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So, after Gun G/SP-013 on New Year's Day 2018, finally over to The Cloud G/SP-015, where the parking was in very high demand, but I got the last space. I was hoping to buy a bag of logs from the cottage at the bottom of the track, but couldn’t see anyone about. I did see a sign with a number on it though, so I called it and left a voicemail.
Business was much brisker on The Cloud than it had been on the previous two of the day’s summits. Nine QSOs went into the logbook, and the points for the year from my local three, were safely in the bag. On my descent, I noticed that a voicemail had been received, and it was Carl from the cottage to say that I could collect the logs on my way down. So the fire at home was later burning with logs from The Cloud, as we had family round for a New Year’s Day dinner. I was back home by 3.15pm, and felt somewhat satisfied to have completed and qualified the three activations and done two lots of shopping, all within a window of 4.5 hours out of the house. Really enjoyed it too. Happy New Year!
Also worked were 2E0DIJ and Jordan MW3TMX/P S2S from Cyrn-y-Brain GW/NW-043. I had intended to take the rucksack and resume some HF activating on 40m, or maybe 15m. However, it was very cold and windy at the parking spot and I soon changed my mind. The wind was northerly, which would have rendered my favoured sheltered spot, well, unsheltered. So VX7, 2m FM handheld again. I’ll be getting a reputation…
Ah well, back to the 2m handie then - which I’d left in the car - aargh! I sat on the summit for a good hour, just admiring the stunning views on this crisp, cold and bright January morning. Eventually, I descended to dump the rucksack and collect the VX7. The reascent was very quick, and I was soon QRV on 2m FM. Four contacts, and back down I went. I’ll be getting a reputation…
After the “day-job”, I had some private maths tutoring to do in Biddulph, but this finished earlier than scheduled, so I was able to head off for The Cloud G/SP-015 shortly after 5.30pm. The mud was frozen solid, but not icy or slippery, so the walk up was quick, easy and relaxed. On the summit I called and called on the handheld, but couldn’t seem to get any response. Then like buses, two came at once, and I QSYd down to 145.450MHz FM. Four contacts in two minutes, then no more callers despite a couple of QRZs and one more CQ call on S20. So job done, down I went, and home for tea. That was now 45 consecutive days of SOTA activating, 72 activations in the last 68 days. This was set to continue for a while yet…
And a nice little stroll it was. Well, nice if you enjoy 50cm visibility and freezing cold hands. The visibility was so poor that I had no idea where I was during most of the ascent, and most of the descent. And I kinda know my way around that hill! I was just using the VX7 handheld and rubber duck. The QRP section of the FMAC for 2018 has a couple of new antenna restrictions. The antenna must be omnidirectional - ie not a beam (for instance), and must be vertically polarised. Crucially though, it appears the Contest Committee has not stated any limits by which to define vertical. No “vertical” will be at exactly 90.000000000000 degrees to the tangent to the surface of the Earth at that point, and a handheld rubber duck certainly won’t. I believe that idea behind this rule was to make contest newcomers (who the CC believe to be teenagers with handhelds connected to white stick aerials mounted outside their bedroom windows) more competitive. The actual effects of this rule in practice appear to be to (a) substantially reduce the number of entrants in the QRP section (those with beams and/or horizontal antennas now have to go in the 50w section, even if QRP), and (b) it is now difficult or even impossible for stations in the 10w vertical (10V) to work many stations in the 50R section due to the non-compatible polarisation (around two thirds of stations in the main section use horizontal antennas). I certainly found that for some stations, I needed to tilt/rotate the handheld through a sufficient angle for them to be able to hear me. Quite what the limiting angle would be, that would define my polarisation as horizontal rather than vertical, I wasn’t sure - perhaps as well that it’s not been specified! Anyway, a total of seven stations worked on 70cm FM, 5 in IO83, and one each in IO84 and IO93. Amazingly, with these seven QSOs on a VHF handheld radio - I won the contest!
Enjoyable walk, as ever, and plenty of people on the hill, as ever. Called on 2m FM on the VX7, as ever, and got four contacts, as ever. The pattern of four QSOs I get is getting familiar too: A S2S. Someone else. A couple who are both licensed! In this case, the S2S was Adrian G4AZS/P p on Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002, the ‘someone else’ was G4NTY, and the couple, on this occasion, was not King and Queen of Heald Green, but the Prince and Princess of Rhos - Steven 2W0JYN and Steph MW6SHJ. Back home at 1203z (which Marianne classified as “late”) and out for a lovely walk around the full perimeter of Fernilee reservoir in the High Peak. Followed by a great meal with great beer at the Beehive in Combs. £17.50 for three courses - generous portions too.
Three contacts worked on Thursday 18th January 2018 - on 2m FM from The Cloud G/SP-015. I was carrying the rucksack with all the kit and intending activating on 40m. However, on arrival on summit, I saw a quickly advancing wall of dark grey with the feet of a rainbow sticking out each end, and I copped out and reached for the VX7. As it was, the heavy shower missed me by about three fields, or about 300 yards, but it looked like there were more following in behind it.
In fact, I checked it out with another antenna when I got home. Sadly it looks like the issue is with the connection into the rig, and not with the helical antenna. Botheration.
The screen on my phone pointing at the ground gave me zone bit of light, but not much. I searched for a flashlight app on my phone, but couldn’t find one. Then I had a brainwave - video the path during the descent, causing a continuous bright flash to be on. This worked a treat - with the bonus of collecting an extremely boring SOTA video to share with you all!
At the summit I met a second NT party, a separate one concerned with woodland management. We had a good natter about various things, including the recent incident with mountain bikers, of which they were already aware. Inevitably, they were interested in what I was up to, and we had a good chat about that. It was good to hear that the NT’s position on such things remains that they consider it a “low-impact activity” based on the lightweight portable/packable gear used, and the short duration of activations, and that as such, it is tolerated. As regards the SOTA activation itself, this time I was determined to break my 2018 HF ‘duck’, and set up the 40m dipole. I was soon regretting it though, watching the pole bend in the wind. I had a few goes at resetting it, but I was starting to think that my policy of hitherto waiting for decent weather before going HF, was a rather sensible one! Anyway, no problems and no disasters. In fact the only disruption was when EA2CNA suddenly landed on 7.032MHz and started calling a QRS CQ - he obviously couldn’t hear me! Others on the frequency tried, in vain, to ask him to QSY - but he couldn’t hear them either! Just seven QSOs on 40m CW, then a couple on 2m FM. I’m definitely out of practice at setting up an HF dipole and packing it away again. I’m sure I used to be able to do it much faster!
It was very calm and still night on Cloud summit on Monday 5th February 2018. The 2m band busy with most QRGs from 145.375Mhz through to 145.575MHz in use. Eight QSOs made.
30 QSOs were made on FM in that first hour, though some of it was lost as I started to prepare the rest of the beam in readiness for the UKAC at 8pm. It was a lovely and indeed relevant surprise to be called by Paul G4MD/P. Lovely, as Paul is a jolly nice bloke, and I had no idea he was back working up this way again. Relevant, as Paul was the person who first proposed the idea of a Tuesday night SOTA Fun Evening! I made a total of 111 QSOs on 2m - 30 on FM and 81 on SSB. Activity was really good with well over 300 stations on, though conditions were not that great at all. Packing up in the brutal cold at 10.30pm was not all that enjoyable, and I was glad to be in my stride walking down the hill, and even gladder to be in my car with the heater on a few minutes later!
Saturday 10th February 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015. 78th consecutive day of SOTA activating. 110th SOTA activation in the last 102 days. Still too windy and rainy to be messing about with portable HF antennas, so 2m FM handie once again. Four QSOs on 145.450MHz FM. Then to the Moss Rose to watch Macclesfield Town defeat Guiseley AFC 2-1, and return to the top of the league. First Joe Longthorne show of the year was the following day (Sunday) in Blackpool, so a different reference - and the actual collection of an activator point - was very much on the cards.
After driving back from the "Ponderosa Pair" on Sunday 18th February 2018, I picked up Jimmy from home, and drove over to Cloudside. After only a couple of minutes, Jordan arrived in his car, and we set off up the hill. Jimmy was keen not to QRM Jordan’s 2m FM activation - but also keen to collect his activator point - so he quickly got QRV with his handheld while Jordan was setting up his SOTA Beam - an original 3 element SOTA Beam I noticed! When Jordan was ready, Jimmy went QRT having qualified. I went on 2m Fusion, and operating on digital from around 900Hz down the band, it seemed that Jordan and I caused each other no issues at all, despite being only 80 yards or so away.
I made three QSOs on 2m C4FM, then passed the rig to Jimmy so he could record a Fusion contact for himself. Initally, I didn’t think to edit the outgoing callsign on the rig, but the lesson was soon learned and put into practice! The joint activation closed with Jordan having a go on Fusion, then Jimmy having a second go. We walked back down and shared directions for which pub we were going to.
The Robin Hood Inn on the A54 was surprisingly closed, so we continued down towards Congleton and went in the Church House instead. We had a good natter and I was very interested to hear all about Jordan’s job working as a radio producer. I told him about Liam’s work with Upload Radio, and Canalside 102.8. Anyway, as ever, the Ponderosa Pair made for a most enjoyable day out, and the extra summit and surprise meet-up with an old friend was a great way to end it.
Unfortunately the supplied supplementary manual for the WIRES-X additional function is very badly written and seems to be full of errors and omissions. So straight onto 144.6125MHz C4FM it was, and straight back came Ian G0CTO. This resulted in a lengthy QSO about which frequencies should be used for C4FM. Ian’s view was that 145.375MHz should be DV calling with the standard 2m FM frequencies also used for C4FM QSOs. So far, I myself tend towards the preference of the DV ops in South Yorkshire, to utilise the all modes section from 144.6125 to 144.7875MHz, avoiding of course the 250Hz multiples which are Raynet frequencies. Next up on Fusion was Neil M0WBG, who could report that whatever the issue was affecting his reception of my C4FM signal the previous night, was thankfully no more. That was all on Fusion for this activation, but ten QSOs were added on 2m FM. Thanks to everyone that called in.
Anyway, on the morning of Sunday 25th February 2018, I awoke at 0630. I tried to go back to sleep but all I could think about for the next hour was my 20m GP antenna. Yes, I’m afraid so. So at 0730, I got up, put the kettle on and got the tape measure, wire cutters, choc block, reel of green military spec heavy duty wire, RG58 feeder (from an old SOTA Beam, so already nicely terminated with a BNC) and wire winders out. I also got the very nice laser cut centrepiece that Jonathan GW2HFR kindly sent me. This was based on the SOTABEAMS kit version - but redesigned to accommodate a fourth radial and the thicker antenna wire and feeder cable. It took me just over an hour to build the antenna - probably stupidly slow by most adept people’s standards, but very pleasing progress for me personally and my historic low confidence with practical stuff. But would it work? It’s a bit of a squeeze and a flaff to test antennas in my garden, and if going out to the local park, I might as well go out to a local summit. Richard G3CWI was at a loose end and wanted to perform another C4FM activation, so I picked him up and off we went. It was a stunningly beautiful sunny morning, albeit very cold if you sited yourself in an unsheltered position. As Richard discovered. I knew the driven element on my antenna was easily too long. I had been cautious with my cutting earlier. I also needed to be cautious with putting my antenna up and down; The Cloud G/SP-015 was extremely busy, as to be expected on such a fine day. It took a bit of work to get the mast upright with viable pegging positions few and far between; most of the ground was frozen. Once everything was set up, I was quickly able to determine that the antenna, at present, was resonant around 13.6MHz. Good - exactly what I had expected. I lopped some of the wire off the driven element and retied it to the small acrylic piece that sat on the top of the mast. No further adjustments were necessary. Resonance was now at around 14.150MHz with the whole band showing as viable. I kept one eye on the RBN spots which indicated some good data from Eastern Europe and North America. I made 13 QSOs on 20m CW, including two US stations. After returning home, I was pleased to see that lots of beacons had received me. Richard inspected the antenna and acknowledged, with some understandable surprise, that it wasn’t too bad an effort. He did advise me to protect the ends of the radials where they were close to the corners of the square centrepiece though - which I will do shortly with some sleeving or tape. We drove back to Macclesfield but accidentally fell into the Harrington Arms at Gawsworth for a pint and a homemade Scotch egg on the way. These things happen.
M1EYP’s 1000th activation of this summit. Pleasant ascent in heavy snow. Called on 2m Fusion but no response despite heavy promotion on SOTAwatch and the North West Fusion Facebook group. Pete 2E0LKC and Anne 2E0LMD were worked on 2m FM analogue before I did get Tony G4DEE on C4FM. I spotted a note on the aforementioned Facebook group that a member there was listening for me, so I switched back on and Chris 2E0MOW was a great signal. He didn’t hear my responses though. So just three QSOs, and a tricky drive home down lanes covered in a layer of ice topped with a layer of snow.
I had a very limited time window between a day of A Level maths coaching in a college in Crewe, and a two hour private GCSE tuition session in Wilmslow. Enough to nip up and down G/SP-015 and make a few QSOs on the handheld though. I was hoping for all Fusion contacts and posted notes on the North West Fusion group on Facebook, and in a PM to a local Fusion operator.
I self-spotted on SOTAwatch just prior to commencing my 8 minute ascent. It was a very pleasant walk up in freshly fallen snow, and nice views from the summit. Out came the Yaesu FT-70DE, on which I began calling CQ on 144.6125MHz C4FM (Fusion). To my surprise - nothing. Nothing at all. Due to my needing to be back on the road for my next bout of earning money, I couldn’t carry on calling much longer, so went over to analogue FM and worked Pete 2E0LKC and Anne 2E0LMD. A couple more calls on Fusion, but still no takers. I later found out that members of the North West Fusion group had been monitoring, but hadn’t heard me. The two obvious improvements I need to make to fare better are to (a) connect to a decent portable antenna, and (b) spend longer than 4 minutes on the summit. Another time though, neither option was feasible today.
QRV 1908 to 2227 UTC. 114 contacts on 2m (37 on FM and 77 on SSB) - yet I still feel a sense of disappointment with that. There were many more stations out there that I didn’t work, and a large number of locator squares I didn’t get into.
This was to be another mammoth 3.5 hour evening activation, with the 6m FMAC (1 hour) followed by the 6m UKAC (2.5 hours). I had been using just my old soon-to-be-decommissioned VX7R for the 6m FM section, and making just one QSO (GW8ASD) each contest! I decided to try to cobble up a roll-up dipole to hang from the SOTA Pole. It was all a bit of a rush job, and once on the summit I realised I had not given sufficient thought to the angle at which the feeder would approach the feedpoint. I managed to get something possibly viable by hanging the dipole lower on the mast, and looping the feeder around the halfway point of one of the guy cords. But it still didn’t work. VSWR was very high, and only seemed to drop (slightly) around 33MHz. So I had clearly made a fundamental error at some point. So it was the same result as January and February - just Tony GW8ASD in the log, worked on the VX7R (carried up as back-up) with helical + extension, on 51.470MHz FM. I also heard G8ZRE and M0RKX/P, but they clearly weren’t hearing me. I’ve got a different idea to try next, for a 6m vertical for the FM part of the band, which should address the issues encountered. At this point it was 1950z, and I still didn’t have the SOTABEAMS SB6 set up for the main event. (The RSGBCC still has this silly rule where, effectively, a /P station operating QRP in the FMAC and UKAC events, needs to change antennas on site between the two. I am trying to improve my speed at this task to squeeze it in between 19:59:59 and 20:00:00, but I am not there yet). Happily, the SB6 was working perfectly, although the conditions were at the opposite end of the scale from “perfect”. A total of 56 QSOs were made in a very slow-moving 150 minutes. It was very cold, so uncomfortably so at 1 degree Celcius, that I deployed the bothy bag for that all-important “boost” of a couple of degrees. Activation totals: 57 QSOs.
6m CW: 1 6m SSB: 55 6m FM: 1
F: 1 G: 51 GW: 3 GD: 1 GI: 1
Nonetheless, 12 QSOs including S2S with G8JSM/P on G/SP -017, G0WPO/P on G/SP-005, SV2RUJ/P on SV/MC-075 and 9A6CW/P on 9A/DH-082. 20m CW: 8 20m SSB: 3 2m C4FM: 1 As others have said, EU contacts on 20m only became available later on, and most of mine were after 0900z. Before that it was the dying embers of the DX path and groundwave only for me with a GP antenna. Thanks to VK2WP, VK1AD and 2E0YYY for the SWL points. There were a couple of heavy showers during the activation. My backpacking tent kept me and my gear dry, but couldn’t shelter my RX from the rain static.
70cm - 70 QSOs! FM - 26 SSB - 44 Before setting out, I cut a new 70cm reflector element to replace the broken one from my SB270. This worked a treat, and the antenna was behaving perfectly once more. Having established a fully operational beam, I removed all the director and reflector elements, leaving just the driven element - so effectively now just an omnidirectional dipole, and in accordance with this year’s silly new rule for QRPing in the FMACs. That all worked, and 26 QSOs were made on FM. Lots more stations were using the all-mode section from 432.525MHz to 432.975MHz. On these evenings it is nigh on impossible to get a slot in the more usual 433.400MHz to 433.475MHz QRGs, while contest QSOs are not allowed on 433.525MHz to 433.575MHz. At 2000z, I had to lose a few minutes of time to change the antenna back to the beam, but then got going. By 2123z I’d made 44 contacts - but then the lights went out! Quite literally. My current Petzl headtorch has a rechargeable lithium battery, that you charge via a USB to micro USB cable (like for an Android phone) - which is good, but it seems to make the headtorch lose the functionality of giving you a warning flash when the battery is running down. I am used to getting a warning flash - at which point I know I’m down to 3 hours of light - so I know to replace the batteries. So if I don’t get a warning flash, I’m still in the habit of not thinking to take action. After this, I would now recharge the battery for each nighttime outing. In any case, there was a little moonlight (thank goodness). Not enough to continue operating, but enough to start packing my gear away. While I was doing this, I left my headtorch battery recharging from my LifePO4 battery pack, and this gave me enough light to check I hadn’t left anything lying around, and to walk back down. From past experience, I’d have only probably added ten QSOs or so in the last hour anyway, and 70 QSOs for a 70cm SOTA activation is not exactly a bad haul. On the way home, I was listening to BBC Radio 5 Live, and the news that Chinese take-aways could possibly be forced to start labelling the salt content in their dishes due to a concern about high salt levels. I hadn’t had my tea, so called at the Chinese take away on the way home. Unfortunately, it was just closing for the evening, so I had to get a curry instead. Prawn saag and pilau rice.
I popped up The Cloud G/SP-015 to begin with, but couldn’t get any takers on 2m Fusion. On analogue FM, six quick contacts.
I wasn’t hanging around - I wanted to get to The Wrekin G/WB-010 before getting to soundcheck at my gig - plus it was incredibly windy. I could barely hear the audio on my Yaesu FT-70D even at full volume - plus when, as a 20-stone bloke, you’re getting blown about, you know it’s time to leave! It was very picturesque though! I took some photos of the footpath restoration walks that have started, for anyone that is interested. It was seeming to be a very long process, and already beyond the initially stated timeframe - but work was continuing.
I’m afraid Richard G3CWI and I didn’t make contact on either C4FM or FM as we'd hoped. I did make an easy S2S with Phil GW4HQB/P who was on GW/MW-001 - and indeed Richard GW3CWI/P made the S2S with GW/MW-0001 as you might expect from GW/MW-002! But between GW/MW-002 and G/SP-015, neither of us could hear the other one. A total of 8 QSOs made with the FT70D handie. 6 on 2m FM and 2 on 2m C4FM. I had carried the FT-817, battery and 20m GP up, but it was pretty windy on the summit, and I decided I couldn’t be bothered.
As I got in the car, I remembered I was ill-prepared. I remembered that last time I did a night-time activation, my headtorch ran out on me, and I didn’t think I’d charged it back up in the meantime! I plugged in my phone charge cable in the car, and planned to use the SOTAbeams PhonePole unit to continue charging it from my LifePO4 battery on summit. I hoped that with being on daylight saving time, by the time I needed it, it would have enough juice. As it was, I was only 15 minutes into activating when the headtorch battery was showing as fully-charged, so I could relax. Well sort of; the FMAC started at a thunderous pace with very high activity levels. Before that, a mountain biker rode across summit. “You know cycling isn’t allowed on here don’t you?” I called across. He replied - “I am entirely aware of that but thank you for letting me know” came the sneering and dismissive response. The footpath restoration works had progressed since my last visit, and the measures taken do appear to be successful in defining the path and keeping walkers on it rather than spreading out. The downside is that there are now some boggy sections on the route in places where there never used to be! I took the SOTAbeams MFD for the FM hour 1800-1900z, and recorded a pleasing 49 QSOs in that time. Squares worked on FM were IO82, IO83, IO84, IO92 and IO93. At 8pm BST, I lost a few minutes while I swapped over to the SOTAbeams SB5 beam antenna, which I hadn’t had chance to build before 7pm due to running late. In the main UKAC on 2m SSB, I made 92 QSOs. Squares worked were IO64, IO74, IO81, IO82, IO83, IO84, IO85, IO86, IO90, IO91, IO92, IO93, IO94, JO00, JO01, JO02, JO03 and IN99. I was disappointed not to find IN79 (Lizard) which was active, and suspect I missing far too many squares in the IO70s. I did hear PA (Netherlands) with a decent signal, but on someone else’s frequency. I also heard my friend and SOTA MT colleague Barry GM4TOE calling CQ, but couldn’t make my replies heard. At the end of the contest, I changed the antenna back over to the MFD and had a go on 2m C4FM (Fusion). Just one QSO was added, with Tony M0TAB in Shepshed, Leicestershire. DXCCs: 6 - F, G, GW, GI, GD, GM. 142 QSOs: 2m FM: 49 2m SSB: 92 2m C4FM: 1
22 QSOs: 20m CW: 6 2m C4FM: 7 2m FM: 8 70cm FM: 1 S2S: Viki M6BWA/P on Caer Caradoc G/WB-006 Only six QSOs on 20m, which surprised me. Even more surprising was that the two US contacts were K6MW in Washington State, and AB6SO from California! Nothing from the East coast at all!
I headed out early with my 20m GP antenna, hoping for some Far East or Pacific DX. Ha - no chance - in my first 20 minutes of CW CQing, only G4AYO came back to me. Eventually, from about 0718z, Russian stations started replying, along with a few from Greece, Serbia and Romania, but it definitely wasn’t the best morning to be out playing radio. An otherwise boring and unremarkable activation finished on a high, with S2S with Eva YO6EVA/P and Csaba YO6PIB/P on Hoapecu YO/EC-367.
Sunday 8th April 2018 I was able to hear John ZL1BYZ on 40m when he was working Mike the previous day - and that was listening through a 20m GP aerial! I didn’t expect to be able to work ZL, but nonetheless, I was still inspired to try my first 40m SOTA activation in a good while. Mistake one, was not check the contest calendar. No excuse as Jan SM3CER maintains an excellent online resource of this information. And sure enough, the SP DX contest was in full swing.
So finding a suitable frequency was going to be the main challenge, let alone keeping it, let alone working DX on it! Mistake two, was forgetting to bring my waterproof notepad. In this situation, what I tend to do these days is simply use the logging facility on the DroidPSK app on my phone. It still isn’t as fast or seamless as paper logging in my waterproof notepad, but significantly better than struggling to use regular paper, which I find only works outdoors on the very driest on days.
Other than that, all very pleasant and peaceful. 25 QSOs made, 5 on SSB and 20 on CW. Many thanks to all the chasers and S2S activators I worked. S2S with HB9EKO/P on HB/TG-010, OK/SP9MA/P on OK/ZL-045 and 9A2GA/P on 9A/ZH-032. Into the SWL log went IN3ADF/P, who was on I/AA-208.
Mainly a 20m activation this one, but I did take along the FT70D and included C4FM in my alert. Several times I called on 144.6125 Fusion, but no takers. I did get a handful on 2m FM analogue, but no-one that was DV-enabled. Total: 43 QSOs 20m CW: 29 20m SSB: 10 2m FM: 4 S2S: G4HQB/P on G/WB-014, F/OE7RDI/P on F/PE-238 & YO9GSB/P on YO/EC-607. Enjoyable.
Well, I never did manage to make a QSO from the garden, so all I had to go off was the seemingly good VSWR indication, the “centre” frequency of the antenna appearing to be around 51.5MHz, and all testing for continuity and shorts with the multimeter returning desired results. So it was just a matter of taking it up the hill and seeing if it actually worked. I actually got my timings right for once, and had the new antenna (quarter-wave vertical for 51.5 MHz, with elevated groundplane) up, plus the SB6 (Moxon) assembled ready for the swap-over at 8pm, all by 6.55pm. Of course, I really shouldn’t be struggling with the most basic of trigonometry, but it was nonetheless satisfying - and a bit of a relief - when the radials and cords were all the desired length and created the 45 degree angle to the mast when deployed, and that the RG58 coaxial feeder was long enough - but not too long. In the 6m FMACs so far this year, I have only had my old VX7R handheld with rubber duck available. In each of the contests so far, I have reached the dizzy heights of serial number 001! So I really was hoping for a PB with the new antenna, together with the FT-817. And yes, the plan came together. 6m FM is hardly the busiest of places, but QSOs came at a steady rate, and I made a total of 13 QSOs. It doesn’t seem a lot, but I expect that to place me in the top two or three for the contest. I was mostly chuffed that the antenna I had built earlier that day worked - and was effective. The new guying collars from SOTAbeams made this little project incredibly trivial and quick to complete. I managed to complete the changeover of antennas in a couple of minutes, so did not lose too much of the contesting time. This one started like a train, with 25 QSOs in the first 17 minutes! Like all contests though, it soon slowed up, and there were some big gaps in the times in my log by the end. It was also bitterly cold for an April evening, so not the most comfortable night out. In the 6m UKAC I made 68 QSOs, working into squares IO64, IO70, IO71, IO73, IO74, IO80, IO81, IO82, IO83, IO91, IO92, IO93, IO94, JO01, JO02. As ever, there were others out there; they just never came my way. A total of 81 QSOs for the activation: 13 on 6m FM and 68 on 6m SSB.
Eventually, at 0645, after 15 minutes of unanswered calling, I got a weak call from UR3IF and we made the QSO. At a similar time, I was spotted on the RBN network by a skimmer over that way - but with only 2dB SNR! Imagine my surprise therefore to be then called by John ZL1BYZ. That was brilliant, and certainly raised my hopes of getting the VK S2S. Alas, that was not to be, and the very quiet band continued to be - quiet. I finished with six QSOs, 5 on CW, 1 on SSB. It was the first time in a long time that I had operated the FT-817 with an internal battery pack. All seemed well with that.
This activation was primarily to give the 1400mAH NiMH internal pack of the FT-817 another outing before taking it to Lanzarote the following day. I’m happy to say it came through. In fact, in an hour and a half of operating, it did not get close to getting flat. A different conundrum now presents itself - do I continue to use it from its current state until it more of its charge capacity is expended, or do it charge it back up - and if the latter, for how long? I’ll probably choose to trust in the memoryless properties of NiMH, and the charging circuit of the 817, and put it on a standard 8 hour recharge. Anyway, fairly slow operating, mainly due to messing about with WIRES-X on Fusion in-between SOTA working, but ten QSOs made on 20m, two on SSB, and the rest CW. Six of the contacts were into North America, and one was into North Africa - Ceuta EA9. Two simplex C4FM contacts were made, and Chris 2E0MOW did call into the SOTA-LINK room via WIRES-X. We chatted on there, but didn’t make a SOTA-valid contact.
3 QSOs, all 2m, 1 x C4FM, 2 x FM - 2334 to 2354z. Nice walk up The Cloud by torchlight. A little breezy at the summit, but not cold.
3 QSOs, all 2m, 1 x C4FM, 2 x FM - 0000 to 0009z. Thanks to Steven 2W0JYN for double-checking MB6AH from his side, with regard to making a connection into WIRES-X room 44050 (SOTA-LINK). It appeared the room was not available.
Yes, I know I’d been cheekily calling it “SOTA Fun Evening” everytime I went out for a Tuesday evening activation. But few of them genuinely were; at least my perspective was that if I’m the only one doing it, then it’s not really a “Fun Evening”. Having said that, when I posted the notices on the reflector, I was always hopeful that at least one other person would decide to join in. This time though, it really was a Fun Evening. For I was not the only SOTA activator involved. My friend Paul G4MD was on Billinge Hill G/SP-017, so it really felt like the Summer Fun Evenings were back - well, apart from the “Summer” bit. It was great though, because Paul was the very person who first suggested the Tuesday evening SOTA activating tradition, and started doing them, all those years ago. The radio activity was good. The weather was not so good. May Day? It was cold, there were intermittent showers all night - and I’d forgotten my bothy bag. I made the decision that I would quit and go home early at the first sign of heavier rain. This never quite happened, and so the skies toyed and teased with me, successfully maximising the torture. On 2m, I made 122 QSOs. 39 on FM, 1 on CW and 82 on SSB. So not too shabby, although there was a hell of a lot more stations on that I didn’t work. DXCCs - 7: EI, F, G, GD, GI, GM, GW. QRAs - 19: IN99, IO51, 64, 73, 74, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 86, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, JO00, 01, 03. Not a bad return, but coming away without IO70, 71, 72, 75, 80, 95 and JO02 still leaves a sense of frustration! QSO maps below, for the FMAC and UKAC respectively:
This was my first SOTA of the year without a coat - either worn or carried. I simply ambled up to the summit without any rucksack, FT70D in one fleece pocket, logbook and pencil in the other. The main purpose of the activation was to try for the S2S with Allan G4VPX/P, who was expected around this time on St Sunday Crag G/LD-010. On the ascent I tried to access the SOTA-LINK WIRES-X room on MB6AH Fusion node, Stoke-on-Trent. This was successful, but there wasn’t any activity in the room! The node keeper 2E0YHW heard me though, and came on for a chat, and was my first contact. Shortly afterwards, Allan G4VPX/P called in with a surprisingly strong signal. I didn’t know what antenna Allan had deployed on St Sunday Crag, but I was just using the handheld with its stock rubber duck. Signals were genuinely 59 both ways. A very pleasing QSO - easily my best DX on C4FM Fusion. So only two QSOs for the activation, as I had to rush off for a booked tutoring session in Stoke-on-Trent, but a more-than-satisfying outing nonetheless.
I was now so tired that I could hardly move, so muscle memory alone got me to the summit I think. The summit area was fairly busy as expected, so I went to one of my favoured spots, a flat grassy area close to the cliff edge. I liked that the grass here was very short, after meeting an adder the previous day down in Essex! I didn’t like the presence of a tied-up little black bag of dog dirt right where I was about to set up. Why do people do that? It just doesn’t make any sense, as well as being horribly antisocial.
Jimmy made 13 QSOs on 2m FM on this one. I made a few QSOs on 20m CW, but again very slow going. Just a handful into Europe, some into the USA and one or two into England. I finished again by trying C4FM via Jimmy’s antenna, and adding four QSOs to my total by doing so. Jimmy also went on Fusion on added two of his own. While Jimmy was packing up, I waited by the topograph and called on S20. Some disgruntled local amateurs replied to complain about use of Digital Voice. Earlier in the day someone was deliberately transmitting FM while I was operating on C4FM, causing the AMS on my rig to kick in and reset the mode to FM. I disabled the AMS at the time - but had completely forgotten, so I was inadvertently transmitting in Fusion on the 2m calling channel! When I realised, I quickly reinstated the AMS on my rig - and apologised! I think my mind was now frazzled. Just before we descended, we heard Mike 2E0YYY/P on Overmoor, a HEMA summit, with a huge signal. Jimmy called in and worked him, then passed the handheld to me. Of course, in that very instant, the one-way QSB kicked in and I wasn’t heard. Thanks to everyone we worked for contributing to a great day out in the hills.
This time I tried the SOTAbeams MFD for the 70cm FM aspect of the evening, as I knew that other prominent activators use this antenna effectively on 433MHz - plus Jimmy checked out that the VSWR was OK on our Bank Holiday Monday activation. Performance overall was very similar to using the SOTAbeams SB270 with only the 70cm driven element attached, mounted for vertical polarisation - so I’d probably revert to that next month to save on the amount of equipment carried. For the main UKAC, I used the SB270 set up as a 6 element beam for 70cm, mounted horizontally. Overall, I made 79 QSOs, all on 70cm. 20 on FM, and 59 on SSB. QSB was a problem all evening, and my squares count was a bit dismal. DXCCs: 4 - G, GW, GD, GI QRAs: 13 - IO64, 74, 81, 82, 83, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, JO00, 01
So as a VHF contest effort, a tad disappointing. As a 70cm SOTA activation - pretty good!
I successfully spoke to GW4VPX, G3CWI and G1UUO in the SOTA-LINK WIRES-X room, but not Ed DD5LP, though Allan GW4VPX did hear him. I was connected through MB6AH node, Stoke-on-Trent, but this seemed to be carrying another net simultaneously. Not sure how? Anyway, 5 QSOs on 2m FM, and just the one on 2m C4FM. Plus of course all the SOTA-LINK stuff, but they don’t count for inclusion in the SOTA activation log!
First it was the 6m FM session. Seven QSOs made, culminating in a pleasing S2S with G1ZAR/P on Bardon Hill G/CE-004. I was late starting due to several factors, but I didn’t think I missed much! Onto the main UKAC, and Sp.E was around, That, combined with the Nordic 6m contest, resulted in a lot of Scandinavian and Baltic stations in my log. The only thing was, I got a bit obsessed down at the CW end of the band, and left it far too late to concentrate on the SSB area, where there was also plenty of DX available. Chasing the DX really slowed me down, and I made only around 60% of the QSOs I would normally expect to get on a contest evening. QSOs: 58 - 7 on FM, 16 on CW and 35 on SSB. DXCCs: 7 - ES, G, GI, GW, OH, SM, YL. QRAs: 19 - IO64, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 91, 92, 93, JO88, KO18, 29, 37, 38, KP12, 20, 21, 22, 24.
I had a little time in-between dropping Liam off for his hospital volunteering, and meeting him again for lunch - or so I thought! Time to activate The Cloud! Looking at the time I reckoned I had available, I was tempted to take a longer walk maybe starting and finishing at Timbersbrook in order to boost the weight loss mission currently in operation. However, I decided to devote the extra time to setting up the SOTAbeams MFD, thus allowing me to get out better on 2m C4FM.
I was able to access SOTA-LINK easily via MB6AH and chatted to a couple of people on here first. As I was about to switch to C4FM simplex, I had a call from Liam to say that there was a buildings problem at the ward he was working on, and therefore the volunteers were being sent away. Fortunately, I got four C4FM QSOs in short order, then descended and went to meet Liam in Subway for a "fiery tuna" sandwich each before heading to Gun G/SP-013.
After Gun G/SP-013 on Sunday 13th May 2018, I surprised Jimmy by turning left onto the Macclesfield - Leek road, ie towards Leek. A split-second decision prompted me to sneak in a quick ascent and activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 on the way home! For this one, we just walked up with handhelds, leaving the coats, rucksacks - and Liam - in the car!
Jimmy made five QSOs, all 2m FM. I made just three, 2 on 2m FM and 1 on 2m C4FM. We called in on my mum on the way home, and I weighed myself on her scales. 19st 9lb, so another 2lb lost in the last 4 days, and now 11lb since I started the diet 2.5 weeks earlier. A long way to go yet to get to the weight I was when Jimmy and Liam were 10 and 5, but things were moving in the right direction. Many thanks to all stations that called us on the activations.
Forgive me, for I ate a flapjack. Yes. Ridiculous. Stupid. I know. There I am doing really well on my diet, but there it was by the till at the college canteen this morning - and I gave in to it. At least I entered the calorie damage honestly into the MyFitnessPal app on my smartphone. I still had some calories left on the day, but not really enough. I needed some exercise. Well I was going to do The Cloud on the way home (Crewe to Macclesfield) from work anyway, but I thought I’d better do a bit extra. And I was so glad I did, because it was a really super walk. As I was approaching on the usual roads, I had the idea to do a longer walk from the Weathercock Lane car park at Timbersbrook. This is a bit further away than Red Lane/Cloudside, and starts a fair bit lower too. The route was kind of a figure of 8, but with a small loop at each end, and the same section reversed in the middle (if that makes any sense). From the car park, I walked through the very picturesque picnic area, and up some steps onto Weathercock Lane. Here I turned left and followed the lane gradually uphill for about 180 yards. I then turned right at the Gritstone Trail marker post and climbed steeply up big steps, carved into the mud and held by wooden supports. This brought me onto an access track for the farm on this side of the hill, which I followed for a while, before turning left into the woods. A wider and more obvious path goes straight up the hill from here, and this would be my descent route. Instead, I veered left onto a narrower and less obvious path - even though this is the official Gritstone Trail route. This was now a really superb section of footpath meandering around the edge of the woods and contouring around the north end of Bosley Cloud. The ground either side of the path was steep, but the path itself was very well made, and a good flat and firm surface at all times. It was very graded and hardly felt like an ascent, even though height was being gained. The trees were mainly on the right hand side of the path, and thinning out as I got higher, but to the left (north) were commanding panoramic views. All too soon I was at the familiar summit, and conducted the token SOTA activation. I didn’t manage to raise anything on C4FM - simplex, or WIRES-X - so the activation comprised just five 2m analogue FM QSOs. These were most pleasant and welcome all the same. For the descent, I took the wide track directly down to the woods, then retraced my steps along the lane. This time though, I didn’t fancy going down the very big steps and potentially slippery muddy banks, so I remained on the walled track until the road. This probably added around a quarter of a mile to the descent - but that was a quarter of a mile of extra steps in the Google Fit app! A win-win! A smashing walk, especially in the hot sunny afternoon.
It was back to the usual Red Lane-Cloudside start point for this ascent, though I did walk all the way up the access track and around the back of the farmhouse for a little variation. The land belonging to this property backs right onto the NT land, and within 10m vertically of the activation zone. In it, is an isolated small stone building, that doesn’t look like it is used for anything. Always gets me thinking of renovation potential when I see it! Anyway, it was just a simple easy activation, with only handheld and logbook/pencil carried. No takers on 2m C4FM, but three contacts with regular chasers on 2m FM.
A very nice day with the sun out, but not really a scorcher. There was a bit of chilliness in the breeze and it was touch-and-go whether to add a jacket to the fleece. Ultimately (mainly due to laziness and apathy) I left the coat in the car. It was OK, I survived. I’d been putting off reintroducing datamodes to my SOTA activating until the weather got better. Even for a portable datamodes enthusiast like me, there’s no enjoyment in trying to run PSK or JT65 in bobbins weather. However, we were now deep into a fine spell of weather, so I really needed to get the digi stuff going again. Last time I tried, nothing would work. My phone and radio weren’t talking to each other. I suspected the DIN lead between them, as one of the connectors didn’t seem to have much plug showing through the plastic housing, and as such it was difficult to get it to locate - and stay connected, either in the rear FT-817 data socket, or the Wolphi-link interface. Today I brought out my Windows 10 Acer tablet, and ZLP MiniProSC interface. This is the kit I’ve invested in to try and use WSJT-X while out SOTA portable. Eventually, the goal was FT8 SOTA activations, but for now I was just going to try some JT65 to start learning the software. Problem was I forgot the USB to micro USB adaptor that I would need to connect the interface to my tablet. So starting to set-up and learn WSJT-X would have to wait. However, I could at least use the nice new DIN cable from the new set up with my old Wolphi-link interface, and see if that could encourage my phone and 817 to get back to communicating with each other. And, indeed, it worked. I made three QSOs on 20m PSK31 before I had to pack down and go to a maths tutoring appointment.
Thursday 17th May 2018 Time for a little handheld activation early in my drive south for a Motown gig in Bridgnorth, Shropshire. I managed to walk about 10 yards before the increasingly friendly farmer stopped me and chatted for about ten minutes! I went for the walk up the concrete track to the top farmhouse, then the route around the back of it and through the woods to the summit. This path too has recently received a lot of attention from the NT / Cheshire Countryside Rangers, and like the other three main paths, is a delight to walk on. It will be interesting to see how they hold up in the next period of prolonged wet weather, but attention has clearly been given to effective drainage. Just one C4FM contact from the summit - thanks to Gary M0XGS. A handful of QSOs were added on 2m FM (analogue), then it was time to go to work. I would have liked to grab a points-scoring summit on the trip, but I’d already done the “Shropshire 5” and The Wrekin G/WB-010 during the year. I didn’t have enough time for Caer Caradoc G/WB-006, and Heath Mynd G/WB-007, Long Mountain GW/MW-026 etc were too far West to justify. Good job I like The Cloud!
A couple of hours earlier, I passed some time while that really boring and disappointing thing was on telly (the Cup Final) by requesting my NoV for the ‘R’ insertion into my prefix. Well that took the grand total of two minutes, so I still had to endure most of the match. I was QRV on G/SP-015 summit with the 817 and groundplane antenna just before 9pm local. 20m CW brought in 13 QSOs, which included five into North America. I couldn’t hear the US SOTA activations in progress even though some of the chaser stations from the other side of the Pond were very strong. Aside from four QSOs on 2m FM, I mainly focused my attentions on the WSJT-X thing. Running on the Acer Windows 10 tablet, it was clearly receiving and decoding the JT65 signals with ease, though I’m not convinced this was via the cables. I think this may have been through the tablet’s microphone. Maybe I needed to disable that?
When I tried to test the CAT or PTT, I was getting error messages. What was wrong with my settings? I tried a few other combinations / configurations too, but nothing that made anything work. I’d probably have another fiddle with the set-up the following (Sunday) morning. I was mulling a few things over in my head that night and the following morning, and think I worked it out. It was now all working! Lots of JT65 and FT8 activations would now be on the way from me!
Sunday 20th May 2018 was a beautiful hot sunny morning on the hill. I only went 3/4 of the way up, to the quiet spot above the cliffs I sometimes use. Well within the AZ of course, and well out of the way of the expected masses - although it seemed unusually quiet, and indeed mine was the first car at the Red Lane parking area. My set up was FT-817 + ZLP MiniProSC & cables + Windows 10 tablet running WSJT-X v1.8. I corrected what I’d worked out were my setting mistakes from the previous night, and hey presto - it all worked! It then took me a little time to get used to the JT65 operating routines, which were different on decent software like WSJT-X compared to the very rudimentary JT65android app I had been using! But, ultimately, three successful QSOs. So brilliant! FT8 would be coming soon!
Having established my first ever FT8 QSO on Sunday evening, I was keen to get out on a summit and really see it working. Before leaving the house, I turned on the Windows tablet and checked how the time was. Back to two seconds out, unfortunately. I downloaded a thing called Dimension 4 which was recommended to me by a member of our contest group, and installed that on the tablet. Setting up on The Cloud, and the thing was still 2 seconds fast - fine for JT65, most unfine for FT8. I set my Android phone up as a WiFi hotspot and connected the tablet. I had the Time.Is website running on it, and I randomly turned the “set time automatically” button on and off. Or it could have been that Dimension 4 was now up and running. In any case, the clock displaying on WSJT-X was now exactly matching the time on my 60kHz radio-controlled clock - so I was good to go. Just as I started operating, a chap wandered up and introduced himself. It was Brendon VK4MHZ who I had worked S2H a few weeks ago. I was on The Cloud, while he was on Shutlingsloe across the valley operating for HEMA. “Oh yes, you’re the chap that got kicked out of that programme and had all his logs deleted aren’t you?” he mentioned. Indeed I am, the very same. I had just set up the 20m GP, and Brendon was very interested in that antenna, and gave it a thorough examination. I initially made five QSOs on FT8, into Turkey, Slovenia, Switzerland, USA and Germany. All well and good, except for the fact that the QSO rate was about 1 every 6 minutes. This was entirely due to my own lack of experience and getting used to the mode and the software. At this point I decided to have a go on JT65. I made two contacts before almost falling asleep at what now seemed like a dreadfully slow mode! That was enough of that, and back to FT8 I went. I added seven more QSOs, but still at a sluggish pace. I definitely need to learn how to pick my spot better, and properly get used to running WSJT-X on my tablet. Not a bad start though. Next it was 20m CW, and 8 contacts in 8 minutes as activating life returned to a more familiar pace. I then tried PSK31 but I think my Wolphi-link interface has had it - it certainly wasn’t performing properly. I wasn't too mithered about that; I wanted to get Fldigi going on my tablet anyway, then I could use my shiny new ZLP MiniProSC interface and cables, which are all in good nick. After packing away the main gear and aerial, I called on the handie and made some QSOs on 2m. It was a lovely extended afternoon activation in the sunshine, and several interesting modes deployed. Many thanks to all chasers worked. 20m CW: 8 20m JT65: 2 20m FT8: 12 2m FM: 5 2m C4FM: 2 Total: 29 QSOs
In the end, I ran out of time to do other stuff I wanted to do. I did try a few calls on 2m C4FM and one on 2m FM, but no responses. I didn’t have time to do a bit on the key on 6m, much as I would have liked to. The 6m FT8 frequency - 50.313MHz - was very busy. The waterfall and received messages window were full of fast-moving activity throughout my time on summit. I would have liked to have tried CW so as to see to what extent this was an opening - or just the possibilities opened up by FT8. I made only nine QSOs - so still need to get better at operating in this mode. The DXCCs worked were CT, EA, F, GW, I, SP & SV9. So six ATNOs for 6m FT8!! I’d no doubt have another go at 6m FT8 pretty soon, as it seemed an easy way to build up a good number of DXCCs on 50MHz.
I made a total of 112 QSOs on 2m in this activation - 32 on FM and 80 on SSB. I should have done much better on both modes - I think the preparation-fail at the start of the evening affected the whole “flow”, and I never properly got going.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Elmas, Lymm A relatively local gig just up the road was just what the doctor ordered. After soundcheck, the restaurant fed us beautiful seafood pizza, complimentary too - probably the best pizza I have ever had. That did mean a lot of calories going into my app though, tempered with alcohol-free beer, and the fact that I’d earlier done a SOTA activation! It had been back to 6m FT8 for me that morning on The Cloud. There was a path open - I worked two Italians and a Croatian - but the rest of my 12 contacts were all G stations. It was still pleasing though, and I felt delighted to finally have my long-anticipated portable FT8 set-up running like clockwork!
I should have had a gig in the West Midlands on this day, but it got cancelled. This is always an occupational hazard due to the fickle nature of the music/entertainment business. I decided I could therefore afford to set my alarm early, and go out for a dawn activation. Eleven stations were worked on 6m FT8, and this time every single one of them was a UK call.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: West End Club, Leicester This gig would normally have Bardon Hill G/CE-004 written all over it, but I’d already done that summit in 2018, plus I had the guitarist sharing the journey with me! So I simply went out to my beloved Cloud that morning and had another go on 6m FT8. This time, the band was open, and I made 19 QSOs. These comprised 9 into EA, 4 into G, 1 each into GW, HA, I, OE, S5 and F.
Gig: Motown Gold Venue: The Old Rectory, Bretherton, near Preston I was on bandleader / musical director duties for this one, so needed to finish off a bit of preparation at home. I nipped down to The Cloud for a quick 6m FT8 activation and made just six QSOs. The stations were there to be worked, if you had patience and time. I didn’t have too much of either! Not bad though, 2 x G, 3 x EA and 1 x IS0. The gig in Preston was excellent, but I forgot to take my pillows, so the lay-by nap on the way home was less-than-excellent.
Gig: The Biscuit Brothers & the Liam Read Band Venue: Swan With Two Necks, Macclesfield
This was an upside down gig for me. Instead of getting paid, I was paying out for it. But then it was for my son Liam’s 21st birthday party! With needing to be at the venue for setting up at 1pm, there wasn’t much time for messing about on the radio, so I just walked up to the summit with my FT70D handheld. As such, the log wasn’t a bad return - 8 QSOs, including one S2S - Gerald M0WML/P on Sharp Haw G/NP-029. Gerald was later horrified to discover the shirt I was wearing while working him!
Liam’s 21st party was an excellent afternoon with a huge turnout from family, friends and musicans (several people fitting into all three categories simultaneously of course). The main thing was, we filled the venue with a large crowd for Liam to perform to - which he did superbly. A great day - and a licensed amateur count of at least seven. Liam’s actual birthday was Tuesday 12th June 2018. I didn’t do an activation on this day, as I was too busy practising for a gig I had in Romania that coming weekend. But that night, Liam’s weekly radio show was broadcast on Canalside Radio 102.8MHz FM. And as we do, each and every week, we sat in the lounge and listened to the radio together as a family - lovely!
Friday 15th June 2018 - no SOTA
Gig: Motown Gold Venue: Peckforton Castle, Tarporley
If only Raw Head G/SP-016 was still a valid SOTA summit! My schedule wouldn’t allow for visiting any other summit. I do a few gigs at this venue, so at some point in the future I may activate this hill for HEMA - even though I wouldn’t be allowed to enter my log.
Saturday 16th June 2018 - no SOTA
Gig: JK as Robbie Williams Venue: HeyDay Music Festival, Bucharest, Romania
Jimmy M0HGY and I have a long established pact not to activate a new unique without each other present, so there would be no YO SOTA for me. Realistically, the schedule wouldn’t allow for it anyway. However, if any YO SOTA friends happened to be at the festival, maybe we could meet and say hello? Normal SOTA service would be resumed the following week, though it would be more like three weeks before I returned here to The Cloud.
I’d been gigging, but not SOTAing, as I allowed my body to recover from keeping pace with M0HGY for a whole week! Our next outing was barely a fortnight away, so the respite was essential! It was back to the more normal routine of slipping in a SOTA activation on a gig day for now though! Friday 6th July 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Wednesbury Town Hall The ongoing heatwave had not been conducive to motivation for climbing hills, even little local ones. I now decided it was time to stop being lazy. It was, of course, a scorcher on Cloud summit, and with very little opportunity for shade. I was plastered in Factor 50, so I wasn’t too bothered about that for myself, but more for my ability to read the screen display of my Windows 10 tablet running WSJT-X. I operated on 20m FT8, and definitely one, possibly two of my nine QSOs were SOTA chasers responding to my self-spot. I was yet to decide if FT8 has anything to offer SOTA generally speaking, but was rather enjoying operating on the mode, so suspected I'd continue to do so for a while yet. No takers on 2m C4FM or 2m normal FM. Right, off to the Midlands it was then. http://www.joelongthornembe.co.uk/events
Gig: Motown Gold Venue: Wellbeing Farm, Bolton No SOTA activation this day, but the gig venue on the east side of Winter Hill G/SP-010 did enable us to see that much of the fire had stopped. Sunday 8th July 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015
Lounging around in the sun - not optimal for viewing a tablet screen! Eleven QSOs, all 20m FT8. At one point I thought I’d snagged some exotic DX - but it turned out that 5Q8FWC was operating from Denmark…! I was joined by Jimmy M0HGY for this activation, who took these photographs.
Wednesday 11th July 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015
A little 20m FT8 activation in the blazing hot morning sunshine. Thankfully I was just about early enough for the shadows of the topograph to be long enough to enable me to read the screen of my tablet running WSJT-X. 12 QSOs made across EU and even into UA9. Some tasty DX showing - A4, VR2 etc - but I was on a bit of a time limit so couldn’t really invest in chasing them hard.
Gig: The Ragdolls Venue: Vauxhall Motors FC, Rivacre Park, Ellesmere Port Domestic duties prevented any imaginative summit choices to link in with this gig, so I simply activated The Cloud G/SP-015 before setting off. My choice of bands and modes was equally unimaginative with me focusing on 20m CW, but with a nice little diversion to SSB to make an interesting S2S with EA6/RO0F/P on EA6/MA-017 (Majorca).
Saturday 14th July 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Imperial Hotel, Blackpool Another day, another gig. Another one where location, soundcheck timings etc were not conducive to a point-scoring activation. So another trip up The Cloud! I’d not done FT8 on 6m for a while, so I took the SB6 Moxon, this time remembering to add the coax to the antenna bag! Five contacts were made from a very hot summit - four to G stations, and one into EI. The first two contacts were with SOTA chasers, so that was a bonus. I also tried 6m SSB, 6m CW and 2m FM - but failed to solicit any contacts on any of those.
We drove out to Timbersbrook car park and picnic area for the scenic route up. Marianne enjoyed the walk, especially as we contoured around the north of the escarpment and the views opened up. It was baking hot and we were in shorts and sandals. Not wanting to compromise the current domestic bliss, I just took the handheld. Eight QSOs were made, including a certain M0HGY back at the home QTH. Maz wanted to say hello so I supervised the greetings message!
We slightly varied the return route before heading home, domestic bliss intact.
Unfortunately, I'd fallen off my wagon with a thud the previous night. We were invited to a friend’s barbecue and he was most insistent that I helped him get through a cask of very good ale. I gave myself a night off my self-imposed alcohol ban, but how I felt it that next morning. The phone rang for some work and I politely declined. It rang again for some more the next day though, so I wouldn’t be too out-of-pocket, and I now had a clear afternoon to enjoy the continuing fine weather, and go and play on my new FT8 toys again. So I returned to Cloud summit, but this time on my own, and via the normal route straight up the stairs and redeveloped path from Cloudside. In fact, I tell a lie - I didn’t go to the summit at all. I went to my other occasional spot by the cliff edge before the main summit area, about 15m lower down. On the drive I was intending doing 6m FT8, but at the last moment I decided I couldn’t be mithered setting up the guying kit and SB6 (6m Moxon) - so went for the lazy 20m GP option. This actually proved a good decision, for there was some DX about, and I was receiving it on the display of WSJT-X. I chased all the DX I received, including BA, JA, HL - but didn’t get through to these. I was surprised to find I was RXing the Far East at nearly 4pm local time, but maybe that’s the magic of FT8 for you. I did make 16 QSOs, all 20m FT8, mostly Europe, but the clear highlight being FR5FC - Reunion Island. I would be back out on 20m FT8 again soon - there was clearly some good DX to be had, despite my 5 watts QRP.
I had a couple of hours free between dropping off and picking up Liam at the bowling alley. That is a third of the way from the home QTH to Cloudside already, so that would be sufficient to get an hour of activating done. As I was driving along the Macc-to-Leek road, it dawned on me that I hadn’t recharged the Windows 10 tablet since the last outing - doh! I pulled over into a layby and plugged in the micro USB phone charger lead in my car, to at least give it a ten minute boost. As it turned out, it just about lasted through the hour of use. I was hoping to get across the Pond on 20m FT8, but I don’t think conditions were too brilliant. Occasionally I saw a W or a VE or a PY appear on the display, but really not very many at all. When I went to a newly spotted CW QRG for a USA SOTA activation in progress, I couldn’t hear a thing. Overall, a worthwhile outing though. 12 contacts, all 20m FT8, all Europe.
A mere three days after wanting to walk up The Cloud, Marianne invited me to do so again. She talked about calling at the supermarket first for picnic stuff, so I figured I might get away with setting up the 20m GP. Eyebrows were soon raised though when my rucksack appeared, instead of just the handheld that was anticipated! We parked at Timbersbrook again (Weathercock Lane car prk and picnic area) and walked up the lane to the Gritstone Trail path. In fact, the car park and lane is all part of the Gritstone Trail route, so we didn’t leave it. Well, not the point in the woods where the paths go off in three different directions, all of which end up leading to the summit. We took the central one, and were on summit shortly after. Several others were on the summit too, so we veered off and positioned ourselves on the big rocks overlooking the Cheshire Plain. Marianne made an immediate start on the picnic lunch (Tesco ‘Finest’ chicken & chorizo sandwiches, reduced from £3 to 99p - bargain, pineapple and melon fingers and Rice Krispie squares) while I set up. I decided, initially, to avoid FT8 and CW, so as not to be antisocial to Marianne, and so plugged in the microphone. However, conditions were far from great. I managed to work SP9AMH and S2S with S57MS/P on S5/BR-019, but then nothing in the next ten minutes. Marianne was still enjoying her lunch, weather and views, so I quietly reconfigured for FT8. After working OK5CW, SP9UPH and SP9TNK, things went quiet, and Marianne was agitating to go. We descended on the Gritstone Trail all the way this time, enjoying the better views from the northern edge of the hill. The lower part of the path - a steep descent down some very tall steps and potentially slippery webbing - did not meet with Marianne’s approval, and so a mental note was made to take the more graded track down to the road in future.
I went out around 9.30pm local, not really knowing if 20m would be “open”, notwithstanding the fact that “open” can mean different things for different modes! As I reached the parking spot, I got absorbed with the 20-20 cricket commentary of Lancashire v Yorkshire, so waited there until the conclusion of the game, which Lancashire won by a single run. All the time I was mindful that the later I left it, the more chance that I would be getting closer to the band closing. I ascended in the last dregs of daylight, not needing to turn on the headtorch, though I did at the summit for setting up. The 20m GP is compact, lightweight, but very quick and easy to deploy. Any worries about the band closing were soon vanquished; the band activity window remained full of stations all evening. My QSO rate was slow; I wasn’t attracting much interest with my CQ calls, although a few did come back to me. I spent most time trying to go back to DX station calls. There was plenty of good stuff on - Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Mexico, Canada, Dominican Republic, even Australia, China and Hong Kong! I didn’t get any of these into my log, but it was an encouraging first experience of 20m FT8 in the evening. I made a total of eleven QSOs, six Europe and five USA.
The main frustration of the activation was the complete absence of wind - not even a slight breeze. This meant that there was plenty of insect activity to contend with, particularly lots of moths that liked my headtorch.
Gig: Funktion & Co. Venue: Eaves Hall, Clitheroe One US station was worked on 20m FT8. I then decided to try on CW. However when I tuned across the CW frequencies, it was as though the band was completely dead. There was still a lot of activity on FT8 though! I packed away the main stuff and went for the 2m FM handheld. It was 2am local time, but Pete 2E0LKC and Anne 2E0LMD were there to work me.
Much later that day, I was out working with a wedding band in Lancashire!
There was some SA DX showing on WSJT-X, 20m FT8, but I didn’t get through to any of it. I called CQ myself and completed only one successful contact in the first 45 minutes on summit - SP5SMY. Now fed up of FT8, I plugged in the microphone and went hunting for 20m SSB stations in the IOTA contest. It was not busy by normal contest standards, but there were some big signals. Unfortunately, like most big signals in contests, they are not accompanied by big receivers that pull out QRP portable stations! I actually thought there might be a problem with my microphone, so I quickly went onto 2m FM, where, as anticipated, Dave G7RYN was in full flow over in Winsford. I quickly called in, and exchanged 59+ reports - on the 20m antenna - so no problem with the microphone! I then tried going back to one of the loud 20m SSB stations - N1UR - and this time worked him immediately! No more luck on SSB though, so I went to CW, and added three more IOTA contesting stations there. In terms of islands, the most exotic DX was EU-029… Back on FT8, I finally managed to get over the water, and worked WB2REM.
Another 45 minutes of CQing on 20m FT8 resulted in one QSO - SP9AK. Interspersed with the CQs, I tried to get back to some calling stations. The YV I kept chasing did not materialise, but IZ2TXQ did. At 1.45am, and getting fed up with the gusting cold wind, and feeling very tired, I decided to pack up and call it a day - or a night - or a morning???
Finding a suitable place to set up was more tricky than usual. The summit was busy with walkers, so the main central areas were not appropriate, but all the favoured “cliff-edge” spots were uncomfortably near to large clouds of flying ants. There were several such dense clouds, along along the edge of the summit plateau. I had to set up in the heather on the other side of the path; not ideal, but no other option. As it turned out, I might as well have done the antisocial thing and set up at the trig point/topograph! As is becoming predictable, it was the 20m GP antenna, and FT8 via WSJT-X on the Windows 10 tablet, ZLP MiniProSC interface and FT-817. No DX about, and not really anyone replying to CQ calls, so I decided to “shoot goldfish” and see how many different DXCCs I could get. Well, I was up to the dizzy heights of 8 (DL, F, G, GW, HB, LA, OE, YU) when a jogger decided to run directly through the heather, ploughing straight into one of my radials and bringing the whole lot down. So much for keeping out of the way! Anyway, I was just about starting to reassemble the antenna when I suddenly realised I couldn’t be bothered, and decided to go and to an activation of Gun G/SP-013 instead.
Saturday 4th August 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015
Rather frustratingly, I had a gig booked on North Pier, Blackpool for Saturday 4th August 2018, but it got cancelled with just 24 hours notice. Even more frustratingly, I’d been offered a wedding band gig three days earlier, which I had to turn down. Well, I firmly believe the trick is to turn any negatives into positives - so this surely meant an opening for a Saturday night DX-hunting activation! I was set up and QRV on The Cloud G/SP-015 by 2020z, and soon working a steady stream of stations on 20m FT8. I split about 50:50 between calling and chasing, with the vast majority of QSOs coming from Western Europe. The highlight was when I called CQ and was answered, and worked, by PY2BEK - Brazil. It was nice also to work John DK9JC, a SOTA chaser, to give him his debut digimode SOTA chase.
The Western EU theme (DL, EA, F, G, GI, GM, HB, LX, ON, PA, RA, UR) continued until just after midnight BST, when I finally “crossed the Pond” again with FT8 QSOs with KC9WPS (Wisconsin) and KP4JFR (Puerto Rico). Not long after this, my Windows 10 Acer tablet ran out of charge, so that was the end of datamode ops for the activation. Before venturing out, I found to my surprise that my WSJT-X 1.8 on my tablet was actually NOT the latest version. Checking this was prompted by the comments of Ron VK3AFW. I updated Windows on the tablet, then upgraded the WSJT-X software. Sure enough, I now found that I could identify as M1EYP/P, and still be picked up by the autosequencing. In that autosequenced QSO, everything would revert to M1EYP, but the big positive difference was that a station calling me would cause the QSO sequence to be initiated.
The only downside was now that furnishing my call with the /P counted as my extra “word” - so no grid locator (IO83). Maybe v2.0 would address this? Or maybe not - it doesn’t really matter - though I did see someone send a comment on air the other day “NOGRID NOQSO”. Hmm… A lad and his girlfriend wandered up to the summit, using only her mobile phone screen for light. He was very friendly and genuinely interested in what was going on. He was fascinated by the radio stuff, but even more take by the sound of scores of FT8 data signals coming out of my FT-817 speaker. He explained he was into sound production and experimental music. He said he “loved” that noise and asked if he could make an audio recording of it on his phone! I gave him my business card and asked him to send me a copy of anything he did with it!
With FT8 now out-of-action, I deployed the Mini Palm Paddle for CW. The North American QSO Party was in full swing, though only a handful of signals were strong. I worked W1TO, and SOTA chaser W2SE to round off the activation. Total QSOs: 35 (33 x 20m FT8, 2 x 20m CW).
Things started well with two NA CW QSOs inside a minute at 0003z - W2SE (New Jersey) and NI5M (Texas). The next one didn’t come until 0022z - S51FM, and then I was struggling to work anything. I was extremely tired, so I packed up. I had an urge to make a fourth contact, for no reason whatsoever. I called CQ on the 2m FM handheld, and worked Dave G7RYN over in Winsford. On the calling channel, several other stations answered the initial call, including SOTA chaser Pete 2E0LKC, but I never found them again. Total QSOs: 4 (3 x 20m CW, 1 x 2m FM).
Tuesday 7th August 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 Yep, just like the good old days. Well done to Gerald G4OIG on his return to portable radio Gerald, but he would need to progress onto a proper SOTA to make the S2S with me, because for me, a S2H, is merely a S2... Anyway, the fruits of my activating tonight were thus: 2m CW: 0 2m SSB: 83 2m FM: 33 2m C4FM: 4 Total: 120 QSOs (all 2m)
S2S: Robin GM7PKT/P on GM/SS-205 Viki MW6BWA/P on GW/MW-025 Matt 2E0MDJ/P on G/CE-001 QSO of the night probably was the last one, after local midnight BST. I stayed on summit after the contests to play with C4FM Fusion / WIRES-X / SOTA-LINK etc. But just before switching off and packing down, I worked M0BTZ/P - in Hampshire - on 2m FM! Decent selection of locator squares worked, 23 in all - IN79, IO62, 64, 70, 71, 72, 74, 75, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, JO00, 01, 02, 03.
In contrast to the decent 2m conditions on Tuesday, conditions on 6m tonight were truly awful. Both contests were slow and boring. I made a total of 68 QSOs: 6m FM: 8 6m SSB: 59 6m CW: 1
Looking across the Dane Valley I could see that The Roaches was engulfed in a serious grass fire, with much smoke pumping out from the hill. By the time I’d descended at 10.58pm BST, there was large area of bright orange glowing under the night sky when looking over towards The Roaches. I decided to pop over to Gun G/SP-013 for a closer look.
The idea was to follow the Gritstone Trail from Rushton Spencer up to the summit, although I wasn’t looking forward to a gruelling steep uphill slog on one particular section. Over the main A523 Leek to Macclesfield road, I crossed a stile and walked over to another I could see across the field. I was surprised not to see any Gritstone Trail waymarkers. That’s because it wasn’t the Gritstone Trail! In a mistake that dejavu tells me I have made before, I ended up in an industrial yard - but I could walk out of that and onto the narrow lanes on the eastern flanks of The Cloud. I now realised I had gone wrong, but decided to make the best of it by approaching Cloudside using the snaking zigzagging lanes. This would add a lot more distance to the walk, but the gradients involved would be significantly eased. This seemed to be a long walk, so I was pleased to eventually make the turning at Woodhouse Green, then the Cloudside Shooting Club. I was soon on those all-too-familiar steps. The pain eased as I homed in on “my” summit. In the reverse of 22 hours earlier, I chose to pitch the tent first, and then activate. I chose a spot fairly close to the summit, near the cliff edge. It was pretty windy, but I couldn’t be mithered hunting round for a better spot. Some lads walked up and asked if I wanted a hand. I readily accepted, and the tent was up in no time. I set out my sleepmat and sleeping bag, and put my rucksack inside the tent. I was pleased that my headtorch still seemed to have plenty of life in it - it just needed to last a quick activation and get me back to my tent, then it wouldn’t be needed again. I took my blood pressure pills in case I forgot later, grabbed my handheld and logbook, and walked across to the trig point.
I operated for 13 minutes - 2055 to 2108z - and made 7 QSOs on 2m FM. I couldn’t wait to get into my sleeping bag. This time, I stuffed every item of my clothing into the drybag, to be placed under the hood of my sleeping bag and used as a pillow. I was confident that I would sleep well after 47,000 steps and 37km of walking in the day. I was right.
Wednesday 15th August 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 I awoke to bright sunlight. What time was it? I checked my watch - and it was 8.30am! I had slept, like a baby, in a backpacking tent on hard ground through a windy night - for over ten hours! I was chuffed with that - though it did add a little pressure on me to complete my circuit in under 48 hours, which I had been thinking about more and more! I was also well chuffed to find that all my clothes in the drybag were bone dry. This time, I got completely packed up before going on the radio. Would the handheld last another activation? It was now showing depleted battery on RX, and low battery on TX. Anyway, there were no issues, and ten QSOs were completed on 2m FM in a leisurely rag-chewy half hour. I was particularly grateful to Greg M0NZO who had been spotting me - I couldn’t self-spot as my phone was out of charge, plus the spots were now the only communication I had for updating the family as to my progress! I was now heading for the Macc Canal, but I went a long way round by descending on the Gritstone Trail towards Timbersbrook, then along the road to the north of the summit to walk down by the farms to the A54. I joined the canal here for a long walk around the towpath back to Macclesfield. Again, I had the issue of food. I’d bought a couple of Mars bars from the Royal Oak, but these were now gone. I didn’t want to go as far out of my way as Bosley village, but with the Fool’s Nook Inn being long shut down, I might have to make it all the way to the outskirts of Macc for my next grub. There was still a little climbing to do - up the flight of 12 locks at Bosley. At the top of these, is a boaters’ services - waste disposal, water, shower, toilet etc. A staff member from the Canals and Rivers Trust was there, so I first asked him if I could top my bladder up - no problem. I then chanced my luck and asked if he’d any food he could sell me. He replied that he wouldn’t sell me anything, but that I was welcome to have the rest of his lunch that he didn’t want - two cans of fish and two satsumas! This was a fine result. One was Asda mackerel fillets in tomato and basil sauce, the other John West peppered mackerel fillets. Both were delicious, particularly the latter, which I may be deliberately sourcing for summit grub in the future. The satsumas were welcome refreshment too, and I got going again with a spring in my stride. As much as I like walking across the NNR at Danes Moss, it is a bit of a long way round to home, and I always seem to upset the cows in one particular field that the PROW runs through. Instead I continued further up the canal and turned left onto a public footpath. On the map, this loops round and rejoins the canal, but local childhood knowledge, rather vaguely recollected, informed me there was a route through to the playing fields on Danes Moss, on the Congleton road. Danes Moss is in three sections. To the south there is the NNR previously mentioned. I’ve seen lizards there. In the middle there is the council tip - er I mean recycling and waste management centre, while to the north there is some unused land, perpetually earmarked for retail, cinema, sport etc - though nothing ever happens. I tried to remember my route through here from my teenage days. At one point, the route forked. Left or right was the choice. Guess what? I chose left again. Guess what? I was wrong again. I had to plough through some dense vegetation to get onto the playing fields. At the other side of the field I saw a lady walking her dog into the part from which the good path probably emerged! As I reached Congleton Road, I wondered how far to the left of me the Rising Sun (known locally as the Tip Inn) pub was. 100 yards - too far for me! I continued over into the housing estate, and worked my way onto Penningtons Lane. This is a normal residential road at this point, but becomes a rough byway later on. I was nearly home. Right onto Gawsworth Road, right onto Earlsway, and down to the shops. Here I found the first actual working public telephone on my entire walk. I found some phone boxes, but they were either empty shells with everything stripped out from inside, or the telephone had been replaced by a defibrillator. I called Jimmy M0HGY and invited him to the Weston for a pint. He readily accepted and walked up from home to join his tired dad. We downed a couple of pints of Robbie’s Unicorn ale, shot a couple of games of pool, then walked, or in my case hobbled, home. The day’s walk was recorded as 25,360 steps, or 20km. Thanks to all the stations that worked me one or more times during the 48 hour expedition: 2E0KHI, 2E0LKC (2), 2E0LMD (2), 2E0YJL/M, 2W0JYN, G0KNK, G0OHY (2), G0RRX, G0UNJ, G4NTY, G4TGQ, G4UCT, M0JDK (2), M0NZO (3), M3HJH, M3JIV, M3LWP/M, M3TRC, M6GOX/M, M6KCI, M6LQZ/M, M6MDB, MW0ISC, MW6ISV, MW0UPH/M, MW6SHJ. Marianne had made a fabulous tea of chicken wrapped in bacon, served with roasted vegetables and salsa sauce. This was very welcome, and went down a treat, as did two big mugs of tea brewed up by Jimmy. There you go then. I did it. Will I ever do it again? Maybe. Maybe not. The challenge is set though: The Non-Official SOTA Cheshire* 3 Peaks Challenge. *G/SP-004 is on the Cheshire-Derbyshire border, G/SP-013 is wholly in Staffordshire, G/SP-015 is on the Cheshire-Staffordshire border, but the vast majority of the circular route is in Cheshire. Must begin and end at a residential property in Macclesfield, west of the River Bollin. Must include qualifying activations of G/SP-004, G/SP-013 & G/SP-015. All travel must be on foot. Must be completed inside 48 hours (this is easy if you are reasonably fit, and don’t waste time by getting lost or lounging around in pubs). Logs must be submitted to the SOTA Database (probably rules G3CWI out). Don’t all rush at once…
On the way back from the A-Level maths tutoring in Sandbach, I popped up to Cloud summit. At the top, a fellow walker introduced himself as G3ZAU, and stood by me throughout my activation, apparently fascinated by what I was doing! Five QSOs were made on 2m FM before I realised I had to make the pharmacy for my repeat prescription before closing time. That’s about it really. Nothing interesting or newsworthy to report. It was just about getting back out and doing few steps on the hills again; I had been in “lazy mode” since my 71km backpacking walk the previous week!
Marianne is getting into this SOTA malarky. Well, not really. It’s the walk she likes. Fortunately, one walk she has rather taken to is the circular from Weathercock Lane car park / Timbersbrook picnic area, taking in Bosley Cloud summit. I help to maintain domestic bliss by taking just a VHF handheld. Marianne does her bit by taking a bag of cakes and drinks. Anyway, four QSOs made - 3 on 2m FM, and 1 on 2m C4FM (Fusion). Of course, we needed to visit Homebase on the way home, but I guess that’s a small price to pay for the rare pleasure of activating with the XYL.
I'd already been out on a SOTA day out in Lancashire, to Boulsworth Hill G/SP-008 and Pendle Hill G/SP-005 earlier that day. But that evening, with Marianne watching rubbish on the telly (Big Brother etc), I cleared off out again. I was still full of energy as I bounded up the steps to Cloud summit. Operating just with my HT on 2m C4FM, I made just two QSOs! I then went over to Gun G/SP-013 for a fourth activation of the day.
After my SOTA day out on Gyrn Moelfre GW/NW-049 and Mynydd-y-briw GW/NW-060, I popped in on my mum about 11pm BST, then went to my favourite summit. Three QSOs, all on 2m C4FM. Then over to Gun G/SP-013 - though I would be back here again soon enough!
So yes, I really did climb this hill again, less than three hours after climbing it earlier! I'd done a cross-midnight (UTC) activation of the Gun G/SP-013 after activating The Cloud late on Friday night, then drove back across the Dane Valley and walked up Cloud again! I worked Steve 2W0JYN on 2m FM from the summit, then both Steve and his partner Steph MW6SHJ on 2m C4FM. So two activations were already in the bag for Saturday - though I wasn't anticipating any more, after two days of four each. But really it was six activations, if you count a day as being “between sleeps”! Energy to burn. It’s good this healthy lifestyle business!
I had hoped to keep the run going with a swift activation of The Cloud on the Sunday morning before driving up to Blackpool for work in the afternoon. However, after a late get-in the previous night (morning) from work in Liverpool, and, more significantly, looking out of the shack window to dark grey skies and persistent heavy rain, all my energy seemed to have deserted me! I would try and get going again in the next 2/3 days, though I was fast running out of points scoring opportunities within a couple of hours drive in the year 2018. I still had the dreary pair of Hail Storm Hail G/SP-009 and Freeholds Top G/SP-011 or the uninspiring slogs of Ward’s Stone G/SP-002 and White Hill G/SP-006 I guess. May be as well to push on a little further for the joys of the Yorkshire Dales though.
Anyway, that was for another day. The route - which is part of the big circular route - planned for the OM + XYL outing today did not include any SOTA summits. So the first priority was to get out of bed at 0415 UTC and get an early activation of The Cloud G/SP-015 done. I focused on 20m FT8 as is usual for me at present. However, first I went to Mike 2E0YYY/P’s frequency of 14.325MHz SSB, where he was loud and clear from Walton Hill G/CE-002. Thanks for the point Mike! On FT8, I then made 17 QSOs into 13 DXCCs. A couple of these were quite interesting - SV9 Crete and EK Armenia. Again, there was lots of really good DX being received on the WSJT-X screen. I felt sure I was going to land a spectacular haul one of these days! Back home, and Maz was getting ready for the outing. We drove up to Gradbach Mill (the site of the old youth hostel) and had an early lunch there at the outdoor cafe. We had taken two cars to this point, as the planned route was linear. We left Marianne’s car at Gradbach, then drove together in mine up to the Cat & Fiddle. The walk back to Gradbach via Three Shires Head was probably about 5 or 6 miles, and met with Marianne’s approval. I’d have to think of some more for us to do together - but, would you believe it, she does keep mentioning about going up Kinder Scout or The Cloud again!
I had time to squeeze in an activation of the second home. On this one I worked a bumper total of two stations - which might not seem like much, but nonetheless represented a 100% improvement on my earlier two activations that day! The tour headed down to Essex later that week - so I would have to be “imaginative” to work some SOTA activations into the schedule!
I did make S2S with Matt 2E0MDJ/P who was on Cleeve Hill G/CE-001. I must admit though, I myself packed up early just after 10pm, as I was cold and bored, and it was starting to rain, and there was hardly anything of interest active on the band. QSOs: 77 (24 on 70cm FM, 50 on 70cm SSB, 3 on 2m FM).
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: The Old Regent Ballroom, Stanford-le-Hope I was a little later than intended setting off - around 8am - but not so late that I couldn't “warm up” with my two easy local summits. In true lazy style, I ascended Bosley Cloud with just my handheld, and made two contacts on 2m FM. The first of these was Greg M0NZO in Holmes Chapel. It seems Greg is first to answer any CQ SOTA call I make on 2m FM at present! Tom M6MDB in Oldham was the other contact. I didn’t need the usual four QSOs as the point was not on offer anyway, so with no other callers I descended and drove over the valley to Gun G/SP-013.
Sunday 16th September 2018 - Wendover Woods G/CE-005, Gun G/SP-013, The Cloud G/SP-015 & Winter Hill G/SP-010
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Viva Blackpool I’d stayed longer than anticipated on Gun G/SP-013, and was starting to eat into my sleep time, before I would have to hit the road once again. So when I went over to The Cloud G/SP-015, this time I did just walk up with the HT and work exclusively on 2m FM - three QSOs were made - all with OMs who had got up before I’d gone to bed. First job when I got home was to put the iPads and Airturn pedals on charge - these are for reading music on stage, and they needing recharging before that night’s show in Blackpool. Together with putting my smartphone and Windows 10 tablet (for WSJT-X) on charge, and taking a shower, it was gone 10.30am by the time I got to bed. Marianne was also out at work, and had been overnight too - on a sleep-in. Jimmy M0HGY was up - very early for him on a Sunday - so I told him to check I was up by 3.15pm! I had a great sleep, interrupted when my radio alarm sprung into action simultaneously with Jimmy giving me a shout. He then brought me a mug of tea up as I began to rejoin the land of the living. Twenty minutes later, I was back on the road, but this time in the more familiar north, and with only 70 miles to go! Another great gig, although I think all the band were in “automatic pilot” mode by now! Me being me, I had another crazy idea. Out of Blackpool, M55, M6, M61 - then off at Horwich - and up Winter Hill G/SP-010! I had a good chat with Tony 2E0UOG who I’ve worked many times over the years. He reported that I was a great signal to him - but no-one else came back to the call. So Tony and I continued the natter. Monday 17th September 2018 - Winter Hill G/SP-010 I was having a rather pleasant early hours stroll around Winter Hill, chatting with Tony 2E0UOG. I wandered along the transmitter service roads, up towards the trig point, and around the back of a couple of the transmitter compounds, experimenting for best take-off for a handie with helical antenna. There wasn’t any breakthrough disruption that I could discern. Maybe the installations on Winter Hill are less RF-polluting than they used to be, or maybe the new Yaesu FT70D is more immune than earlier rigs. Either way, things have improved. Of course, desensing could have still been an issue - this is more difficult to tell - but I don’t think there were any callers that I missed. Stuart M0WSW gave me a second contact for the activation.
Dad’s Taxis was in for a heavy schedule. First was a most unwelcome 6.20am alarm as Jimmy M0HGY needed an early lift into work. Mind you, this facilitated a most welcome posh breakfast in Alderley Edge en route, so that was fine. Next was to drop Liam at the hospital for his regular volunteering with early-stage dementia patients. In the window between that and picking him back up, I reckoned I could shoehorn in a couple of activations! On The Cloud G/SP-015, and with the FT70D, I made five QSOs - three on 2m FM, and two on 2m C4FM. It was almost a carbon-copy activation over on Gun G/SP-013, where it was three on 2m FM and one on 2m C4FM, with all four stations being ones I had also worked earlier on The Cloud! I just then needed to go and pick Liam up - again - from a curry night with his mates, then I was thinking about popping up Shining Tor G/SP-004. Notice the past tense. I was soon not thinking of that; but thinking of going to bed.
I hadn't done any SOTA activating during the main part of the daytime. I was about to go out the previous night for a late one on Shining Tor G/SP-004 - but the torrential rain at the time made me unthink it pretty swiftly. But by late afternoon, I was prepared to get in the ring with Ali. I promised to pop up on 2m FM from a couple of summits around teatime, but also promised that anyone who advised me on-air about the wind noise ran the risk of negative chaser points! Like the more famous Ali, this one’s powers were significantly lessened at the tail-end of its career. That’s not to say it hadn’t been destructive earlier on - two fatalities in Ireland were a tragic outcome of that. Little to report from my activations, which were much more about the exercise than the radio. Nonetheless, two QSOs made on Gun G/SP-013, both 2m FM, and then four on The Cloud G/SP-015 (3 on 2m FM, one on 2m C4FM), and 4000 steps clocked up on my Fitbit watch. I would be back on the road, back on tour the next morning.
Monday 24th September 2018 - Winter Hill G/SP-010, Gun G/SP-013 & The Cloud G/SP-015 I had intended bagging The Cloud straight after Gun G/SP-013, but time had beaten me. I had three students booked in for private maths tuition, one in Macclesfield, one in Holmes Chapel and one in Sandbach. I grabbed my Cloud activation on the way home from the final student in Sandbach, and enjoyed the beautiful calm moonlit night. Four QSOs were made on 2m FM, so at least a little more activity than in the afternoon!
After Gun G/SP-013, over to The Cloud G/SP-015, and the familiar march up the concrete stairway. It’s been a while since I had to pause for breath on that section now, which is a good sign. The band wasn’t as active as on Gun earlier, and just three QSOs were made - two on 2m FM and one on 2m C4FM. In the evening we celebrated M0HGY’s 26th birthday. Happy birthday Jimmy.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Floral Pavillion, Wallasey Back to the more normal (these days) routine of a gig day. But this time, not one that took me to far flung corners of the UK, nor even anywhere near any unactivated (in 2018, by me) SOTA summits. Therefore, it was my rather familiar circuit taking in Gun Moor and Bosley Cloud. On Gun G/SP-013, it was six QSOs, all 2m FM, with the handheld. One S2S with Phil G4HQB/P on Hergest Ridge G/WB-008 - not a bad contact with the HT that. On The Cloud G/SP-015 it was six QSOs, five on 2m FM and one on 2m C4FM. OK, time to go to work. More SOTA tomorrow. Probably.
No gig - day off. I would be back on the road the next day. I really fancied the exercise more than anything today, so the radio took a low priority. Low rarely gets as far down as zero though with me, and it didn’t on this day. The handheld was carried - and used - on all three hills. No takers at all on 2m C4FM (Fusion), but 4, 5 and 4 analogue FM contacts respectively on each summit. Thanks to Anne 2E0LMD, Pete 2E0LKC and Greg M0NZO who all managed to work me on all three hills. Anyway, without the messing around with things like rucksacks, drinks, soup, 817s, SOTA Poles, maps, antennas etc etc, it took me exactly four hours from leaving the house to returning back home, and activating the three local SOTAs in between. It could easily be done faster - I stopped for several natters with other walkers, and wasted some time trying in vain to work on digital voice. Also, interestingly, the three hills clocked up slightly over my daily target of 10,000 steps, according to my Fitbit watch. Home, and steak for tea. Get in!
Gig: Motown Gold Venue: Larkfields, Pudsey, Leeds In contrast to Gun G/SP-013, over on The Cloud, the VHF bands were nice and busy. Still operating with just the handheld and helical whip antenna, there were even moments of pile-ups coming into me! Eight contacts, 7 on 2m FM and one on 2m C4FM went into the logbook, including S2S with Jordan MW3TMX/P on Glasgwm GW/NW-015. Now it was time to return home, load up, and hit the road. It was an unusually early 3pm soundcheck for the wedding gig with Motown Gold in Pudsey, Leeds, meaning I could work an activation of Rombalds Moor G/NP-028 into the schedule.
This was a little wander up and down the hill by torchlight in between delivering an hour of private A-level maths tuition in Sandbach, and picking up Liam from his social in Macclesfield. The dark night, and breathing in the cold air, whetted my appetite for the coming winter season of post-dusk and pre-dawn SOTA activating. Four contacts made on 2m FM with the HT. Then back home and ready for Late Night Liam on Canalside Radio 102.8 MHz FM. This community radio station broadcasts to Macclesfield, Bollington and North-East Cheshire, but can be heard worldwide via http://canalsideradio.net/player/index.htm My son Liam has a show every Monday night at 10.30pm UK time.
No gig - night off! A mid-morning amble up to the trig point on Gun. A few minutes operating on 2m FM on the HT. Three QSOs. That evening, it was activity night, meaning an activation of The Cloud. Any intentions to meep Barry GM4TOE to set up a nice DX 2m QSO were thwarted when my smartphone ran out of charge early into the activation. I had remembered to charge up the Tracer battery and the Petzl headtorch - but not my phone - doh! It was definitely feeling colder, but I managed to stick it out for the full 3.5 hours. Not a bad old VHF activation - 117 QSOs on 2m. 6 DXCCs: G, GW, GD, GI, GM & F. 18 QRAs: IN99, IO64, 74, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, JO00, 01, 02, 03.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Bellavista, Milnrow When I activated Ward’s Stone G/SP-003 at the weekend, it marked a ‘completion’ of the G/SP region for 2018 in activating terms. It was the first time in a number of years I’d ‘completed’ my home region, although previous completions had been with the 17 summits, not the current 16. I missed Raw Head G/SP-016 - a shame I couldn’t activate it any more! So for this gig, just north of Manchester, all SOTA summits for miles around had already been activated by me in 2018, so a “pointless” repeat it would have to be. Where better than The Cloud G/SP-015. I kicked off the day by running Jimmy M0HGY to work in Wilmslow, via a posh breakfast at the Merlin in Alderley Edge. I then visited my 103 year old nanna in the care home in Congleton, before making my way up to Cloudside. It was a nice sunny day, but with a stiff breeze carrying significant windchill. I set up the 20m GP then decided to try out some older datamodes by using Fldigi on my Windows 10 tablet. I didn’t actually make any QSOs this way unfortunately. I pretty much got it all working correctly, but there was an issue with the transmit sticking on, and not reverting to RX either by macro command or even manually by human pressing of the T/R button. I suspect there could have been an RF feedback issue - I was, after all, sat directly under the antenna and within the radials. I recalled that this was an issue when operating PSK31 using the Wolphilink interface and DroidPSK on my smartphone, and I needed to deploy either a feeder extension cable to site the radio & interface well away from the antenna, or a choke balun. FT8 has not presented any such problems, so I’d kind of forgotten about that “housekeeping” side of things. I went onto FT8 using the WSJT-X program, and the fun started. Just nine contacts were made - but what a nine contacts they were! OD5ZZ - Lebanon ZB2ER - Gibraltar A41ZZ - Oman VK2BY - Australia - NSW EA8AAH - Canaries - Tenerife UA9CCC - Asiatic Russia K5EK - USA - NC RX2D - Russia LX1HD - Luxembourg. So all five major continents of the world and some nice interesting DXCCs too. On 20m CW, I added just three more QSOs. 2m FM produced another six, includng S2S with Phil GW4HQB/P, this time on Foel Goch GW/NW-039.
Gig: Biscuit Brothers Venue: Ballers Sports Bar, Preston Moving across to The Cloud, after a barren time on Gun G/SP-013, and things had picked up somewhat. Five QSOs on the handie in ten minutes on summit. That was fine; I couldn’t hang about - I had a dentist appointment at 4.30pm in Macclesfield, then the gig to get to. Liam and Jimmy joined me on the gig for a bit of a night out, and as expected, Liam got up and belted out a few tunes on the Bandeoke!
Saturday 13th October 2018 - Gun G/SP-013 & The Cloud G/SP-015
I hung around and waited in until gone 5pm, on the chance that a Saturday night gig might come in. It didn’t. So eventually I jumped in the motor with the HT and logbook and made my way to the Staffordshire Moorlands. For the first time in ages, there was running water on the path up Gun G/SP-013. Nowhere near as bad as it can get, and it was easy to keep one’s feet on dry ground, but nonetheless an indication of normal service being resumed after an unusually long dry spell. Four contacts were made on 2m FM using the handheld. I then actioned the increasingly frequent switch over to The Cloud G/SP-015, and the incredibly familiar ascent. 2m FM was nice and busy on the handheld, and I was treated to no less the nine QSOs when I was on the summit. I kept trying to go QRT and descend, but the calls kept coming! I was keen to get back though, for an arranged pub outing with Jimmy and Liam, and a curry take-away to mark a rare gigless Saturday evening.
Sunday 14th October 2018 - Gun G/SP-013, The Cloud G/SP-015 & Winter Hill G/SP-010 Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Viva Blackpool
From Gun G/SP-013, I descended and drove over to The Cloud. The dog at the farm close to the summit seemed very pleased to see me after I’d climbed the staircase. At the summit, four QSOs were made, three on 2m FM and one on 2m C4FM. Suddenly, it was time to be getting back home, washed, changed and back out to work. On my way back down, the dog came to greet me again, wagging its tail furiously. I spoke to it for a few moments, then remained where I was to take a selfie in front of the National Trust sign. I then heard the dog barking (in a non-threatening manner) 20m or so away. It had run down to the other end of the garden, close to the top of the steps, and was wondering why I hadn’t also made it to there!
So then as usual on a Sunday, it was the 71 mile drive to Blackpool for the residency gig. Following that, also now usual for a Sunday night, I made my way home via a lengthy stop near Bolton to activate Winter Hill G/SP-010. I was on summit earlier than usual, and the weather was relatively mild, so I decided to erect the 20m groundplane and see if there were any last signs of life on the band. There were - I could see CQ calls on FT8 coming from Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic - but I didn’t manage to work any. To my own CQ calls, I got one reply - from EC7ZR - and that turned out to be my only contact of the activation.
Monday 15th October 2018 - Winter Hill G/SP-010, Gun G/SP-013 & The Cloud G/SP-015 A bit later on, and into early evening, I ascended The Cloud. The headtorch was necessary once the 20m groundplane was set up on summit, although bright as it was, it was never going to find the Windows 10 tablet that I had managed to leave in the car! So much for more FT8 fun and games then. Instead, it was good ole’ CW which turned round nine QSOs, the best being Doc N7DR in Colorado. After packing up the antenna, I called on the handheld and added four QSOs on 2m FM. Many thanks to all chasers who called in.
Work: supply maths teaching at a secondary school Venue: somewhere in South Stockport
Back to some Totally on-Topic Tolstoy-esque Turgid Tales from Tom: So no gig, no tour date. With the next gig not until Friday, I kind of felt obliged to accept when the supply agency phoned up. And for the first time this academic year, I was out to work at 0715 BST, dressed in a shirt and tie (RSGB of course), trousers and shoes, with non-matching jacket complete with leather elbow patches. For the first time since early July, I was a maths teacher again. Why mention that? Hardly any reason at all really - I just wanted keep the format of the reports in this thread broadly similar, have the opportunity to explore a second stab at alliteration, and generally maintain the turgidity factor. Hmm, I’ve just had an idea for a new TV game show… Two hours was the window between dropping Liam off at his evening event and picking him up again. Probably just enough time to bag two SOTA activations! Due to a “kind of” one way street between The Cloud and Gun, I figured it would be slightly more efficient to do The Cloud first. It was a mild night with only a slight breeze - very pleasant October walking by headlamp. I didn’t really have time to test with a possible new SOTAbeams product I’ve been trying out, nor even venture onto Fusion mode, so it was just plain old 2m FM. Four QSOs were made courtesy of 2E0LKC, M6PKF, M6AIF and 2E0LMD. I descended and drove over to Gun. Underfoot was almost copmpletely dry again this time, with only the very occasional soggy bit. I enjoyed the walk again - there’s something kinda lovely about night walking in October - I’ve always loved it! 2m FM was used again on the Yaesu FT70D handheld, and again four QSOs resulted - 2E0SHK, 2E0LKC, 2E0LMD and M0MTJ. I arrived back in Macclesfield to collect Liam bang on 2130 BST - exactly two hours after dropping him off!
Gig: Liam Read Venue: Swan With Two Necks, Macclesfield I was inspired to investigate the challenge that a (forty) eight year old with an 817 could work 100 DXCCs in a week, courtesy of the embarrassment that is FT8. I had a short window of opportunity on the Wednesday morning, so headed up to Cloud summit with the 20m GP. So here’s the results: QSOs: 7 Cumulative QSOs: 7 DXCCs: 7 Cumulative DXCCs: 7 DXCCs so far (just 1st contact with each DXCC will be recorded here): Brazil - PY2ZZ, France - F8BVP, Slovakia - OM8KT, Poland - SQ5KGS, Portugal - CT1END, Lithuania - LY1CZ, England - M6JEP. This will be my focus now for the next few SOTA activations. Anyone else care to join in with the “100 DXCC in a Week Embarrassment That Is FT8 QRP SOTA Challenge”? I actually don’t expect to achieve this myself, but it’s perfectly feasible that it could be done, so who’s going to have a go? Anyway, not really a tour gig, but as I often do on a Wednesday night, I tagged along with Liam to our local Open Mic Night, and joined him with some other musicians on stage to belt out a few classics from Bowie, Radiohead, Chicago etc. All good fun.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Brookside Theatre, Romford Hmm, Joe’s enthusiastic fanbase in Essex is starting to become a bit of a problem for my SOTA aspirations. We keep getting shows down there - and there’s no summits. I had to think creatively to keep SOTA activating into my weekend schedule. Or for “creatively”, you could substitute the word “boringly” or “predictably”. So first to The Cloud G/SP-015. I should have just done a quickfire handheld-only 2m FM activation, but I wanted to further my quest in the “Embarrassment that is FT8 (4)8 year old with an FT-817 DXCC Challenge”. Anyway, here’s the outcome of that: QSOs: 10 Cumulative QSOs: 17 DXCCs: 9 Cumulative DXCCs: 15 Next over to Gun G/SP-013 where first I enjoyed a cup of coffee with Richard G3CWI in his motorhome at the parking spot.
Gig: Furious Styles Venue: The Firepit, Rawtenstall
The obvious summit to tag in with a gig in Rossendale, Lancashire, would be Hail Storm Hill G/SP-009, with a couple of its most frequented approach routes originating in the Rossendale Valley. I’d already done that one, and its neighbour Freeholds Top G/SP-011 though in 2018 - so i just did my local pair during the afternoon before setting off. On The Cloud G/SP-015, I made three contacts, two on 2m C4FM, one on 2m analogue FM. On Gun G/SP-013, I also made three contacts, all 2m FM, including S2S with Jordan on Y Garn GW/NW-004 - his last of three on a day on the Glyders.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Viva Blackpool
I woke up around 9am. First job was to catch up on the previous evening’s Match of the Day, recorded on the Tivo box. Second job was to get a wiper blade replaced. Third was to walk up The Cloud, do some FT8 and a little bit of the CQWW SSB. It’s the peace and solitude I go to Cloud summit for. It was about as peaceful and uncrowded as 14.100 to 14.350MHz was at that very time. A total of 48 QSOs made, utlising 2 bands and 5 modes: 20m FT8: 8 20m SSB: 28 20m CW: 7 2m FM: 3 2m C4FM (Fusion): 2
Saturday 10th November 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Marina Hotel, Benidorm
I woke up at 0517 UTC, so had plenty of time before setting off for the airport. Early Saturday morning activations can be fruitful for DX, so I got up to do a local summit. Dawn had just broken as I arrived at the parking spot, so the headtorch was not necessary. What was necessary was shelter, with a strong southerly wind blasting across the summit. It wasn’t at the level of recent storms but I nonetheless wanted to protect the SOTA pole from its force, and my body from its windchill.
I set up on the grassy ledge below the cliffs on the north face, and this was fine. On the 20m band, it was pretty slow going, with just a few QSOs on CW, a handful on FT8, and a couple of S2S (into Poland and Greece) on SSB. The continent challenge wasn’t going to happen today with just Europe, Asia and Africa finding my logbook. Signals were received from Brazil and New Zealand, but nothing noted from North America or Antarctica. I did add some new countries to my FT8 total though, which I think now stands at 58.
More pleasing was when I was catching up with some SOTA Database logging the past couple of days and wondering why NL7N threw up an unusual and unanticipated DXCC number - it was Alaska! My first ever QSO with Alaska and I didn’t even notice it at the time! There were activations in JA and VK in progress at the same time as mine, but unfortunately, I couldn’t hear them. I would now have to be a good boy and ignore the EA5 summit that is in Benidorm itself as M0HGY was at home - not that I would have time anyway, and I left all the radio gear at home. I was now off for a little warm up while at work!
91 QSOs on G/SP-015: 15 on 2m FM 18 on 70cm FM 58 on 70cm SSB Very cold - especially after EA5 the previous day.
Gig: Liam Read (Open Mic) Venue: Swan With 2 Necks, Macclesfield I should have done an activation with it being a gig day, but I got a call to do a day’s supply teaching in Newcastle-under-Lyme. Even so, I should, and the initial intention was, to activate The Cloud G/SP-015 on the way home, but in a rare episode of apathy, I couldn’t be bothered. Thursday 15th November 2018 - no activation Gig: The Sound of Music (bandcall) Venue: Brookdale Theatre, Bramhall, Stockport I was determined not to suffer a second day of indifference to SOTA activating, so decided I would activate The Cloud G/SP-015 after finishing my music arranging work for the day, but before heading out to the gig (bandcall). I needed to scan in and load all the Sound of Music scores on my iPad as I wanted to be able to handle pageturns with my Bluetooth pedal, rather than missing a note or two. I then had to knock out a new band arrangement of “Hurt” that Joe wanted to perform at weekend, before transcribing a bass part for a North American customer. After that lot, I could have done the activation, but it would have meant rushing about and keeping an eye on the clock. So for the second day running, I didn’t bother. This was turning into a crisis. Friday 16th November 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Sheldon Ivy Leaf, Birmingham Determined not to make it three days of apathy in a row, I set off in plenty of time for the gig and made straight for Bosley. I only walked up with the handheld, but had a great activation that included S2S with Phil GW4HQB/P on Snowdon GW/NW-001, and Matt GW8XYJ/P on Ysgyryd Fawr GW/SW-016. The Skirrid was a nice contact from Cheshire just using a handheld. Matt and I repeated the exchange after moving to C4FM (Yaesu System Fusion) mode.
The gig venue was “a bit of a change” from Glasgow Pavilion a couple of weeks earlier! After the gig in the Midlands, I drove down to Malvern Link where I had digs booked for the night. This would also be very handy for an activation of Worcestershire Beacon G/WB-009 the following morning.
The 2nd and 3rd night of the production of The Sound of Music followed, but the SOTA activations did not. I found myself too busy writing band arrangements and bass transcriptions, and doing the production work on Liam’s weekly radio show. Both days I’d intended doing a local activation, but both days, by the time I was clear of tasks, it had already gone dark. Thursday 22nd November 2018 - Gun G/SP-013 & The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: The Sound of Music Venue: Brookdale Theatre, Bramhall, Stockport I was determined not to allow a third consecutive day of lethargy, so despite the to-do list lengthening once again, I chose to ignore it and get out of the house. Liam joined me for some fresh air, and to pop into the studios at Canalside Radio in Bollington. Thankfully, there were no puddles, bogs or streams on the footpath up to Gun summit, and our feet remained dry. Five QSOs were made on 2m FM with the Yaesu FT70D handheld. Forty minutes later, we were on Cloud summit. Again, five QSOs were made, all 2m FM.
Gig: The Sound of Music Venue: Brookdale Theatre, Bramhall, Stockport The Friday was another gig day where I failed to find time for any SOTA. Saturday would be challenging too, as I had two shows - a matinee and an evening performance - so I got myself up and out! It was very quiet on The Cloud with just two stations - 2E0IXM and 2E0LKC - answering my CQ SOTA calls on 2m FM. Over on Gun, it was a total contrast. with seven stations going into the log, actually sounding like a pile-up at one point!
Off-topic alert - I didn’t have a gig No, I was dropping Liam off in town at 7.30pm, and picking him up again at 9.30pm. I couldn’t be mithered going home for an hour and a bit in between - and chose to do two SOTA activations instead. It was a crisp, cold and clear night, and good fun to be walking on the hills under moonlight and starlight. On both hills I made five 2m FM QSOs. On both hills, four of them were 2E0LMD, 2E0LKC, 2W0JYN & MW0XAD. After picking Liam up, it was straight home to tune in to his weekly show on local FM radio.
I would be back on the road the next morning - off down to the Smoke, and then back up the road to Hull, Mexborough and Bury. All activations expected to be pointless…
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Leicester Square Theatre, London So, no realistic way of getting a vehicle to the venue - not without suffering London traffic, Congestion charge, and astronomical parking tariffs. Hence it would be necessary to meet the sound crew at 11am at Warwick Services M60 and transfer some gear into the truck. A SOTA option to fit in with all this? A repeat of Wendover Woods G/CE-005 was considered, but I decided to play it safe and do an early one on The Cloud at the start of my journey.
Just one QSO from the summit - Arthur G0OHY on 2m FM. There was a net in progress on 145.525MHz, but I decided not to interrupt their triumphant reflections on the EU referendum result. I chose instead to get on the road to my least favourite city - London - but at least my favourite part of it - the West End / Chinatown. Well, the “road” all the way to there was not viable, due to parking and congestion charging, so we got as far as the cheap digs we had booked in Archway, then tubed it from there for the show.
I posted the above photo to Facebook, with the caption “I win”, which triggered posts from my XYL complaining “I don’t get it!” Of course, most UK radio amateurs would probably get it! More uninspiring SOTA stories were anticipated from the following days intended (but unfulfilled) commute from London to Hull.
Gig: Matt Philips Venue: Bury Town Hall Local gig, local summit. Well the most local ones to Bury are Winter Hill G/SP-010 and Hail Storm Hill G/SP-009, but I’d already got the activator points for those in 2018, so I went for a summit local to home, rather than one local to the gig! Only time for a quick 2m handheld / rubber duck activation, but it started well with S2S with Jordan MW3TMX/P on Mynydd y Cwm GW/NW-076. Jordan was completing the “Five Clwydians in a Day with Winter Bonus Points” for the first time. This is an iconic SOTA outing, a great day’s walking and 13 activator points up for grabs in bonus season. It’s a bit like the “Shropshire” Five and the Ponderosa Pair - they are “must-do” outings for any self-respecting SOTA activator over the winter season. My other four QSOs were all with Intermediate licencees, who seem to be, significantly, the most common species on VHF these days. Tea was a chicken jalfrezi at the Wetherspoons in Bury, and the gig was 90 minutes of Atlantic soul and Motown.
Gig: Stu Clark & Friends Venue: The Venue, Lymm, Cheshire I got home from the Matt Philips gig around 1am on the Sunday morning. The big Wilder-Fury heavyweight fight was expected to start around 5am. In a moment of inspiration, I phoned my mate Steve who lives across the estate from me. We agreed to buy in the Pay-Per-View event, have three hours sleep, then meet over at his around 4.30am. After the fight, which was one of the best big heavyweight fights I had ever seen, and well worth getting up for, I was wide awake and not ready to go back to bed. Guess what? I drove down to The Cloud for a SOTA activation.
I set up the 20m GP, hoping for some Oceania DX. It might have been a bit early for that around 0730 UTC, but John ZL1BYZ came through for my second contact. It is always highly satisfying to get a ZL in the log, even though in reality it will have been John’s station and antennas doing the bulk of the work! Next up was a S2S with OK/SP9MA/P on OK/JC-121. Despite the promising start though, just six QSOs were made on 20m - two on SSB and four on CW. Three were added on 2m FM, but I was now getting really tired, and ready to go home for my second helping of sleep. I awoke again in early afternoon, and went almost straight out, and over to the little Cheshire village of Lymm. We first had a nice meal at the Grill on the Cross Turkish restaurant, before going over to The Venue. This wasn’t really one of my gigs, but one of a friend and amazing fingerstyle guitarist Stu Clark. It was a “Stu Clark & Friends” night, and on this occasion, two of those friends were Liam and myself.
Tuesday 4th December - Gun G/SP-013 & The Cloud G/SP-015 No gig - day off! As I got back to the car after Gun G/SP-013, I made the decision to do Cloud as well, there and then, rather than save it for the FMAC and UKAC later that evening. Somehow, I had left my headtorch at home, so I needed to get a move on with only 20 minutes of daylight remaining. This time I made eight QSOs on 2m FM, starting with S2S with Nick G4OOE/P and Dave G3TQQ/P who were on Sharp Haw G/NP-029. I also added a ninth QSO with one on C4FM Fusion mode.
The low cloud was still around, but it was moving and thinning, so not as spectacular as from Gun an hour earlier. I still managed to take part in the 2m FMAC, but operating from my car on Merryton Low IO93ad. It was good to catch Simon G7WKX/P on Shining Tor G/SP-004, and I felt slightly guilty I was not providing for a S2S contact! Shortly after 8pm though, it was time to go and pick Liam up from Macc town centre.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Elma’s Restaurant, Lymm From the 1500 sell-out at Glasgow Pavilion just a few weeks ago, tonight’s gig will be slightly more low key, with an audience of about 40 - though still a sell-out! I get paid the same though, and that night I’d get free (very good) pizza too! I was awake at 6am, and fancied an early SOTA activation. 20m, with datamodes and legacy modes was in my mind, and the possibility of some DX. That was until I stepped out of the house into very heavy rain. I checked the forecast on the Met Office site, and found that this misery was set to last until well after I would need to go to work. I was on the point of abandoning and going back in the house - but the compulsion to conduct a SOTA activation on a tour gig day was too strong.
So The Cloud it was, a damp, cold, dark and windy experience exactly as anticipated. I managed to make three QSOs on 2m FM. There were nets on S21 and S23, but otherwise hardly any activity at all. Mind you, it was before 0800. I toyed with the idea of going across to Gun, but then remembered the reappearance of water on the path the previous day, and imagined the flood it would have turned into in the current heavy rain. So I went back home for a mug of coffee and a plate of cheese on toast. As you do.
Gig: Ragdolls Venue: Chateau Impney Hotel, Droitwich
Droitwich was a word I first learned when I got into short wave radio listening and started looking up BBC World Service transmitter sites. The only feasible transmitter site between Macclesfield and there was the summit of The Cloud. I managed to get up and down the hill within a short break in the otherwise heavy rain, and make four QSOs on 2m FM. I then resumed the drive to Worcestershire for the night’s work with the Frankie Valli & Four Seasons tribute show “The Ragdolls”.
Tuesday 11th December 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 & Gun G/SP-013 Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Bellavista Restaurant, Milnrow Billy Whizz today! Two summits activated within the hour, 42 minutes apart. Total of 7 minutes operating - 3 minutes and 4 minutes respectively - on 2m FM. Total of 11 QSOs (5 & 6 respectively). The journey to work near Rochdale was a total contrast. 3.5 hours to drive 41 mlies. Awful.
Goodness me, that was a chilly one! Not a classic night on the radio either. Conditions were generally very poor. There were occasional brief hints of openings. Some stations reported a very short-lived opening to Italy, while I heard a Finnish station calling CQ TEST on 6m CW - but very “in and out” - and also short-lived. Other stations suggested possible Sporadic E, but my hunch was meteor scatter.
The evening started with the 6m FMAC - and quite probably the last ever FMAC. Good riddance to them I say; waste of time and don’t deliver the intended (flawed) aim of attracting youngsters and new licensees into VHF contesting. I was then surprised with the arrival of Simon G7WKX on summit. He went off to set up his 6m dipole. Despite being only 50 yards away, somewhat remarkably, he didn’t seem to cause me any QRM whatsoever. I rather suspect he got a bit more from me, especially when the SB6 was beaming right over him! In any case, Simon said he was only doing a short stint on 6m before doing the main activation on 2m. As I say, it was a poor night, and painfully cold. Temperatures dipped down to -3 as Simon packed up and walked back over to the topograph where I was. Activity was slow on 6m SSB so we stopped and had a chat for a while, which was very enjoyable. Just as Simon was about to descend, my mast collapsed, so he kindly helped me get it in position again before he went. It was great to meet him for the first time, and hope to do so again, maybe as a joint activation. At this point I began to shiver quite dramatically such was the cold, so I got into my bothy bag which significantly eased the discomfort, and the temperature indicated on my clock moved from -3 up to +2 over the next few minutes. Those five extra degrees afforded by the bothy bag were unbelievably welcome. A total of 45 QSOs, all on 6m. 3 on FM, 1 on CW and 41 on SSB. Further difficulties plagued me - something jammed in the SOTA Pole and I couldn’t fully collapse it, so I had to carry it down at the length of two sections. Fortunately, that was just about short enough that it could be threaded into my car for further investigation in the morning. Then on the drive down towards the A54, I hit a big patch of ice the full width of the road and went into a spin. This only stopped when the back end of my car went into the grass bank on the right of the lane. Thankfully, I was driving very slowly due to the conditions, and the only effect on my car was a bit of mud on the bumper.
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Shaftesbury Casino, West Bromwich It was a case of “spot the difference” from my point of view with my first activation using WSJT-X 2.0. Everything seemed to be exactly the same, initially at least. I soon worked out that I could call CQ SOTA M1EYP/P IO83 - which I definitely couldn’t before. I couldn’t get the ‘SOTA’ bit to stick and had to keep putting it back in manually. I didn’t get round to experimenting if the IO83 could be replaced with a version of the SOTA reference, so I continued to use my free text line at the end of the QSO for that.
Six QSOs made on 20m FT8, including one into the USA, followed by a couple on 2m FM, including S2S with GW4HQB/P on Foel Fenlli GW/NW-051. And of course, another gig. My first ever in a casino, and preceded by the promoter taking us to a nearby Indian restaurant and treating all the band and sound crew to a very good curry.
Thursday 20th December 2018 - The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: Liam Read Venue: Swan With Two Necks, Macclesfield Well OK, the gig was the previous night, Wednesday. I’d intended an activation in the morning, but I had arrangements to write, so I put that off to the afternoon. In the afternoon I had an unexpected visit from a nervous guitarist wanting to talk through the sheet music - and then it was time for Liam’s gig - aargh! So this particular “SOTA on Tour” activation needed to be the morning after the night before. Does this weaken the integrity of the concept? Most definitely. Still, it is what it is. Good intentions to get up and activate early on the Thursday morning were scuppered by me sitting up until gone 3am writing out more orchestrations - stimulating and addictive work that it is. After another session scorewriting in the morning, I finally forced myself out to get some much needed fresh air. Well I got my fresh air alright. There was plenty of it for me to feast upon on the summit of Bosley Cloud G/SP-015 between 20m FT8 QSO number 1 - G4RRM in Crewe @ 1559z, and 20m FT8 QSO number 2 - K2IAM in New York @ 1653z. After then working VE3MGY at 1705, my tablet was running low on charge, so I packed the 20m GP away. I had expended a lot of time chasing DX on FT8 - ZS, NP4, 5V, 3V1 etc - but without success. 2m FM was much easier - five QSOs in the next seven minutes to complete the activation. That would do. The cold air meant it was taking an eternity for me to write each log down in my notebook, so I called it a day and arranged to meet M0HGY for a couple of pints and a game of pool.
Gig: Matt Philips Venue: Bury Town Hall Just a quick wander up this ‘slightly familiar’ hill before setting out to Bury. A few contacts, with chasers, on 2m FM followed by one on 2m C4FM. Much warmer and drier than recently. Now for some Motown!
Gig: Motown Gold Venue: Bolton Abbey, North Yorkshire I figured I couldn’t make enough time in the day to activate a scoring summit in the Yorkshire Dales, as I’ve already done most of those around Skipton in 2018. Nice little walk up The Cloud though, and a remarkable sequence of three S2S into GW/MW in the first five minutes! 5 QSOs in total, 2 on 70cm FM and 3 on 2m FM.
Gig: Busking with Liam Venue: Exchange Street, Macclesfield Town Centre Just a daft idea for a bit of seasonal fun. Repertoire included Mud’s “Lonely This Christmas” and East 17’s “Stay Another Day”. But before all that, I got up at 6am after a poor night’s sleep (got about 3 hours). Straight to Cloudside, straight up to the summit - no pausing for breath (it wasn’t always this way). 20m GP antenna must have been due a refurb - no less than three of its four radials snapped off during this activation! The activation continued after twisting the wires back together, but I now had a little repair job to do before Christmas Day morning.
Eight QSOs made, four each on 20m FT8, and 2m FM. A glorious clear and sunny morning with superb visibility, albeit a bit chilly. That was it for advent-activating; I needed to start thinking about what to get Marianne for Christmas… Here’s a picture of me being silly having met Marianne in a pub in town around 2pm. I fully appreciate that the scarf-hat combo was a bit of a colour-coordination fail. The beer was Hobgoblin - always a fine seasonal ale for Christmastime. Marianne on the posh stuff. Have a lovely Christmas everyone.
It looked like there could be quite a few seasonal SOTA activations by the time the day was out and all 48 hours of Christmas Day had passed. I got up at 5am, had a coffee and a bowl of cereal, and drove down to The Cloud G/SP-015. Of course, I was expecting darkness for the first couple of hours and had my headtorch, but the fog was extremely thick, and at one point I had no idea where I was in relation to the summit! That was quite something on a hill as familiar as this! Of course, it was a very short ascent anyway, so I just followed the path until the trig point appeared. The ground immediately beneath my feet was about all I could see anyway! I took up my 30m dipole, though had in the back of my mind the thought it might not be working. Alas, it wasn’t, and I had to take it down and replace with the 20m dipole. I now had an idea for a different design for my 30m portable aerial anyway, so I wouldn't bother trying to find the fault on this one and crack on with building a new one.
The next thing to fail was the OTG adaptor cable, which started to come apart below the moulded connector, making it badly intermittent. So that was FT8 out of the window, frustrating, because BX2AFU was QRV on 20m FT8 from BV/TP-003 at the time. On 20m CW, I made 5 contacts, with another couple on 20m SSB. Before descending, I called on 2m FM and worked three more stations, making it 10 for the Christmas Day activation. Simon GW7WKX/P was strong from Snowdon GW/NW-001, but I couldn’t attract his attention for the S2S. Now I was looking forward to Christmas dinner, as cooked my by mum, always a fabulous festive feast! Compliments of the season.
Gig: Matt Philips Venue: Mytton Fold Golf Club, Langho, Blackburn A repeat of one of the Lancashire summits might seem more sensible for this, but the drummer booked on the gig was also from Macclesfield and we’d arranged to travel together - making “SOTA En Route” not really appropriate. In any case, I was keen to get out early and try for a DX S2S on 20m FT8. Alas, the hoped-for QSO with Willis BX2AFU never came off. We were QRV simultaneously on 14.092MHz FT8, but I don’t think either of us appeared in each others’ WSJT-X display. The good thing about operating away from the hustle and bustle of 14.074MHz was the time and space to work four consecutive SOTA chasers. That I did enjoy.
In total I made 12 QSOs on FT8, with ER1PB (Moldova) and EA9ACD (Ceuta & Melilla) being the highlights. Thank you to Heinz OE5EEP for emailing me these screenshots. I then switched to 20m SSB for the S2S with EA1/CT2GSN/P on EA1/PO-026 before finishing with a couple on 2m FM. I then moved across to Gun G/SP-013 for a second SOTA activation before going to work.
Something I’ve always fancied doing is averaging an activation per day for a whole year. Well, for the first time, in 2018, I actually achieved that. Monday 31st December 2018 - New Year’s Eve - The Cloud G/SP-015 Gig: Simon Faulkner Band Venue: Bistro Live, Milton Keynes So activation #365 for the year was also a ‘SOTA on Tour’ activation! (In fact it later transpired, due to my miscalculation, that it was in fact activation #367 in the year!) The Cloud was very busy with me snagging the last available parking space on Red Lane, and hordes of people on the paths and on the summit. VHF was pleasantly active too.
I operated for just under ten minutes on 2m FM on the Yaesu FT70D handheld, but in that time recorded eight QSOs, including S2S with Caroline M3ZCB/P and Martyn M1MAJ/P who were on Fair Snape Fell G/SP-007. So now it was time to hit the road for tonight’s gig; see you all next year!
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