A pleasant walk on two adjacent fells which could have been two different days regarding weather . Also learned a fact about the receiving sensitivity , or lack thereof on one of my radios .
A wintry activation on Ling Fell in the morning followed by a walk back to the car for hot soup then up Sale Fell which was bright but cold and breezy . It appears my Anytone radio is a bit deaf and I thought it worked well , as recently as on Holme Fell , Reg and I the other day worked Jordan on Knott summit about 20 miles North using his Beofeng , it picked him up fine it seemed and stations in Wales and south of Preston all with the same antenna? I always use the FT65 hand held and the odd time I used the mobile rig in the past I likely had the beam antenna thinking the extra power over the Yaesu 65 and increased gain of the antenna would benefit me but which may only have masked this shortcoming .Tony GM1VLA and Keith G1FVA could not be heard though Reg and Steve were telling me they were there I knew I’d worked them easily before from most summits . I wrongly, as it turned out, changed to my spare antenna , but it was Keiths increase in Watts that enabled a difficult copy most likely .
The penny finally dropped on Sale Fell when Reg said that Steve M0XUP now parked up in Cockermouth was calling and I could hear nothing I connected the Yaesu 65 and he was 5/9+ instantly . Thanks to Tony and Keith for persevering earlier . If only I’d changed radio instead of antenna earlier . I was confused as to how Geoff GM4WHA , Reg , Mike etc were also similar signals but could be heard? Not as if the others were S4 or 5 ? Any way it’ll save me carrying a 12v battery in future .
A few pictures below .
Richard
2E0XGO
Hi Richard, thanks for the reports and photo. What model of Anytone radio is it? One other thing to try, if you have squelch turned on, is to turn it off (or hold it off manually) and see if you are getting a signal. I found with one of my cheap Chinese radios (a QTY WP-12/KT-9900 25w lightweight mobile) that it was receiving OK if I turned the squelch off.
Regards, Mark.
Hello Mark
It’s a 779 model I’ve had a couple of years and would never have thought there was an issue until yesterday . I did try the squelch off and holding the “Mon” or squelch button too. What was puzzled me was that the signals yesterday were not weak ones . Steve was not far from Reg in his car running I assume 50W and I couldn’t hear him at all yet swapping to the FT65 he was 5/9 . However Reg and I were working stations in Wales and Lancashire from Holme fell some on S5 signals no bother on the same kit I had yesterday.
Richard
Hi Richard,
Thanks for the 2 contacts. I like your wintery photos and the views from the summits. When i did those 2 with Reg and Steve i thought they were 2 great walks which were fairly easy to do.
Hope you get the Anytone radio sorted if it has a fault. I assume the Anytone is capable of 25 watts if connected to a suitable battery?
73’s Geoff GM4WHA
Hi Richard
i have a little Sonic transceiver of the car(Beofeng) 10/25 watts,it’s loverly little rigg it transmits well but is deaf as a post.
I was on Binsey and could not hear Alex G7KSE and just hear Steve 2E0XUP at the time.I swapped over to the Yaesu ft 25 and both were 5/7 5/8
I have been building a 2 meter band pass filter to see if that helps but i have not given it a go yet
G4YSS use is the same radio on sota with a band pass filter, i don’t know how effective it is .It might be a good topic open for discussion?
is the in coming signal to strong
is it front end over loaded
is it not sensitive enough
or local ground conditions(type of rock)
73 reg
We have walked Sale & Ling Fells quite regularly over the years Geoff . Convenient for us with various routes to take and make the walk as short or as long as you like .
Not sure the Anytone has a fault as such or a shortcoming which I only became aware of yesterday due to input from the callers yesterday It’s 20W I think .
I use this radio at home all the time, but I have sorted the “problem” Geoff and the “solution” is in the post ( I only needed an excuse ) 
Richard.
Good questions Reg as the signals I was not hearing were by no means weak Steve was the same strength as you nearly on the FT , and the three callers which normally give as good a signal as Geoff were affected , and unlikely they all had a transmitter problem. You even commented on how that radio seemed to receive better than some cheap ones , last week we gave reports of 5/5 5/6 to some of the farther contacts . Both Keith and Tony I’ve worked from various summits like Lords Seat, Broom and Blake using the FT- 65 and that same flowerpot . The fact was yesterday the FT could hear what the Anytone couldn’t.
Richard
Following on from our conversation, I checked one of the two QTY WP-12 that I have setup on a chopping board for easy insertion into a rucksack. The plan was to use this with an end fed dipole - everything is controlled via the microphone which makes it potentially a very convenient rig for WOTA where quick activations on a long walk make a big difference.
As it happens it wouldn’t switch on - I eventually tried the speaker/mic from the other one I have and it worked - fault was traced to a dry solder joint on the mic connector. The specs say this rig will do 25w at 13.8v, but in reality it is just over 20w. Interestingly it still works fine with a 10v input - producing about 12 watts, which makes operating it with my lighter 2200 mah LifePo4 3 cell batteries a possibility. It is also meant to be waterproof, but I’d take that with a pinch of salt.
There are a few reviews on youtube, for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BoiV9RSGOsI
When I tried this from a summit, as I’ve said, I found the squelch over aggressive. Since then I’ve found the squelch level was set to 5 out of 10, so it may be that a lower squelch level would cure my issues. Definitely worth another try out in the field.
I do feel like the inferior quality of these Chinese rigs may have you cursing the choice when it fails on a summit, however.
Regards, Mark.
That looks a nifty little set Mark. Ideal for walking up the fells. I think I’d be of the same opinion regarding the waterproof claim and just be confident that it will tolerate a fair bit of damp ?
WOTA /SOTA Activations eventually expose any issues with your gear it seems . No idea what my issue was or is ? Even with the squelch off the radio seemed to be rejecting particular signals above the squelch settings ,as confirmed by the hand held and was it not for the other chasers I’d never have known . If you put a call out in other situations and no one answers you assume you have not been heard or nobody wants to reply ?
Richard.
I need to take it with me, together with the Yaesu FT1XD, and plug it into the Slim J antenna which I know works, then compare the two. No point in having 20w if you can’t hear stations at the other end.
Good luck! Mark.