Gun, G/SP-013 - 385m ASL - SJ 970 615 - OS Explorer OL24 - 1 SOTA point
Thursday 24th January 2008: I peered out of my classroom window as the
last groups of pupils for the day were being dismissed from their exhilarating
and motivational mathematical educational experience. A cloudless deep blue sky,
illuminated by bright sunlight. An extra hour's work on the desktop, or an hour
on a felltop? No contest!
So half-an-hour's drive from Tunstall, Stoke-on-Trent, to Gun G/SP-013 in the
Staffordshire Moorlands. The weather was indeed dry, clear and sunny, but the
wind was blasting in from the West, and as icy cold as ever. It certainly wasn't
as nice as it looked from the inside of my classroom.
The area extending to a couple of metres all around the stile at the start of
the ascent was completely waterlogged, so I clambered over the gate instead. As
I walked up to the summit, I realised it was a good deal colder than on my
recent activations - including the early morning ones. I continued over the
summit and someway down the other side to gain shelter from the prevailing wind
while remaining within the activation zone.
I moved around a bit in the 7.030 to 7.033 MHz area, trying to find a clear
frequency and trying to escape the stronger stations that landed on my frequency
without hearing me. I only made four contacts in over 30 minutes operating. The
first was Fritz DL4FDM, followed by HB9BYZ. As the skies began to darken, I
worked OM1ADM, so I was getting exactly the same increased distance in exactly
the same direction yet again as night came on. Surely the next contact had to be
OK or HA? No, it was Cris GM4FAM, who I haven't worked for a while, so that was
a nice surprise.
With no further callers, and plenty of QRO stations jumping on me without
hearing me - and more significantly, with my fingers turning to ice - I decided
it was time to go home. I flicked on the headtorch for the first time, just to
track the legs of the dipole for winding in and unpegging, then wandered down
the shallow sloshy slope to the car. It should have been lovely in the middle of
dusk with clear views across the illuminated towns of Leek, Biddulph, Mow Cop,
Congleton and Macclesfield before me, but I was now walking head-on into the icy
wind - not pleasant!
Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 40m CW with 5 watts:
DL4FDM |
Bensheim |
Fritz |
HB9BYZ |
Thunstetten |
Peter |
OM1ADM |
Bratislava |
Marian |
GM4FAM |
North Kessock |
Cris |
Getting one's rucksack, water, soup, clothes, boots, coat, batteries etc ready,
even for some local activations, is time-consuming work. Doing it times three is
exhausting stuff. At least Jimmy sorted out his and Liam's clothes which saved
me a job, and also put the SOTAwatch Alerts on for me.
But the job was done, and I was flopped down at my PC in the shack, late in the
evening, with the last can of Stella in the house, and looking forward to a bit
of SOTA for the next day. Five points would be a relative bumper haul for
me these days! Jimmy would cop for seven. He was amused when putting on the
Alerts that we were scheduled to do SP-013 at 1300 and
SP-015 at 1500. I suggested that we get up at 0200
and do SP-004 at 0400, and have a rest in between. His
amusement suddenly ended abruptly; I can't imagine why.
Well, we had a good day. The main objective was to see if Jimmy could
activate on 40m using SSB, QRP and SPOTlite. The answer was yes, although it
didn't work out on the third summit of the day. Dusk was approaching though,
there were no gaps between the contest stations, and they themselves could no
longer hear our QRP as the skip started to get longer. But considering that we
wanted to test these working conditions in order to have a better chance of
qualifying Kisdon G/NP-026 (and others with poor
VHF take-off) the next time we go there, it was good to confirm that we could
either nominate a frequency (or be spotted) on
SOTAwatch via SPOTlite, or answer the contest stations if an event was on.
This all worked fine before 4pm.
From Shining Tor G/SP-004, we headed along the
lanes via Bottom o'th' Oven, Forest Chapel, Wildboarclough, Wincle and
Danebridge towards Gun G/SP-013. The walk up was simple enough, and somewaht
less waterlogged than a visit a couple of days earlier. The wind was at our
backs on the ascent, so we continued on the path beyond the summit to set up a
few metres lower on the other side. This time, establishing one's own QRG was
more challenging, but Jimmy was able to pick up his contacts by answering the
contest calls. Unfortunately, one DL contest station refused to work him - I had
already worked this station, and he said to Jimmy "Already in the log". Jimmy
replied "No, you worked M1EYP/P, I am M3EYP/P, a different station". The DL
station replied "Already in the log, no QSO, 73"! Hmmm - maybe the matching
suffix idea was not one of our best after all!
Time was getting on, and we were at least an hour behind our published SOTAwatch
Alerts schedule. Straight on with the ten minute drive across to Cloudside, and
The Cloud G/SP-015. Thanks to the following
stations worked in the activation:
MW3YBW/P |
Corndon Hill MW-013 |
Bea |
2m |
FM |
2.5 watts |
T, J |
G1INK |
Buxton |
Steve |
40m |
SSB |
5 watts |
T, J |
DL6KVA |
Rostock |
Axel |
40m |
CW |
5 watts |
T |
DL4FDM |
Bensheim |
Fritz |
40m |
CW |
5 watts |
T |
DL4ALI |
Gotha |
Steffen |
40m |
CW |
5 watts |
T |
DH7LF |
Nettelsee |
Franz |
40m |
SSB |
5 watts |
T |
OQ7Q |
Brussels |
Eric |
40m |
SSB |
5 watts |
J |
F4DSK |
Chatillon |
Dimitri |
40m |
SSB |
5 watts |
J |
2E0SOT/M |
Biddulph Moor |
Steve |
2m |
FM |
5 watts |
T |
OR8W |
Tongeren |
Daemon |
40m |
SSB |
5 watts |
T |
GW7AAV |
Connahs Quay |
Steve |
2m |
FM |
2.5 watts |
T |
G7PAL |
Burton-on-Trent |
Bruce |
2m |
FM |
2.5 watts |
T |
G6WRW/M |
Long Mynd |
Carolyn |
2m |
FM |
2.5 watts |
T |
M3NVJ |
Mossley Hill |
Colin |
2m |
FM |
2.5 watts |
T |
I took a drive out to Gun G/SP-013 first thing on Sunday
morning, 27th January 2008, accepting an invitation from Richard G3CWI to
join him on his 10G activation. It was very interesting stuff. The S2S
contacts that we both had with Richard G4ERP/P, on
Worcestershire Beacon G/WB-009, were so easy that I was suspicious! The
FT-817 read "432.200MHz", so perhaps Richard had forgotten to switch the
aerial socket and was going straight into the SOTA Beam, instead of the
transverter, and it was a 70cm SSB contact! Had G4ERP's frequency not been
drifting slightly, I might have interrogated further!
At least two other 10GHz operators were out looking for activity. The path
from Gun was obstructed in those directions, so Richard CWI didn't work them
on 10GHz, only spoke to them on the talkback frequencies around 144.175MHz
SSB. However Richard ERP did work them, and with his two contacts with us
operators on Gun, that gave him four, and qualification of a SOTA summit on
10GHz. Good stuff.
Richard CWI went off to his regular contest site Merryton Low, and made
several 10GHz contacts from there, while I went to pick the kids up from my
mum's, where they had stopped overnight. I was getting hungry, and was
successful in my mission to blag a breakfast from my super duper mummy. Eggy
bread - delicious, and a taste of my childhood!
Many thanks to G4ERP for the contact:
G4ERP/P |
Worcestershire Beacon WB-009 |
Richard |
3cm |
SSB |
I had been disappointed with the low level of activity on
80m for my dawn activation of The Cloud G/SP-015
on Thursday 13th March 2008, so wanted to make sure everything was working
properly. Hence I drove from work in Tunstall, up over Biddulph Moor and
across to Gun.
After the easy ten minute walk-in (half a mile, with about 30m of ascent), I
set up the 80m dipole and started on CW. This time there were five stations
in the run before the QRG was empty. When I switched over to SSB, I was
pleased to work five stations, after self-spotting on 3.660MHz. Returning to
3.557MHz CW, a further six stations were worked before wrapping up with four
QSOs on 2m FM with the VX-7R and
SOTA Beams Rucksack Special
antenna. 7 DXCCs and an enjoyable activation.
G0ANV |
Girton |
Daryl |
80m |
CW |
G3JCZ |
Northampton |
|
80m |
CW |
G3CWI |
Macclesfield |
Richard |
80m |
CW |
G3RDQ |
Stockbridge |
David |
80m |
CW |
GW0DSP |
Connahs Quay |
Mike |
80m |
CW |
G0RQL |
Milton Damerel |
Don |
80m |
SSB |
2E0PXW |
Ellesmere Port |
Barry |
80m |
SSB |
G1SAA |
Cambridge |
Rob |
80m |
SSB |
G3OHC |
Selby |
Graham |
80m |
SSB |
G6SFP |
Chalfont St Peter |
Nigel |
80m |
SSB |
G0GSY |
Grimsby |
Brian |
80m |
CW |
ON3WAB |
Wakken |
Peter |
80m |
CW |
OK2QA |
Hranice |
Ruda |
80m |
CW |
F4CTJ |
St Valery en Caux |
Karim |
80m |
CW |
GM0AXY |
Edinburgh |
Ken |
80m |
CW |
DJ5AV |
Heiligenberg |
Mike |
2m |
FM |
M0OTE |
Urmston |
Daniel |
2m |
FM |
G4ZMR |
Nantwich |
Martin |
2m |
FM |
GW4EVX |
Mold |
Ron |
2m |
FM |
M3PZO |
Macclesfield |
Sean |
2m |
FM |
|