I think because the weather has been sssooo terrible over the past few weeks I was too optimistic about the conditions today - need to pay more attention to MWIS rather than general forecasts. I’d also not slept great either, so when it came to it I bottled taking the motorbike an hour to Binsey and decided to do Gummer’s How instead.
I’ve not had many activations where I’ve thought I’d rather have stayed at home but I got close today. Firstly had to turn around half way down the Newby Bridge road because there was an issue with a crane that was going to take a couple of hours to resolve (so I was told by a car going the other way, I’ve learnt to never ignore advice like this). When I got there, conditions were drizzle and very gusty at the summit.
My SOTABEAMS 10m compact travel pole was really bending to start with, to the point it almost made it horizontal, so I had to drop down another section to get it stable. Oh, then I realised I’d forgotten the microphone for the FT-817. This did however validate my decision recently about CW keys, which is that I should have one key per rig permanently ready to go, so the attached Palm Pico paddles saved the day. In that vein, I did manage to score one of these beauties this week:
Couldn’t raise anyone on 2m CW but had a good run on 20m and a couple on 40m, although I was suffering from summit brain and required several repeats. Then come pack up time I found that the bottom two sections of the mast had over-extended in the wind by about 10mm and no amount of persuasion would get them to part. In the end I managed to get them separated by forcing them against a tree, but the inner section now has some splitting at the bottom. I’m not having a lot of luck with these poles at the moment!
This will all be forgotten soon when spring finally arrives!
Regards, Mark. M5TEA.
p.s. apologies to Reg @2e0ldf if my alert had prompted you to ascend Binsey, hope you had a nicer time there than I did! My plan is still to activate the remaining LD SOTA fells, so I’ll be looking to get up there soon.
No problem Mark I lack motivation at the moment so when I saw your spot I had to come and meet up
I arrived on the summit at 11 o’clock it was dry but with 30 mph wind gusting 38 -4 c wind chill I settled down in the shelter when Pill M0AYB joined me. I then got the ft 25 with rh770 copy antenna out and made 6 contacts before making a retreat down, out of the now strengthening wind at 45 mph
So it is me that should thank you for getting me out Mark and to be honest I actually enjoyed it despite the conditions
First, Mark , the new features you’ve added to the site seem to be working great the file uploads and even the new online logging format . As our WOTA activations are now showing on clusters etc , I don’t have any 2m ssb gear , but I’ll be thinking of operating 40m on WOTAs this year .
I think the weather’s been making a few of us have to cut and run this Winter . I had an “interesting “ morning on Pike O Blisco yesterday . At least we got out . and arguably , Whatever you are doing , it’s the exceptional success and dismal failure that are most remembered in future .
Reg , got to blow the cobwebs off on Binsey , and the forecast looks to be improving this week .
In contrast to your activation Mark, we couldn’t have asked for a better day. Still, blue skies and great visibility.
The herd of cows were blocking the track at 10am yesterday morning, and were very vocal, with many calves (calfs?) among them, causing the two parties in front of us to turn back. We took a detour up hill to get around, through a felled plantation, and rejoined the main track further up.
Of course, the cattle were no where to be seen by the time we returned!
It’s a beautiful spot. The most terrifying encounter I had with the cattle was coming down about 1am in the morning after some good DX. I turned a corner and the headtorch picked up all these glowing eyes - I walked straight into the middle of the herd. I ended up talking softly to them as I proceeded - couldn’t think what else to do, anyway I survived for another visit!
Great photos BTW! - hope you’ll be back sometime Frasier.
