Hi folks,
New here, so hello! Here is my first activation report.
I was talking to Richard 2E0XGO on the local repeater last week and mentioned that I wanted to try playing radio in the hills but due to a leg issue was worried about going on my own, so he very kindly agreed to escort me up Dent (LDO-059).
Reg, 2E0LDF joined the party, and John G8NNL, whom Richard had only first talked to the evening before on aforementioned local repeater, met us in the car park.
Although I’ve been licenced since 2005, this was to be my first ever activation. Thoroughly enjoyable it was too! I must admit, Reg did all the work and passed the contacts over to John and myself to log, so it made my first experience quite easy. Thanks Reg!
I was operating on an FT5D with a Diamond 771 antenna, and Reg had his flowerpot on a pole. Richard opted to skip the activation and adopt the role of official camera man. John was also operating an FT5d with the same antenna as me, but had to borrow Reg’s rig for a few QSOs as he wasn’t getting out. Surprisingly, me standing atop the cairne and braving the wind made enough of a difference to log all but one of them. A couple of meters seems to make quite a difference.
After getting six in log on FM, contacts dried up, and I fancied giving SSB a go. I’d brought along an FT-818 in the hope I’d get a chance to operate 2M SSB for the first time.
I borrowed Reg’s flowerpot, and plugged it in to the front BNC connector on the radio, but after a couple of CQs I noticed the SWR warning was being displayed on the screen. Whilst I thought I’d changed the antenna selector to the front port, I clearly hadn’t so was transmitting in to an open load. How the finals are still working, I don’t know, but after selecting the correct port, it was up and running. A lucky escape, I guess. I’m told the finals on the 818 are quite delicate.
Lee M0LLC had beaten us to 144.300 and was having a chat with a couple of Scottish stations. I was expecting to take a polarisation hit being on the vertical, but it turned out that everybody on frequency was also using a vertical, so it worked out well. I was pleasantly surprised by how clear the voice on 2m SSB was. Certainly leaps and bounds above my usual experience on HF.
I still haven’t quite got my head around the fact I got a 55 in to a station in Motherwell, using just 6 watts! Even more surprisingly, the station in Motherwell was reporting another station in Mallaig could hear us and was trying to make contact. To our group’s amusement he was updating us on when the next aircraft was due over his house in the hope some aircraft scatter would make the difference. I can’t honestly say I’ve heard the phrase “give him two minutes, there’s another plane due over soon” during a QSO before.
I’ve definitely got the SSB bug though - I might have to equip the Arrow yagi for my next summit.
My thanks to Richard for getting me out on the fells, and Reg for handling the front of house work and passing the contacts. I’ll have to see if I can book his services for this year’s CQWW.
Nathan - G5KCI
haha