6m	SSB
G6HFF	6m	SSB
G8HXE	6m	SSB
G0CER	6m	SSB
G4NTY	6m	SSB
G3KAF	6m	SSB
G4ZRP	6m	SSB
M0ICK/P	6m	SSB
M6NNX	6m	SSB
G8MIA	6m	SSB
G0KTQ	6m	SSB
GW4ZAR	6m	SSB
G4APJ	6m	SSB
GW8ASD	6m	SSB
G4VFL/P	6m	SSB
G3RKF	6m	SSB
G4TUP	6m	SSB
M3RNX	6m	SSB
G3REQ	6m	SSB
M5AFG	6m	SSB
G4CFP	6m	SSB
M0MDY	6m	SSB
G3VCA	6m	SSB
G8XVJ	6m	SSB
G4NOK	6m	SSB
G4RQI	6m	SSB
G4HGI	6m	SSB
M0VXX/P	6m	SSB
G8AXZ/P	6m	SSB
G3PHO	6m	SSB
M0XII/P	6m	SSB
G0BWB	6m	SSB
G3SMT	6m	SSB
M1MHZ	6m	SSB
G7DWY	6m	SSB
M0UFC/P	6m	SSB
G3UVR	6m	SSB
GW4BVE	6m	SSB
G3ZUD	6m	CW
M0RKX/P	6m	SSB
M3OUA	6m	SSB
G8YIG	6m	SSB
2E0LKC	6m	SSB
G1SWH	6m	SSB
M0COP/P	6m	SSB
M0HGY	6m	SSB
M1DDD	6m	SSB
G7APD	6m	SSB
M0BUL/P	6m	SSB
2E0PCF/P	6m	SSB
GW4OKT	6m	SSB
G0BFJ	6m	SSB
M3BRV/P	6m	SSB
G4NDM	6m	SSB
G8BUN	6m	SSB

N4EX	12m	CW
VE1WT	12m	CW
N7UN	12m	CW
KK1W	12m	CW
VE2JFM	12m	CW
HB9CBR	12m	CW
W4DOW	12m	CW
K8IU	12m	CW
WH6LE	12m	CW
KG3W	12m	CW
N4EX	12m	SSB
G6LUZ	12m	SSB
2E0LKC	12m	SSB
2E0LMD	12m	SSB
SV1QED	12m	SSB
KB1RJC	12m	SSB
CO8LY	12m	CW
AA2ZW	12m	CW
WG8Y	12m	CW

 

Sunday 2nd February 2014 - The Cloud G/SP-015.  Good activation this one. The weather was much milder, and there was no threat of any rain. It was a tea-time activity, added in on my way home from work. Yes, I'd spent all day at work in Stoke catching up on my marking and preparation!  The upturn in weather brought a correlating boost to walker numbers, many of whom took great interest in what I was doing. Fielding questions from them while in a CW QSO is difficult though!  Anyway, 30 QSOs on 12m, with 11 on SSB and 19 on CW. 26 of the 30 QSOs were into North America.

 

Sunday 9th February 2014 - The Cloud G/SP-015.  I needed some exercise and fresh air. So it transpired did Richard G3CWI who suggested a local outing via the medium of Facebook. I don't mean Facebook somehow providing transport or other infrastructure for the outing, I mean that was the communication method by which he suggested it.  For the most part, I was inside my orange bothy bag, a few metres to the side of the main path along The Cloud. "There's somebody inside it" I heard a walker remark. "Don't be daft" was the reply. "No, there's definitely somebody in there". I shouted a cheery "Hello" to help end their debate.

27 contacts on 12m, with 6 on SSB and 21 on CW. Several R22 / RA22 (etc) stations were heard - which I now knew were special calls for the 22nd Winter Olympiad in Sochi, Russia - but none made it into my log. The call R0000O - Romeo Zero Zero Zero Zero Oscar - was quite an eye opener though, and was worked on SSB (would have been tedious on CW!). Because I knew the R22 stations were special Olympic calls, I wondered what the R0000O station was in aid of. It was necessary to kick myself when later finding it was also a Winter Olympic special call - symbolising the five rings of the Olympic flag!

A reet good session in the Harrington Arms, Gawsworth was in order on the way home. Pints of Hannibal's Nectar accompanied by Spearing's pork and beef pies, plus nuts and pretzels provided welcome indulgence, and more motivation for me to use my new job as a way of fighting the flab. The new position, starting at the end of April, is at a college right beside Stoke-on-Trent railway station. This means I can walk to Macclesfield railway station (25 minutes) and catch the train (15 minutes) and actually commute to work slighter quicker and slightly more cheaply than I could by driving my car. A golden opportunity to shift the excess baggage while I'm still in my forties.

 

I did another one of those dastardly 12m band-only activations on Saturday 15th February 2014. Sorry about that!  In my defence, I did do a bit of SSB operating in the middle of the vast ocean of CW.  I hadn't really bothered to check the weather forecast or anything for Saturday 15th February 2014. In fact, I wasn't anticipating going out. But same old, same old. Friday football match meant that I was fast asleep in bed well before 10pm, and that meant I was wide awake just after 5am!  I prepared a small flask of coffee and headed for The Cloud G/SP-015. It was just light enough not to warrant use of headtorch for the ascent, and I made the summit fairly swiftly, despite the aches and pains from the previous evening's footy.

It looked like showers would come in, and a stiff breeze was blowing in from the west. Therefore, I made my way to the G3CWI-preferred operating spot (when shelter is required), on a grassy ledge immediately below some small cliffs. Having erected the 12m groundplane antenna on the grassy lip, I set up my station in a very sheltered little corner where the rocks curve right around, and also overhang by quite a few feet giving total protection from any rain that would come in.

The first thing I heard after switching on the FT-817 was a very loud CW call from special Winter Olympics station R0000O. I had worked this station the week before, but on SSB. I was pleased to get in first call. I then found my own QRG and started running on CW. Occasionally I would change frequencies, or swap over to SSB for a while. At points of desperation, I would go round searching and pouncing. It was in S+P mode that I worked several more special Winter Olympic calls: R0000O was worked again on SSB, as was RT22UA, while on CW I added RO22OG, RY22RZ and RT22MD to the log.

However, the headline of the activation was the DX to the east and south. No less than six Japanese stations came back to my CQ calls, as did Ian VK5CZ, and Gina ZL3ACA, which believe it or not, was my first ever QSO with New Zealand in 13 years as an amateur!  In total, I made 64 QSOs, made up of 17 on 24MHz SSB and 47 on 24MHz CW. Some very pleasing QSOs especially the DX, and still all done with 5 watts from the trusty FT-817, and a very simple homemade groundplane/vertical antenna. Loads of fun, and I didn't really want to go home! It was getting a bit cowd though, and the battery was running out of juice.  Many thanks to all chasers that called in.

 

After the Nantwich Rally on Sunday 16th February 2014 (where I was helping out G3CWI with the SOTAbeams stand), I fancied a bit more of this weekend's FB 12m conditions. So around 4pm I made my way up to the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 again, to see what might turn up when the propagation turned west.

Results:
31 QSOs in 70 minutes.
16 on 24MHz CW.
15 on 24MHz SSB.
18 into USA including one Summit-to-Summit (CW with N5XL on Baker Butte W7A/AE-035 in Arizona).
3 into Canada.
1 into Anguilla (another all-time new DXCC for me - VP2EZZ - CW).
1 into Brazil (ZZ80SP - special call for 80 years of Brazilian Amateur Radio League - LABRE - SSB).

Radio is fun when it's like this! Only downside was I had forgotten to charge my phone up beforehand, so didn't have enough charge in it to give PSK31 a whirl in the activation.

 

Let me tell you about another trip up to the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015, on Monday 17th February 2014. It was colder, windier and wetter than the previous two days. I was therefore tempted to make for the mini cave on the side of the rock face on the north end of the summit plateau, but with the hill being deserted, I settled for the most sheltered face of the topograph.  There was no major DX in this activation, although I did work CT9/DJ6QT on Madeira Island and Rich N4EX just before going QRT. In between, there appeared to be a bit of Sporadic E going on, with a significantly higher than usual proportion of responses coming back from Central Europe.

The final score was 22 QSOs, all on the 12m band. The mode distribution was 4 on SSB, 1 on PSK31 and 17 on CW. An enjoyable little activation, but it was reet cowd. Needing to warm up, and to take some grub back for mine and Liam's lunch, I called in at the Weston Bakery for bacon, black pudding and cheese double oatcakes. Proper oatcakes of course, not those silly little biscuits from Scotland that misleadingly describe themselves by the same name.

 

Well there were no oatcakes left at the bakery on my way home from The Cloud G/SP-015 on the morning of Tuesday 18th February 2014. So I was forced to put up with a sausage and black pudding bap.  I had spent some time the previous evening preparing a spreadsheet in the aim of getting my activator logs up-to-date. Also, my main logging software at home, which has been similarly neglected since 19th January 2014, and I've actually worked a few all-time new DXCCs for me since then! I managed to get 180 of my unlogged QSOs into the spreadsheet before I went to bed, but a backlog remained.

How refreshing therefore, that my early morning activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 only swelled that backlog by 5 QSOs, all 24MHz CW. I wondered if this was due to the very early time of the activation (either side of dawn) or if the FB conditions are finally starting to call it a day for another eleven years.

I did hear the CW CQ calls of 9M2TO during my activation, but he was fairly weak, and unsurprisingly never heard my attempted replies. With a QSO rate of one per seven minutes for the first half hour, you start to feel the cold, even from within the bothy bag. When that QSO rate drops to zero for the second half hour, you start to feel like getting some breakfast and going home. Which I did.

My log (what little of it there was) was again dominated by Ukrainian stations. How nice it would be to see the Ukraine Chaser Table populated with the vast number of stations that call my activations on a regular basis.

 

Wednesday 19th February 2014 - The Cloud G/SP-015.  It definitely wasn't as cold as early morning on Billinge Hill G/SP-017 as I ascended The Cloud around 3pm. There was hardly a breath of breeze on the summit, so I didn't need to factor in shelter when selecting a spot to set up in.  The band was still in pretty rubbish shape but there did appear to be a Sporadic E style opening to the Mediterranean area. Of my 15 QSOs on 24MHz, three were from Malta, three from Spain and two from Greece. DX came courtesy of N5PHT (Texas) and ZZ80SP (Brazil). SSB dominated for a change with 10 QSOs. Four were on CW and just one on PSK31.

In addition, two 2m FM S2S QSOs were enjoyed, with Rob G7LAS/P on Pendle Hill G/SP-005, and John G4YSS, operating as Scarborough Special Events callsign GX0OOO/P from Fountains Fell G/NP-017.  Many thanks to all stations worked.

 

Saturday 22nd February 2014, and it seemed that that HF spectrum was well on the way to recovery. A one hour session in the shack around lunchtime netted seven SOTA chaser contacts. The pleasing aspect was the variety - one on 60m SSB, one on 40m CW, one on 40m SSB, one on 30m CW, two on 12m SSB, one on 2m FM and one on 2m SSB.  An earlier trip to the SOTAbeams emporium (not really an emporium) at Paradise Mill, Macclesfield was half social, half business. After a convivial chat with the boss over Spearing's meat and potato pies (iconic Macclesfield cuisine) and a mug of tea, I picked up an end-fed wire antenna system with mini-pole and stake kit, plus Micro Z ATU.

So after delivering Jimmy and Liam's Spearing's pies back to the home QTH for their luncheon, I headed out to The Cloud G/SP-015 to try out my new toys. Set up took a little longer than usual due to the unfamiliar kit, but it was nonetheless straightforward. Heading straight to my favoured 24MHz I soon realised that it was a LONG time since I head last used such a manual ATU, and it took me a little while to rediscover the "knack".

First station to reply on 12m CW was TA3AX, and that was even before I had sorted the matching properly! Guy N7UN and Rich N4EX were amongst the stations that followed, so the system was clearly effective.  I began to cast a glance over the SOTAwatch Spots on my phone. A quick QSY to 40m and a retune of the ATU allowed me to work Juerg F/HB9BIN/P summit-to-summit on Le Bambois F/JU-061. I then decided to run for bit on 30m CW, adding nine activator QSOs and a couple of SOTA SWLs. The pile-ups for OE5EEP/P and OK2BDF/P were huge and I only had the patience to try for them about three times each as the afternoon was becoming very cold.

The activation total was 22 QSOs:
12m CW: 7
12m SSB: 5
30m CW: 9
40m CW: 1

I was looking forward to giving this system a real run over several different bands and modes. It needed to be a little milder than this particular afternoon though! I found it somewhat amusing that this set-up had the potential to do at least 40/30/20/17/15/12/10/6 with the possibility (to be investigated) of 60 and 80, and yet be a much lighter overall weight than any of my single band resonant aerials. Interesting times ahead.

 

Sunday 23rd February 2014 kicked off with an activation of The Cloud G/SP-015. In a S2S QSO, Juerg F/HB9BIN/P suggested I had been sleeping there. I was glad I hadn't - it was blinking cold! Juerg, on Haut du Rouge Gazon F/VO-018, was my second S2S contact of the activation. Earlier I had worked Dominik HB9CZF/P on Walten HB/BL-009.

I was able to hear Martin DF3MC/P on Eisenberg DL/AL-171, but not well enough to get back to make the contact. This band-hopping for S2S chasing was enabled by the new EFHW antenna + Micro Z ATU system. I found I could tune all the bands 40/30/20/12/10/6 on this set up. I didn't manage to find the settings to enable 17m and 15m, but I wasn't trying in the most patient and methodical way, due to the increasing coldness! They will be there somewhere; it's a good system. Eight bands from one antenna that is much smaller, much lighter, and much more compact (all fits completely inside rucksack) when packed up. I'm already plotting some overnight backpacking trips for the summer!

The MO in this activation was mainly 12m, with brief excursions to other bands as influenced by spots on SOTAwatch. The final tally was as follows:

26 QSOs:
--------
12m CW: 13
12m SSB: 11
20m CW: 1
20m SSB: 1
----------
EA: 4
ES: 1
F: 1
G: 6
HA: 2
HB: 1
LY: 2
OE: 1
SP: 2
SV: 1
UA2: 1
UA9: 1
UR: 2
YO: 1

Many thanks to all callers.

 

I hauled two 7Ah SLABs up The Cloud G/SP-015 with on Tuesday 25th February 2014 - as I had some time to spare to play on 24MHz ahead of the contest.  For the 12m Challenge, I added 27 QSOs, mainly CW but with a handful in SSB. The vast majority were into the USA, but the pick of the bunch was 9Y Trinidad, even trumping one of the special ZZ80 stations from Brazil.

In the 6m UKAC, I made 71 QSOs but only into 8 multiplier squares, which were hard to come by. Usually worked squares like IO74, IO80, IO85, IO90, IO94, JO01, JO02 and JO03 were all conspicuous by their absence (in my log) and I don't even think all my contest group (Tall Trees) managed to work each other!  After packing away, I couldn't help but dwell on the fact that my activation had so far amassed 98 QSOs, despite the bitter cold under the gloriously clear night sky. Hence the 2m FM handie was pressed into action, and three more QSOs were added, bringing the activation total to 101 QSOs.

The main rig for the activation was the Yaesu FT-817, with 7Ah SLAB. I love my FT-817 and don't find the low power to be an issue, although Steve G1INK's results were showing the benefit of the extra power especially for SSB QSOs.

W4DOW	12m	CW
W7RV	12m	CW
N4EX	12m	CW
KG3W	12m	CW
AE4FZ	12m	CW
N7AMA	12m	CW
W0MNA	12m	CW
W0ERI	12m	CW
NA2X	12m	CW
M3NHA	12m	SSB
M6NHA	12m	SSB
N4EX	12m	SSB
WI2W	12m	SSB
G0VOF	12m	CW
K3PR	12m	CW
N7UN	12m	CW
KT8Y	12m	CW
N3AS	12m	CW
K3VAT	12m	CW
K8NYG	12m	CW
W4CI	12m	CW
G3UJE	12m	CW
9Y4LAS	12m	SSB
ZZ80MT	12m	CW
K2UFT	12m	CW
W1AW/8	12m	CW
G2ANC	6m	SSB
G0VOF	6m	SSB
G0CER	6m	SSB
G3RKF	6m	SSB
G0KTQ	6m	SSB
M3NHA	6m	SSB
M0VAA	6m	SSB
G7FMF	6m	SSB
G8REQ	6m	SSB
G3UJE	6m	SSB
G8WUY	6m	SSB
G4ZRP	6m	SSB
G8XVJ	6m	SSB
G8BUN	6m	SSB
M0ICK/P	6m	SSB
M1DDD/P	6m	SSB
G7DWY	6m	SSB
GW4BVE	6m	SSB
G3KAF	6m	SSB
M0VXX/P	6m	SSB
M0COP/P	6m	SSB
G0WTD	6m	SSB
G4CFP	6m	SSB
G4APJ	6m	SSB
2E0LKC	6m	SSB
G3UVR	6m	SSB
G4NTY	6m	SSB
GW4ZAR/P	6m	SSB
2E0BMO	6m	SSB
G3TDH	6m	SSB
G4TUP	6m	SSB
G4NDM/P	6m	SSB
GW8ASD	6m	SSB
M6NHA	6m	SSB
M3RNX	6m	SSB
2W0JYN	6m	SSB
G8MIA	6m	SSB
M3OUA	6m	SSB
G8ZRE	6m	SSB
M0RKX/P	6m	SSB
2E0WBL	6m	SSB
M0GVG/P	6m	SSB
G8AXZ/P	6m	SSB
2E0PCF/P	6m	SSB
GI4SNA	6m	SSB
G8HXE/P	6m	SSB
G3UFO	6m	SSB
G8WY/P	6m	SSB
G3RCW	6m	SSB
G0HGH	6m	SSB
M1MHZ	6m	SSB
G6XHF	6m	SSB
G4CLA	6m	SSB
M0WBG	6m	SSB
G3TBK	6m	SSB
G4VFL/P	6m	SSB
M0UFC/P	6m	SSB
GW4EVX	6m	SSB
G4FPJ	6m	SSB
M0NST	6m	SSB
G8XYJ	6m	SSB
G0BWB	6m	SSB
G1SWH	6m	SSB
M0HGY	6m	SSB
M0GAV	6m	SSB
2E0DWP/P	6m	SSB
G0BFJ/A	6m	SSB
M0XII/P	6m	SSB
G4NOK	6m	SSB
G3WIR/A	6m	SSB
2E0LMD	6m	SSB
M6LKM	2m	SSB
G7BYS	2m	SSB
M1EQD/M	2m	SSB

 

I actually returned to the summit of The Cloud before going to work on Friday 28th March 2014.  Just five contacts were made, all on 12m CW:

 

It has been a slow start to the 2014 UKAC season for me, due to "one thing and another". In fact I wasn't anticipating being able to take part in the 2m UKAC on Tuesday 4th March 2014 either, but things seemed to work in my favour later in the day.  I was buoyed also by the mild and calm pleasant late afternoon weather, which I am pleased to report continued throughout the evening. That certainly made a welcome change. It was with a little more optimism than usual then that I trudged up The Cloud G/SP-015 at 7.30pm.

I was very "last minute" and only set up and ready to go by 1958 UTC - just two minutes ahead of the contest start time. But I was soon underway and enjoying a very busy contest. By 10.30pm, I had logged 95 QSOs, mainly 2m SSB but with a couple of 2m CW contacts in their too. The multiplier count was healthy at 19. If IO71, IO73, IO87, IO90, JO00 or JO03 were on I certainly never heard them, but 19 was a pleasing total nonetheless. Best DX was into Belgium ON.

Last I looked, my claimed score was nestled in 3rd place, with Tristan M0VXX/P way out in front with a massive 150 contacts. It looks like Tristan is capably filling the void left by Carolyn G6WRW as the Travelling Wave group's QRP specialist. The contest group I "play for" - Tall Trees - also had a good evening with a large turn out of members including our "big hitter" Nick M1DDD/P. Recent analysis showed that our member with the most regular participation record across all the UKACs and 80m CCs was actually Jimmy M0HGY - always from the home shack though.

With the new upgrade of DroidPSK being able to handle PSK63 as well as PSK31, I started to consider trying the next 80m CC Data event from The Cloud G/SP-015. It could be the case that the congested band may be just too much for my FT-817, Wolphi-Link interface and phone app to handle, but I had to try it the once, at least!