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2015 activations up to and including 16th July, can be found here. The last thing I expected to see from the summit of The Cloud G/SP-015 on the morning of Friday 17th July 2015, was a 70m high fireball just after I heard a loud explosion. Looking down from the summit into the valley I could see the Bosley Wood Treatment works in flames with thick black smoke coming from it.
The activation was a morning stroll to try and add to the 6m/10m Challenge
account. The propagation was clearly working between G and EA5. My first two
QSOs on 6m SSB were into EA5, and when I tried CW, it was the EA5 skimmer that
triggered my KU6J RBNgate spot.
I did another activation of this summit during the early afternoon of Saturday 18th July 2015. Sadly, plenty of smoke continued to rise up from the factory site despite it being constantly drenched with water jets and it being 30 hours after the explosion. Even more sadly, search teams had been in but the four unaccounted for persons were still not found.
The activation was as pleasant as it could be given this tragic scene and sombre mood of everyone on the summit. The weather was fantastic and it was nice to see several families stopping on summit for a picnic. My radio results were as follows: 10m SSB: 10 - 10m CW: 4 - 6m SSB: 7 - 6m CW: 2 - 2m FM: 14 - Total: 37 DXCCs: 9 - CT, EA, G, GW, LZ, OD, OE, OH, ZB S2S: 3 - Simon GW4TJC/P 0n Moelwyn Mawr GW/NW-016, Jordan MW3TMX/P on Mynydd y Cwm GW/NW-076, Antonio EC2AG/P on Montemayor EA2/VI-049. Highlights: OD Lebanon on 10m SSB, ZB Gibraltar on 6m CW, Working Jordan M3TMX for the first time in at least a couple of years. After the activation I returned home and prepared for a Motown Gold gig I was booked to play bass on that evening.
Still lots of smoke coming from the site on the morning of my birthday, Sunday 19th July 2015. Still a grim and very sad scene from the summit of nearby Bosley Cloud. Police had by now named the four missing people and the search was continuing. Interesting 6m conditions this morning, with decent propagation to the Mediterranean area, and a contest in progress. 12 contacts were made in a brief activation: 10m SSB: 1 (EA) 10m CW: 3 (all EA) 6m SSB: 6 (2 x EA, EA6, G, IS0, IT9) 6m CW: 2 (CN, EA)
Morocco on 6m was undoubtedly the highlight. Back at home, it was great to have a garden full of friends and family for my birthday barbecue. A very enjoyable afternoon!
Tuesday 21st July 2015 saw me head up The Cloud hope to add many new unique callsigns to my SOTA 6m/10m Challenge score. However, the 6m and 10m bands were not interested. The only new one I got was G8HDS. The only way to interpret the outing was that my Challenge score had increased as a result of it!
Sunday 26th July 2015, and just another trip to The Cloud to further the Challenge score. This time, rather more successful, with 19 QSOs on the 10m band, a mixture of CW and SSB. Plenty of propagation to Southern Europe was welcome, as was the S2S with EC2AG/P on EA2/BI-067.
Monday 27th July 2015 was supposed to be another collection of callsigns on 6m and 10m for the SOTA Challenge. However, conditions on those bands was so poor that I spent most of the time on 2m (which conveniently works well on the 6m/10m antenna) trying to persuade people to QSY to 50MHz! That tactic worked - to a small degree. Plus I did get a welcome S2S with Allan and Barry on Great Knoutberry Hill G/NP-015.
Tuesday 11th August 2015 was the 70cm UKAC. It was also supposed to be the peak of the Perseids meteor shower, also potentially offering some enhanced VHF propagation. 65 QSOs were made on 70cm, after which I put up the SB6 Moxon to see what might happen on 50MHz under the meteors. Well, not a lot. There was a nice contact into EA6 - Majorca but otherwise three G stations.
Monday 17th August 2015 saw me head up The Cloud in between doing other things. Just two contacts in a bit of a damp squib of an activation. On thing though - from my operating point on the lower cliffs, I noticed a fairly distinct path on the land below. I made a mental note to investigate further.
Onto Tuesday 18th August 2015, and a trip out to The Cloud G/SP-015 with Liam. On the previous day's activation, I had noticed a very good looking path cutting diagonally up the North Western flank of the hill. I had never seen or noticed this route before, which is quite remarkable really, in over 750 activations of this hill! Liam and I set out to find this path. This meant walking downhill along Red Lane from the usual parking spot on Cloudside. After a couple of bends, we saw the path veering off into the trees, and by a National Trust sign.
The path then contoured along the hillside at a consistent and graded rate, and for the main was a good flat, firm surface on which to walk. We could see the cliffs dropping off the edge of the summit plateau ahead. We weren't sure how or where this path would emerge, but for now we pushed on. As we neared the summit, we were presented with a choice. The now much less distinct path split into two options. One a slightly less steep route through ever higher vegetation, or swinging left into almost a mild scramble to the top. We went for the latter. Soon I was at a sheltered spot I sometimes use just below the summit rocks, and then a short walk onto the summit itself.
Radio activity was as follows: 17m CW: 1 QSO (W) 20m CW: 9 QSOs (G, EA, I, OE, SP, UR, W) 30m CW: 4 QSOs (F, I, LA, OZ) 40m CW: 2 QSOs (DL, ON)
Conditions were generally rubbish (I think), unless my butchery of my antenna has seriously ruined its overall RX and TX capability! Overall, the experiment to combine the Z match with the 20m GP *appeared* to be successful. Things I thought I would still like to address were: * Ability to use 15m as well as the other bands. * Reconfigure so that the Micro Z is beside me and the radio, rather than at the feedpoint of the aerial, where I have to get up to adjust it.
I nipped out for an early evening SOTA activation, and got my multiband vertical working on four different bands. Quite pleasing.
The cattle were friendly enough, but it was clear it would not be feasible to put HF wire in the air! I just made one local QSO on 2m FM with the handheld in the end!
That evening, it was back to proper SOTA with a batch of 6m activity from Cloud summit.
All good fun. All contacts on 2m, 83 on SSB and 1 on CW. Dry night despite many surrounding areas suffering rain (visible from summit). Nice red moon over the eastern horizon (Merryton Low, Roaches, Gun). Slight breeze but nothing disruptive.
17m was reasonable from 1200 on Tuesday 29th September 2015, and starting to hold up really well after 1300z today. 4 US chasers worked on 18MHz. Unfortunately, at that time I had to clear off to undertake other commitments. It had been an impromptu activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 using my modified 20m GP, with the Micro Z, affording operation on 40m, 30m, 20m, 17m, 12m, 10m and 6m. I can't find a good setting to allow operation on 15m as of yet with this configuration. Today's results: 40m CW: 5 (DL, ON); S2S - DM/RP-464 40m SSB: 3 (G); S2S - G/SP-002 30m CW: 7 (DL, HB, OE, SM); S2S - HB/LU-007 20m CW: 3 (EA, S5, SP) 20m SSB: 6 (GW, I, OE, OK); S2S - OE/TI-430, OK/PL-005 17m CW: 13 (9A, LY, OM, RA, W, YL + /MM) 12m CW: 1 (RA) 38 QSOs, 18 DXCCs + /MM. Loads of fascinated passers-by wanting to know more!
Thursday 1st October 2015 saw me go out for a late afternoon/early evening activation. The 17m band proved quite fruitful with contacts across Europe and North America.
Sunday 4th October 2015 saw a very brief activation to try the 15m band. Results were less than spectacular!
Tuesday 6th October 2015 brought 77 contacts, all on 2m, on the contest activation. That was all SSB. The FM frequencies were buzzing as well, but I didn't bother with FM.
Given that there isn't any light at the end of the tunnel, I originally thought I would take just my 40m dipole up The Cloud G/SP-015 on the morning of Saturday 10th October 2015. But then I wondered about 30m. So I decided to take my modified 20m GP and Micro Z tuner, hereafter known as my "Magic Wire System". Of course, it is not magic. "Inefficient" would probably be more accurate, but it gets me on the air with a vertical antenna on several bands, and with the unquestionably superior and efficient mode of CW, I can out get with results anywhere on a continuum between mediocre and quite-good. So with that I made 12 contacts split between 40m, 30m and 20m, all CW and including S2S with HB/BE-146, OE/TI-314 and OK/JM-018. So still no light at the end of the tunnel, and no soup because I intended being home by lunchtime in order to catch Macclesfield Town v Kidderminster Harriers being shown live on BT Sport 1 HD. My fingers were crossed that "the end of the tunnel" would show itself for the second period of the 10m/6m Challenge that coming winter. And if as expected it didn't, at least I'd have my Magic Wire antennas and exotic flasks of soup to cheer me up as I tried to eke out those 28MHz and 50MHz QSOs to build my SOTA Challenge score. ROTFL!
I nipped out early on the Sunday morning - 11th October 2015 - for a quick activation. This became a "forgotten activation", not logged or recorded in any way until discovered in a paper log book nearly ten months later!
"Winter Fun Evening"? Really cold night on Tuesday 13th October 2015, making barely one QSO every three minutes for two-and-a-half hours? Fun? Of course! 51 QSOs on 70cm SSB from The Cloud G/SP-015, using the FT-817 (5w) and the SOTAbeams SB270 antenna, set as the 6 element Yagi. 15 locator squares worked: IO64, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 95, JO01, 02, 03. Heard, but not worked: IO75, 86. Not heard (but usually heard): IO72, 80, 94, JO00 + France. DXCCs: G, GW, GD, GI, GM. ODX: Probably one of GI4SNA (IO64), G0GQT (JO01) or GM4GUF/P (IO85). S2S: Robert GM4GUF/P on Tinto GM/SS-064 My contest entry is somewhat vulnerable to adjudication, as I only have one QSO in 9 of the 15 locator squares! Must take extra care typing this entry in!! Harrington Arms, Gawsworth, for post-activation drinkies. Fancied something refreshing so went for the Stowford Press cider. Even more refreshing was when the only other customer in there insisted on topping me up, buying me a half! He is a regular, originally from the Solomon Islands, and he and I, with the barmaid, chatted about the Rugby World Cup, and Macclesfield Town's current superb run of form for half-an-hour or so. A nice end to the evening.
Liam was out Laserquesting (is that a verb?) with his mates at Lyme Green on Saturday 17th October 2015, so I (obviously) decided to shoehorn (I think that can be a verb) an activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 in between drop-off and pick-up. I managed a couple of contacts on 20m CW (EA and S5) before switching to 30m CW. Here I added nine QSOs (DL, EA, F, OE, ON, SM) including S2S to EA2/BI-035. One station in particular incessantly kept calling me no matter what I said - eg "SP9?". Eventually I sent his callsign and "NIL" - which was a mistake as he replied with "CFM 599 TU". Apologies to SP9AMH I think it was, who lost the QSO due to this QRM. I tried 7MHz as alerted, but the band was rammed with contest stations. I speculatively tried a narrow gap and used the very convenient IF rotary control on my HB1B to shut out all the splatter. I saw that the RBN could "hear" me via the skimmer network, but I suspect chasers couldn't. I returned to 10MHz, which was a good move because it netted me the S2S with EA2WX/P. I would be back up Cloud summit the following morning for the 6m AFS contest.
Sunday morning, 18th October 2015 was the 6m AFS contest. A good number of contacts was made, but it did get rather slow especially in the last hour!
I set off my keyer on the CQ loop, and soon noticed that the RBN had spotted me, and from a US skimmer with a respectable SNR as well. This was a pleasant surprise, and soon I received a reply from K4MF. This headed up a little run of six USA stations, all on 15m CW, culminating in KX0R from Colorado. The 7th and last contact was EA8/RN3QO with a very big signal, before I needed to pack up and meet Liam in Congleton. I decided I'd need to give 15m, as well as 17m and 12m, some proper airings within the coming fortnight.
I also heard GM4PPT and DF0MU out there but they didn't hear me. The F and DL stations were giving out serial numbers in the 70s. Seems VHF CW needs a serious boost in the UK though where the serial numbers seemed much lower. I was seriously thinkng that the second part of the contesting, scheduled for a Sunday morning activation, would be cancelled - weather, work, lack of sleep, lack of enthusiasm, take your pick.
I stripped some of the coating of the core with my teeth, wrapped it around the driven element and secured it in place with the now separate crocodile clip. I used a spare cable tie to give best possible strain relief close to there as this was now a very temporary and very vulnerable arrangement! Fortunately, it worked, and thank goodness, because at long last a bit of UK activity picked up in this 2m CW contest, and also there was a bit of a lift. 16 QSOs were made to add the the 16 from Saturday, but in half the time. Furthermore, they were a bit more "interesting": DL: JN59, JO30, 31, 40, 41. (6) G: IO82, 83, 90, 91. (7) GW: IO73. (1) OK: JO60. (2) Of course multipliers didn't count for this event, it just goes on accumulated km distance points, but that gives a flavour of what was worked. Smashing, glad I went for it in contradiction of all available logic. It was now time to load up on coffee and Red Bull, and pick my mum up for a trip to Blackpool. Now, if only there was a decent show I could take her to...
My 70cm SSB activation from The Cloud G/SP-015 on Tuesday 10th November 2015: FT-817, 5 watts, SOTAbeams SB270 antenna (set as 6 el beam for 432MHz). Needed to fix the feeder cable before heading out, as it had parted company with a crocodile clip in the weekend's 2m CW contest (as reported above). After resorting to operating from my car in last week's 2m UKAC due to the horridness of the weather, it was nice to be on the summit on a dry night once again. 59 QSOs. Best DX F8BRK in IN99 square.
I remembered every component for the afternoon activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 on Monday 16th November 2015. I was settling in for a legendary activation when the first two CQ calls brought back WX4ET and PY1MK within the space of 60 seconds! Things then dried up rapidly, and while three more US stations were worked, I finished on a measly 7 contacts.
10m CW: 5 10m SSB: 1 10m PSK31: 1
There was activity, and the band was behaving reasonably conditions-wise. Saturday 1147 to 1303z: 38 QSOs, all 10m CW Azores CU: 1 Belarus EU: 1 Bulgaria LZ: 1 Canary Islands EA8: 3 Crete SV9: 1 Cyprus 5B4: 1 England G: 2 Israel 4X: 1 Martinique FM: 1 Russia (European) R: 17 Serbia YU: 1 Tunisia 3V: 1 Ukraine UR: 6 USA W: 1
On this second (Sunday 29th November 2015) activation, I actually set up below the cliffs on the edge of the summit plateau in order to shelter from the gale-force winds. It seems my antenna could still "see" over the pond though! Radio: Yaesu FT-817 running 5 watts. Antenna: "Limited edition" (ie only 1 ever made) 10m/6m SOTA Challenge vertical with GP from SOTAbeams. I did try running on a frequency a few times, and initally with a spot (thanks Richard). However, the only callsign I recognised as a chaser was VE1WT. All good fun. Sunday 1522 to 1659z: 23 QSOs, all 10m CW Argentina LU: 1 Bonaire PJ4: 2 Canada VE: 2 Cape Verde D4: 1 Curacao PJ2: 1 England G: 1 French Guiana FY: 1 Italy I: 1 St Kitts & Nevis V4: 1 USA W: 12
Well I tried. Don't know if the 1500 Sunday ISWL took place at all. I checked the nominated frequencies on 80m and 40m and a good distance either side, but couldn't find anything. No joy with my attempts to call CQ to establish anything either. On my G/SP-015 activation of Sunday 13th December 2015, not really much response to my self spots on 10m CW, 10m PSK31, 10m SSB or 10m FM. Just Mark G0VOF in fact. Fortunately, the band was lively and I made 54 QSOs: 10m CW: 33 (CX, EA8, FY, G, I, LZ, RA, UR, W) 10m PSK31: 1 (LU) 10m SSB: 20 (CU, CX, EA, EA8, F, FJ, FY, G, GW, HI, I, LU, PJ4, W) MT2MT S2S with Simon G4TJC/P on Kinder Scout G/SP-001 and Jonathan GW2HFR/P on Gyrn Ddu GW/NW-050, both on 10m SSB. Good DX today. My 5w and groundplane was sufficient to get the DX stations 1st or 2nd call most times, somewhat to my surprise when they had pile-ups. Normally I'd be over the moon to work Argentina, but I worked several of them, so it became "less special" ha ha! Even Uruguay was worked three times. FY French Guiana was a nice one, as was PJ4 Bonaire. 1302 UTC is the earliest before darkness I've ever worked HI3 Dominican Republic but the best contact was probably TO2EE St Barthelemy Island (FJ). Using the MX1SWL/P callsign was a bit of a hinderance as it took other stations a few goes to copy it on several occasions.
Another morning trot up The Cloud G/SP-015 on Monday 21st December 2015, using MX1SWL/P callsign. 10m was a little more lively. Noy much, bit something at least. 6 QSOs on 10m CW (4X, EA, G, RA, UR) and 1 on 10m SSB (UR). As my antenna was the custom-built 10m/6m GP vertical with trap, from SOTAbeams, I had a little listen on 6m, but there was nothing there. The unexpected but highly convenient bonus with this antenna is that it works really well on 2m. So without any adjustment or swapping of antennas or feeders, I went straight onto VHF and added 9 stations on 2m FM. I'm going to see if I can keep up with an activation per day throughout the festive holiday period. Doing so in the past has been surprisingly effective at aiding weight loss and improving fitness - ie way faster than one would have thought. As I'm no longer in a work situation where it is easy and convenient to fit an activation into work days as a matter of course, it needs a more determined effort and I must take opportunities in holiday periods like this. So I hoped for another round the following morning.
Wednesday 23rd December 2015's activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 was again using MX1SWL/P, the club callsign of the International Short Wave League. It was a beautiful clear crisp sunny day with blue sky and very little cloud until mid afternoon. It was getting cold by then though! Lots and lots of people on the summit throughout, and lots of questions fielded about my activities and amateur radio in general. 10m CW: 18 (EA8, G, OK, RA, SV9, TA, UR, W) 10m PSK31: 2 (G, UR) 10m SSB: 4 (G, GW) 10m AM: 1 (G) 10m FM: 1 (G) 2m FM: 9 (G) Total for the activation: 35 QSOs, 9 DXCCs. I was intending some more Challenge fun on Xmas Eve morning, then some 40m CW/SSB for inter-G on Christmas Day.
Well, I made 3 contacts from the summit on 2m FM. Strangely, then there was no further response at all to my CQ calls. Well there wouldn't be would there? Unbeknownst to me, the VX7 had run out of charge. I wouldn't mind but I'm sure I charged it up in September.
I gambled on 40 for some inter G on Christmas morning - Friday 25th December 2015 - from the Cloud SP-015. That was wrong, it needed to be 60 or 80, but it was still nice to work lots of Germans. The summit was very busy throughout, from arrival in darkness at 0715 through to descending around 0930. Many were impressively equipped with cake, coffee, mince pies, prosecco and whisky! The weather was much better than forecast, largely dry and mild with just a spot of light rain towards the end of the activation. Thanks for the calls and Merry Christmas.
What comes around goes around. The weather for Christmas Day morning in East Cheshire was much better than forecast. The weather for Boxing Day morning - Saturday 26th December 2015 - in East Cheshire was much worse than forecast. It wasn't forecast to be that great anyway - but it was still "much worse", even than that! I blame these storm names. Since we started personalising them with names like Desmond and Eva, I reckon they've started playing up to the notoriety. Any teacher will tell you that was a basic error. A schoolboy error in fact. So it was wet, dirt, windy and horrible on The Cloud. I suffered breakages. I suffered 35 members of the local running club. Yesterday I found that 40m wasn't working for inter G and I should have used 80m. So I started on 80m today - and it was completely dead. All the inter G action was on 40. Fortunately, I was using the SOTAbeams HB1B so I just had to open the furthest links. However, that meant I had to get out of the bothy bag and brave the elements again. Not that the bothy bag was exactly an oasis with ample wet and dirt on its inside as well as outside. Six 40m SSB contacts, all UK & EI, was the result. And a bit of a listen to Weekend Music Radio on 6395kHz and the Bogusman on 6255kHz!
I decided I would be having a go at the RSGB Christmas Cumulatives contest series this year. I didn't manage the first one, due to going to the Boxing Day football match, but hoped to be QRV from G/SP-015 on this day, Sunday 27th December 2015, the following day, and Tuesday. Jimmy M0HGY had done the first one from home the previous day but found activity quite low. Hopefully, the addition of a SOTA activation to chase on 3 bands would drum up a bit more interest! The contests run simultaneously on 4 bands - 6m, 4m, 2m, 70cm. I don't have 4m, but planned to be QRV on the other three. In a 2 hour contest, I wasn't sure how many band changes I'd get through or how it would go. My prediction was that I would start on 6m, then go to 2m, then to 70cm. After that I expected I to focus on whichever was the more fruitful out of 6m and 2m. But I didn't really know, having never done these contest before. It was quite good fun. Conditions were average, activity reasonable, albeit only half what I'm used to on a Tuesday night, and the rain held off. I walked up to the summit, erected the mast and guyed it and opened up the red SOTAbeams bag to pull out the SB6. However, what I pulled out was Jimmy's MFD, which is in an identical bag. Epic fail. So I packed everything back up again, descended, swapped bags, climbed the hill for a second time and set up again. Quite remarkably, I still managed to make the event start time of 1400 UTC. Several times I was asked to QSY to another band to work a station again, which appears to be the norm in this 4 band (6m-4m-2m-70cm) event, but I had to explain that I was a portable station and would have to physically change antennas to do this. As it was, I did 1400-1425 on 6m, 1425 to 1525 on 2m, 1525 to 1540 on 70cm and the remainder back on 6m again. I shall probably switch that around for this afternoon, going in the order 2m - 70cm - 6m - 2m. My results were: 6m: 10 QSOs, 7 mults (G + IO81, 82, 83, 91, 93, JO02) = 70 points 2m: 24 QSOs, 16 mults (G, GW, GM, F + IN99, IO73, 75, 80, 82, 83, 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, JO01) = 384 points 70cm: 4 QSOs, 3 mults (G + IO81, 83) = 12 points So 466 points to take into the 3rd session of this 4 session series. An entrant's best 3 of the 4 events is what constitutes their final score, but as I missed the Boxing Day session to go to the footy, all mine will have to count. I think the only known SOTA chaser I worked was my son Jimmy M0HGY. I hoped to get a few more in the log in the 3rd and 4th sessions. I wondered about venturing onto FM to try to boost the 2m score with it being 1 point per QSO as opposed to distance points. However, the danger then of course would be getting the uniques disqualified from the submitted log if those stations only appear in my log and no others. It would be a gamble - if I had time.
On Monday 28th December 2015, I kicked off with 7 quickfire 2m FM contacts in the 5 minutes before the contest start time. In the contest, my order was 2m - 70cm - 6m - 2m. I still had several contesters requesting QSYs to other bands. I had to explain (again) that I was a portable station that needed to take an antenna down and put another up in order to do that. The results were: 6m: 5 QSOs, 5 mults (G, GW + IO81, 83, 91) = 25 points 2m: 37 QSOs, 21 mults (G, GD, GI, GW, GM, F + IN99, IO64, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, JO01) = 777 points 70cm: 4 QSOs, 5 mults (G, GD, GW + IO74, 83) = 20 points. Strategy for the fourth and final session was as yet undecided.
I don't do a lot of 2m FM, but did a bit after the VHF contest on Tuesday 29th December 2015. It was easy peasy. 13 contacts in 13 minutes. I could have gone on and made a load more, but it was getting very cold, very windy and very dark, and I wanted to go home for my tea. But I can safely conclude that rumours of 2m FM's demise are well wide of the mark. If anything, it is easier and more active than in those so-called "golden days" of SOTA 5/10 years ago. Before that, it was the 4th and final session of the RSGB Xmas Cumulatives. The results in that were: 6m: 9 QSOs, 6 mults (G, GW + IO81, 82, 83, 91) = 54 points 2m: 31 QSOs, 20 mults (G, GD, GI, GW, GM, F + IN99, 73, 74, 75, 81, 82, 83, 85, 86, 91, 92, 93, 94, JO01) = 620 points 70cm: 6 QSOs, 5 mults (G, GD, GW + IO74, 83) = 30 points A pleasant and enjoyable series of contests - I might even be persuaded to miss the Boxing Day footy to take full part next year.
After my comfortable victory over Storm Eva recently, I was up for going into battle with Storm Frank. I had activated on every day of my Christmas holiday, 11 consecutive days so far. I wanted to keep that going until I returned to work in January, but that did mean a showdown with Frank. It would have to be early morning on Wednesday 30th December 2015 due to going to see a show later. Speed would be of the essence, both because of my later commitments, and because of the likely poor weather. Therefore it had to be 2m handheld only, work whoever is there - then leg it! Mission was accomplished. 9 QSOs on 2m FM with the handheld and rubber duck. No problem at all with getting QSOs on 2, even with the most basic kit. Storm Frank had a proper go. I was continually steadying myself against the topography and the chasers had live coverage of me being blown off my feet several times. I'd been doing the Christmas Cumulatives contest the past three days from the same site, but any antenna wouldn't stay up for 5 seconds in that. After I got in from my activation, we drove up to Blackpool to see a show. It was a physical battle with my steering wheel at times to keep the Picasso in a straight line such was the buffeting crosswind. Then I had to contend with being cut-up something rotten by an Audi that just hadn't seen me. Either my reactions, or the Picasso's handling, or a bit of both, saved us. The return drive couldn't have been more different. Serene, calm and pleasant. Fingers crossed, we've seen the back of Frank. Jimmy and I are now eyeing up a window in the weather around New Year's Eve lunchtime to activate Shining Tor G/SP-004, our most local SOTA summit. Remarkably, Jimmy hadn't activated it yet in 2015...
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