First HF activation G/SP-004 Shining Tor TP5950 25/11/23

No idea why i forgot to post this one.. Anywhoo!

As pretty much all of you know by now, I have been off the mountains since my unfortunate accident on the way to Kinder Scout at the beginning of the year. Having missed pretty much all of the summer SOTA season and with my leg much improved, I have been ITCHING to get out! I also reckoned it was time to test the Little Xeigu G106 out on a proper activation…

A window of opportunity presented itself, and after spending most of the week watching the mountain weather, Saturday looked suprisingly pleasent! it also had the advantage of being a weekend when i had my son, so he could be roped in to help!

The day was pleasant and although it was cold, it was lovely in the sunshine. I couldnt have asked fr better walking conditions although imnot going to lie, I was nervous… conditions were spookily similar when it all went so wrong on Kinder! but I put this to the back of my mind as we set off up the track from the Cat and Fiddle. Now i must confess, I did cheat slightly, William was my Sherpa!

Anyhow, summit reached and time was knocking on… we were late (as usual for me) so we rapidly set up the EFHW to the summit finger post and got the G106 hooked up to the SLAB, found a peaceful frequency on 40M… chucked up a spot on SOTAwatch, gave it 2 mins and put a call out…

9 contacts later,i got wiped out by QRM and loads of stations suddenly deciding to use my frequency,sometimes QRP has its drawbacks! Either that or some people are just plain ignorant, but hey ho, I was not too dissapointed though! 9 contacts meant for the first time it was activation complete on 40M… happy days!

I left William packing up the HF gear, and decided on a quick VHF activation on the handheld with the NR770 antenna, mainly because I wanted a 10th contact for the POTA! This lead to another 7 in the log, but I soon had to call time on the activation, honestly i could have worked stations all day!

The sun was fading RAPIDLY as by now it was 1530 and i didnt fancy a walk off by head torch we gathered the gear and made our way back to the Cat and Fiddle just in time for the sun to set.. Perfect!

This is fantastic SOTA mountain I reckon ill be back to spend a whole afternoon up there in summer playing radio and making contacts. It was honestly such a fantastic feeling to be working contacts form a SOTA summit again, after the fat end of a year off the hills... Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support, and the Chasers I worked, you guys make SOTA what it is!

Till next time, 73 - Alan & William!

21 & 29/10/23 - A BOTA completion, and a bonus trig to trig..... B/G-0944 Crossland Moor and TP2622 Crossland heath.

 Unfortunately due to "life" I haven't been as active as Id hoped on activating the bunkers, i am quite lucky here, that I am within half an hours drive of several bunkers, but settled on the one at Crossland Moor, Huddersfield as my first one.

The Bunker is located in front of the Huddersfield Observatory, and has sadly been demolished, or rather the surface features have been, I'm unsure if the bunker its self is still underground. 

Anyhow, the bunker rues stipulate an activation is allowed within 1Km of the bunker site, and this one affords a nice easy Layby where you can sit in the car and fill yer boots! 

I first activated the Bunker on the 21/10/2023 on HF, using the little Xeigu G106 and an EFHW on 40M, but I ROYALLY messed up my timing, Worked all Germany weekend and the usual big station contesters were making life VERY difficult, with my little 5W QRP station! I persevered and with some internet assistance managed 17 calls, including a few into France and Belgium, but sadly short of the 25 needed to qualify a bunker as activated. I gave up in the end, as the band conditions were worsening by the second... 

Now this is where the rules work to an activators advantage, you dont have to do all 25 qualifying contacts in 1 session so I planned a return at some point...

I returned on the 29/10/23, I did take the HF gear, but planned on doing the activation on VHF, using the car antenna and the usual FT4XE handheld, I made a start calling on the 2M calling frequncey, but calls were slow! I needed 8 to qualify the bunker, and boy did I struggle!

The first out of the bag was G6XBF - Walt and then M7GDE - Andy K in Kippax, north Leeds. who proceeded to text his radio friends and DX groups he knew of to try and get me over the line, Thanks Andy!

I got a few more in the log, and then spoke to Paul, M0AIA/P who was at a trig point, we got talking and he mentioned there was a trig near to the bunker! A golden opportunity for a trig to trig... he helped me over the line with my last 3 contacts, and a change of antenna to the slim G helped AGAIN to get the last couple in the log, happy with 25 uniques, it was tick tick... bunker activated! 

Trig point TP2622 - Crossland heath

Bunker done, I was off to the trig point, its literally a few mins walk from the road, Paul had kindly agreed to hang around for a trig to trig. so i made my way over with the handheld, and called "trig to trig, trig to trig 2E0JWA/P" and we did it! A VHF trig to trig TP2622 Crossland heath to TP3676 Haw Cliff Top .. had a little QSO from the trig, and with the light failing and the temperatures dropping rapidly I made a dart back to the car!

A really nice trig point, in a picturesque location made a nice end to the activation.
Special thanks to the Bunkers on the Air crew, for setting up and managing a fantastic scheme, long may it continue! Andy K M7GDE for Rallying the troops and Paul M0AIA for telling me about the trig, passing some of his calls to me so I could get over the line, and for hanging around so we could get the trig to trig. Sometimes I am humbled by the amateur radio community's willingness to help others and keep the spirit of amateur radio alive..

Till next time 73s - Alan

Bunkers on the Air - A new Scheme for Radio Hams!

 Lets talk about Bunkers on the air...

As far as i can work out there was a previous incarnation of this programme, and they are NOT in any way connected. the following s a completely NEW award scheme Skilfully put together by A small dedicated team and will be starting as a one month event from the 1st to the 31st of October 2023! 

I will hopefully activating both on VHF and HF from 2 or 3 locations for this event as I think its great! The scheme is based around the former Royal Observer Core nuclear war observation bunkers stationed all over the country, all the details of which can be can be found on the Bunkers on the Air website! you can also find the rules, how to log and links to the Facebook group on the link..

The long term plan of the BOTA MT is to open up the scheme and expand its operating locations to other fortifications from WW2, the cold war ETC ETC.....

Good luck to all operators operating the event, and I hope to work some of you!!

73 - Alan

POTA - Peak District National Park G-0048 - A foggy activation! 16/09/23

 Still on the now long road to leg recovery, and owning a new radio I have been itching to do SOMETHING for a few weeks now... I had the thought of a potentially easy SOTA on the Gun, and then the Cloud, but the weather looked like it was turning and it was decided that maybe my fitness isnt quite there to deal with crappy weather!

Not fancying another Mountain Rescue, myself and my son (William) decided a POTA might be a nice idea. Living on the edge of the Peak District national park has the advantage that we don't have to go far to have a play! anyway, we decided that Holme Moss car park might be a handy spot for some QRP HF action.

As you can see the weather was pretty crappy on the tops, and we were glad we didnt attempt SOTA! We managed to get my pole up and the EFHW thanks to a handily positioned fence, there is a pole on the end of the wire.. Honestly there is! 😂😂

EFHW up, and radios connected to the battery and the bits and bats, it was time to have a go! 40M was the weapon of choice, and a spot on the POTA site, and another on the WAB group soon produced some calls, I got 3 in on 7097 but then the perils of operating QRP kicked in and I got wiped out by a station who either couldn't hear me, or could hear me and decided that he wanted the frequency anyway by tuning up, and then calling CQ on the frequency....... needless to be said I wasn't too pleased!

A scan about the band showed a space on 7108.500, so I spotted my new location and was soon into some great contacts, Lincolnshire, Devon, London, Leicestershire and Norfolk.. all on 5W! then the surprise for the day, PD1CW, Patrick in the Netherlands! Williams jaw dropped, he couldn't believe it! Anyhow, after 12 contacts on HF we were getting cold, so we decided to pack up the HF gear.. A successful activation! operating from the boot of the car.

After we packed up, I wasnt QUITE ready to give up yet, so i stuck the 2M filter on the handheld and made some calls on the car antenna on VHF! another 10 local QSOs, predominantly Leeds & Bradford filled the log nicely for a total of 22, and a completed activation! While sat in the car operating VHF William got a bit bored, but something pulled in the car park that woke him up and got him all excited!

A Rally Replica Skoda! he went running over camera in hand, and took the picture below. it was nice to be fair, and the owner was a nice guy too!

That done, it was time to go home.. 22 contacts in the bag, 12 of them on the little Xeigu at 5W.. Cant wait to use this setup on a summit proper im absolutely over the moon with its small but mighty performance! as usual, thanks to all the Chasers new and old...

73, till next time! Alan - 2E0JWA

SOTA Chaser 500!

 

Finally got my SOTA chaser 500 points..... only 500 more to the Shack sloth, and the glass block! 😂😂

Still, feeling pretty chuffed with that.... especially as my activation activities have been somewhat curtailed this year... 

73 - Alan

New portable setup, Xeigu G106 ironing out the problems... 01/09/23

 Not REALLY much to report, ankle is still mending, I still cant get out on the tops. HOWEVER my time hasn't been completely wasted!

Investments slowly slowly in a new HF portable kit, for hilltop operations has been in full swing, with the purchase of a Xeigu G106 QRP SDR based radio, an EFHW (End Fed Half Wave) for 40/20/15 & 10M bands. and a battery to power it all!

Anyhow, these little HF SDR radios are not without their problems, the main one seems to be breakthrough and ghosting by strong AM/MW broadcast stations...

More stuff on the Xeigu and the setup to follow, but today i received a parcel, and couldn't wait to get out and test its contents!

Ill let the Video attached do the talking, but please visit www.radio-stuff.com if you like the EFHW and the Filter! Thanks! 

73 - Alan - 2E0JWA

SOTA GW/MW-037, Brandy hill. Its good to be back, even if only in a small way! 17/06/23

A call off one of my Nieces on Thursday, in somewhat of a panic, and me being the only driver in the family led to a 480 Mile round trip from my QTH in Oldham, to Pembroke… and back!

Anyhow, Leaving my Niece and her Daughter to attend to their important family business in Pembroke, I had a couple of hours to kill. Now, as im sure by now, you all know the saga of my leg… well, its still not right, certainly not up to loads, and according to my physio I need to keep walking to around the 10 min mark, tops! and avoid rough ground… yea… I know… BUT I am Walking! so little victories, and all that! This lead to me spotting Brandy hill, Handy for Pembroke, easily accessible, a fair chance of a VHF operation… PERFECT!

I drove right up to the Gates of the compound, chucked up the Slim G, with the usual combination of the FT4XE and the Sotabeams bandpass filter… Spotted (sorry, i used the wrong prefix on the spot) and called… this lead to three calls… MW3DLA - Aled, 2W0DSP - Andrew & 2W0JMK - Mark… then the worst thing… SILENCE! 1 more call needed, repeated calls produced nothing, and i was starting to get seriously disheartened! Then it hit me… re-spot, and in the comment section I wrote “need 1 more to qualify!!”. Well, it did the job! 2 more calls and I was done… GW4VPX - Allan & GW8XMW - David. you chaps saved the day, Many thanks!

Not terribly exciting im afraid, and photos of not alot! but its still good to be back in the game, even if its only in a small way!

Thanks everyone, hope to catch you all on the air soon

Alan - 2E0JWA