My fishing gear was prepared last night ready for an early start today , however a look at the WX forecast prompted a last minute change of mind, no wind, and dry looked ideal for the hills . Weather wise there are more opportunities to fish than walk the hills the way I do things as I don’t enjoy walking in rain fog and wind with no view from the tops , but I’ll sit under a brolly with a fishing rod in some adverse weather . My Wife was up for a walk too and she likes the Blake fell walk.
It was a good opportunity / excuse to try out the “flowerpot” antenna that Alex G7KSE brought to the radio club the other evening and kindly offered to lend me to try . The one I use is in a single length of white plastic conduit which you’ll have seen on most pictures I may have posted . It works great but Alex’s is thin hollow fibreglass which splits in two via a ferrule (like my fishing rods) for easy transporting and he’s fashioned a nice fitting for the base to take the coils of coax and allows fitting to your pole . Well it worked a treat today I ascended the fell with both hands free for a change and the antenna and telescopic pole which is a fishing net handle in my back pack .
My first contact of the day was also my first WOTA/SOTA contact with a /bicycle mobile! Which. of course was M0MZB Matthew. I made about 20 contacts including four S2S’s from both Wales and Scotland , and Norman MI6LNP which some of you will have likely worked from over in NI, some good signal reports both ways too . It was unusual for me to be up Blake with no wind blowing , so it was quite pleasant , but after an hour it did start to get a bit cool sitting there so it was time to go .
I think I managed to work everyone I could hear , and apologies to the couple of stations who were just a bit hard to pull out of the noise .
All the best,
Richard. 2E0XGO/P
great to get you Richard you were a cracking signal to me but i do look straight across at Blake Fell
Alex G7KSE antennas look good and obviously work very well and will have to go into full production to make them
what power were you running from the mobile radio
73 reg
I had 10W running Reg . I like the compactness of the hand held and not having to carry a remote battery but tried the mobile the last two outings to see how it went.and it was OK. It’ll probably depend on the day which I take in future . I used 25W on Dent the other day and I got a lot more contacts than I expected from Kilmarnoch to Caernarfon, so whether it was purely down to the extra watts or conditions and more folk on the radio that day ,not sure?
Catch you soon 73
Richard
Thanks for the contact. You also were a cracking signal into Annan. It was good to get a summit to summit with you on Dent while Reg and myself were on Low Fell. I can tell you it was windy and baltic!
The picture Reg took of me said it all - it was cold and we were pleased to get moving!
Geoff.
With using small boats on the lakes , it’s interesting to see the ducting effect some hills and valleys can have upon the forecast wind direction and particularly the velocity, sometimes making it hard to find shelter against any bank . Then you get a random big gust from the opposite direction sometimes. Seems to be the same thing on the tops
I was sat on the seaward side of the summit on Dent, with the wind roughly from the NE crossing reasonably open ground then being deflected up over me and maybe sheltering me from the worst of it?
All the best. 73
Richard…
It worked a treat Alex ! I’d just got that new telescopic pole which folds down to just a couple of feet long so I was hands free for walking . It serves two roles as it’s the landing net handle for my fishing as well , just used a bit of plastic pipe as an adapter as you can see in the photo for the base so it fit my pole a bit neater . Had good signal reports and plenty contacts.
Looked like you covered a few miles yourself today, the fells looked really nice . Had a walk up the hill behind home with the handy to see if I could get you on your first one , but I couldn’t hang about too long , and looking at the spot times I didn’t miss you by much !
Cheers !
Richard
