Category Archives: FT817nd

SOTA View Edge (G/WB-018) 25th June 2013

I had attempted to activate View Edge, G/WB-018, the week before, from the edge of the old quarry, on 2M only,and failed miserably to gain even a single contact!

This time, I packed my new Sainsonic MP-817 HF Amplifier as well, just in case I had similar problems..

View Edge is essentially a ‘drive on’ summit, so to comply with SOTA rules, it’s really necessary to operate from somewhere away from the car. After parking at the side of the road at the entrance to the old quarry, next to a gate which looked as if it hadn’t been opened in quite some time (I did try to leave enough room, just in case someone needed to open the gate of course!) I walked up the road towards the house on the right hand side, crossed the road and climbed over the stile.

Simple 'route' to my activation point

Simple ‘route’ to my activation point

I then followed the route of the footpath along the side of a field to the next stile where I bungied the fishing pole to a fence post, and attached the Norcal Doublet and the coaxial colinear.

View Edge activation

View Edge activation

View Edge Activation

View Edge Activation

With the ft817nd, HF Amplifier, and travel tuner balanced precariously on top of a fence post, the following contacts were made in just over an hour:

Time Call Band Mode Notes
13:30z G7JMZ/M 144MHz FM John in Halseowen
13:40z MW6BWA/P 144MHz FM Viki on GW/SW-004
13:44z MW0JLA/P 144MHz FM Rod on GW/SW-004
13:45z G8CMU 144MHz FM Mike in Ross on Wye
13:50z M3SLQ 144MHz FM Mick in Cannock
14:28z CT1BQH 14MHz SSB Carlos in Portugal
14:30z DL1DVE 14MHz SSB Thomas in Germany
14:32z DF5WA 14MHz SSB Berthold in Germany
14:34z HB9BYZ 14MHz SSB Peter in Switzerland
14:37z DL8DXL 14MHz SSB Fred in Germany

It seems to be quite a popular walk, as 2 groups passed through during this time, maybe next time I’ll not bungy the pole to the side of the stile……

Once packed up, it was a short walk back along the path, retracing the route back to the car,

SOTA – The Wrekin (G/WB-010) 7th May 2013

Despite living less than 10 miles away from the Wrekin, G/WB-010, on the outskirts of Telford, for nearly 20 years, I’d never even been up it… not even without a backpack full of electronic junk radio equipment…

7th May 2013 put paid to that.

Taking the opportunity to park at the quite large car park at the intersection of Ercall Lane and Wellington Road, I checked I had all the equipment needed, put on the boots and made my way across the road to the bottom of the path.

It doesn’t look far, looking from the M54 as you drive past, but being rather unfit, it was quite a long way, zig zagging up to the ‘Halfway House’ cafe… ‘Halfway’? If only!

Route up the Wrekin

Route up the Wrekin

Once past it, its a little further until the path turns South West towards the summit.. Fantastic!

However, the top of the hill you can see from there is actually ‘Hell Gate’.. Once past there, you can see what looks like the summit… only, it’s not, it’s ‘Heavens Gate’

Once past there, you can actually see the summit.. yay! It was at this point I was nearly run over by a 4×4 carrying a paraglider up to the summit… Oh, for a lift!

Eventually, I made it to the top! and wandered across to the trig. However, being rather busy this day, I decided to set up the stuff just to the North of it, slightly off the top, still within the activation zone.

iew of the transmitter masts on the WrekinV

View from the ‘shack’

Looking down on a police helicopter

Looking down on a police helicopter!

 

Not a huge amount of calls with the 5W from the 817nd, dipole for 2M and the norcal doublet via a portable tuner for HF, but the following made it into the log:

Time Call Band Mode Notes
11:20z G7RHF/M 144MHz FM Al in much Wenlock
11:25z M0IBC 144MHz FM Dave in Rowley Regis
11:26z G6LUZ 144MHz FM Steve in Audlem
11:34z G6ODU 144MHz FM Bob in Ormskirk
11:36z M6RGF 144MHz FM Russ in Cheshire
11:36z G0ALC 144MHz FM Joe in Walsall Wood
11:39z G3NPJ 144MHz FM Alan on the Wirral
11:41z M6IPD 144MHz FM Paul in Stourbrige
12:10z M1NTO 144MHz FM Hugh in TYLDESLEY
12:39z EA2CKX 14MHz SSB Pedro in Spain
12:41z SM6DER 14MHz SSB Sten in Gothenberg Sweden
12:44z OK1DVM 14MHz SSB MIROSLAV in Prague
12:47z EA3HP 14MHz SSB Daniel in Catalunya
12:50z OE5HDN 14MHz SSB Henry in Linz Austria
12:52z OE1KLA 14MHz SSB Karl in Vienna
13:12z G6TUH 14MHz SSB Mike SE England
13:14z GI4ONL 14MHz SSB Victor N. Ireland

There was a couple of people on 60m, but I wasn’t able to tune the 44′ doublet to get a reasonable SWR.

Once the calls had dried up, I packed it all up and made my way back down to the car, considerably easier than coming up!  Quite a way for a single point! None the less, an enjoyable time.

SOTA- Brown Clee Hill (G/WB-002) 15th February 2013

Encouraged by the Trans Atlantic QSOs the previous day on Callow Hill, I set out to activate Brown Clee Hill again, one of the 2 SOTA Summits I can see from my house 🙂

After parking next to the phone box / library as normal, I kitted up and walked up the bridleway, being somewhat surprised to find 2-3 foot snowdrifts at the top!

Successfully circumventing these, and finding the bog at the top pleasantly frozen over 🙂 I eventually made it to the top.

view from the activation point

View from the activation point towards Titterstone Clee Hill

I quickly setup the 44′ Norcal Doublet on the fishing pole and plugged it into the 817ND. Then…   I couldn’t find the cable to connect the rig to the 7AH SLAB.. Quickly remembering it was still lying on the hall floor back at home 🙁  GAH!!

It seemed that the internal batteries were fully charged in the rig, so I thought I’d give it a go, at 2.5W SSB, HF only, not wishing to take it all apart again, go home, return, and repeat the procedure!

I struggled to add a spot to sotawatch, adding ‘quick activation only 2.5W’ to it!

The rig managed to last an hour and a quarter (probably longer, but 2.5W wasn’t getting heard to most places) and 21 QSOs, including 2 Trans Atlantic ones again 🙂  One of whom called later, wanting to confirm that I was, in fact, running 2.5W!

Many thanks to all the chasers:

12:39z EA1LQ 14MHz SSB Ernesto Spain
12:39z N4EX 14MHz SSB Richard NC USA
12:40z OK2BUT 14MHz SSB Jan Czech Republic
12:41z OM1AX 14MHz SSB Vlado Bratislava
12:42z G6WRW 14MHz SSB Carolyn Kidderminster
12:43z OE7PHI 14MHz SSB Holger Austria
12:44z W4ZV 14MHz SSB Bill NC USA
12:59z G6WRW 7MHz SSB Carolyn Kidderminster
13:00z G4AFI 7MHz SSB Andrew Hants
13:00z G4ZRP 7MHz SSB Brian NW England
13:01z G4WSB 7MHz SSB Bill Swindon
13:01z G4UXH 7MHz SSB Colin Cumbria
13:03z M0MDA 7MHz SSB Mick Leeds
13:04z F5UBH 7MHz SSB Christophe France
13:05z PA0B 7MHz SSB Rob Netherlands
13:07z MW0IML 7MHz SSB Barry Wales
13:08z G0RQL 7MHz SSB Don Devon
13:11z ON4KCY 7MHz SSB Yves belgium
13:22z G1PIE 7MHz SSB Mark Preston
13:50z G0TRB 7MHz SSB Roger Staffordshire
13:55z MM0GPL 7MHz SSB Chris Scotland

Struggling to get any more contacts, it was time to pack it all away, and negotiate the snow drifts back down to the comfort of the car!

Masts on Brown Clee

Masts and the toposcope on Brown Clee Hill

SOTA – Callow Hill (G/WB-015) 14th February 2013

Callow Hill was the first SOTA Summit I activated in 2012, being VHF only with a handie, it was time to revisit the hill, with my FT817ND, coaxial colinear for 2M and a 44′ Norcal Doublet for HF.

Parking in the normal parking spot, it took a short while to stagger up the hill, eventually doubling back towards the tower on the peak

Flounders Folly

Flounders Folly on top of Callow Hill

In just over an hour, 31 QSOs were in the log using the 817ND and 5W, the majority on HF, including my first 2 QSOs into the USA from a SOTA summit.

14:30z HA5LV 14MHz SSB Viktor Budapest
14:32z N4EX 14MHz SSB Richard NC USA
14:33z M0IBC 14MHz SSB David Rowley Regis
14:34z OE7HPI 14MHz SSB Holger Austria
14:34z GW4VPX 7MHz SSB Alan W Wales
14:35z W4ZV 14MHz SSB William NC USA
14:36z OM1AX 14MHz SSB Vlado Bratislava
14:37z OM5DP 14MHz SSB Martin Slovakia
14:37z OK1SDE 14MHz SSB Borek Czech Republic
14:40z OK2BUT 14MHz SSB Jan Czech republic
14:41z DL1DVE 14MHz SSB Thomas Grossroehrsdorf Germany
14:43z OE7WGT 14MHz SSB Karl Austria
14:49z EA2CKX 14MHz SSB Pedro Spain
14:59z G7RHF 144MHz FM Al Clee Hill
15:13z M0MDA 7MHz SSB Mick Leeds
15:15z G6TUH 7MHz SSB Mike East Sussex
15:16z M3XIE 7MHz SSB David Staffordshire
15:17z ON4KCY 7MHz SSB Yves Belgium
15:18z PA2NJC 7MHz SSB Nick Netherlands
15:18z GI4ONL 7MHz SSB Victor Bushmills NI
15:19z G4ZRP 7MHz SSB Brian
15:20z G8ADD 7MHz SSB Brian Birmingham
15:21z G4WSB 7MHz SSB Bill Swindon
15:22z G4AFI 7MHz SSB Andrew Hants
15:23z G4UXH 7MHz SSB Colin Cumbria
15:26z G0BFJ 7MHz SSB Brian Huddersfield
15:27z EA1DFP 7MHz SSB Quique Spain
15:28z G6ODU 7MHz SSB Robert Ormskirk
15:30z G0RQL 7MHz SSB Don Devon
15:32z DL2KAS 7MHz SSB Hans Germany
15:34z GW4VPX 7MHz SSB Allan wales

Then it was time to pack up, and descend back to the car.. A process hindered somewhat by managing to tangle the wires of the doublet in some hawthorn bushes 🙁

SOTA – Titterstone Clee Hill (G/WB-004) 11th January 2013

11th January 2013 and it was time for a rather chilly activation on Titterstone Clee Hill. So with the 817ND, homebrew coaxial colinear and rather heavy 7Ah SLAB it was the short, if somewhat strenuous (well, for me, anyway!)  stumble up from the car park to the top of the hill.
Finding a rather convenient post midway between the trig point and the ATC buildings, still within the activation zone, to bungee the fishing pole to.. I was quickly set up, ready to go.

Titterstone Clee Trig Point

Titterstone Clee Trig Point

Activated between the Trig point and the ATC buildings

ATC Buildings

ATC Buildings

A purely VHF activation, saw the following in the log book:

13:35z G4SXH/P 144MHz FM Laurence in Wiltshire
13:45z G4JQX/M 144MHz FM Charlie, mobile Stoke Hill, Salisbury Plain
13:55z 2E0XYL 144MHz FM Karen on the Wirral
13:56z G6ODU 144MHz FM Bob in Ormskirk (?)
14:00z G0IBE 144MHz FM Richard on Worcestershire Beacon (G-WB/009)
14:10z M0JZH/M 144MHz FM John on the A442 in telford
14:15z G7RHF/M 144MHz FM Al in Corvedale
14:15z M0WYB 144MHz FM Russ near Bath
14:17z G0PPM/M 144MHz FM Ken, mobile near Banbury
14:20z G4ISJ 144MHz FM Peter in Cheltenham
14:25z G3SMT 144MHz FM Peter in Oswestry
14:30z M1BKL 144MHz FM Paul in Whitchurch (Shrops)
14:35z M0TVU 144MHz FM Paul in N. Birmingham
14:40z M0KZB 144MHz FM Eric in Shrewsbury
14:45z 2E0ZVR 144MHz FM Barry near Pershore
14:47z G4VSJ 144MHz FM Ken in Lutterworth
14:50z G0NAJ 144MHz FM John in Dukinfield
14:50z M1MST 144MHz FM Clive in Ludlow
14:55z M0JLA 144MHz FM Rod in Hereford
15:00z G7HVF/M 144MHz FM Stuart mobile around Gornal Wood
15:05z G3RMD/M 144MHz FM Frank in Cheltenham
15:06z M3XIE 144MHz FM David in Soke-on-Trent
15:10z M6CNG 144MHz FM Gaz in Daventry

Being rather cold by now, and the contacts having dried up, I packed up and staggered back down to the car.. Only about 15-20 minutes, thankfully 🙂

View towards Brown Clee Hill

View towards Brown Clee Hill – Sheep running away!

 

SOTA High Vinnalls (G/WB-012) October 7th 2012

 

I had wanted to get out and play radio earlier this sunny Sunday, but as usual, other stuff got in the way 🙁

So it wasn’t until after lunchtime (Not that I’d had any food!) I had the opportunity to do the short drive to High Vinnalls, just outside of Ludlow.

Following others’ hints, I parked at SO47431 which as others have pointed out, does have a 2.1M height restriction, but being in my car, that didn’t bother me!

The car park was quite busy, since it was a nice afternoon. I packed my stuff and started along the path out of the top of the car park and along the slowly rising unmetalled road.

About 3-400 yards along, the road splits into two

Just before the road splits in two.

If I had realised it at the time, there is a small short cut which veers off to the left.. I could have saved about a minute, and 50 yards of walking!

It can be seen directly ahead in this photo

What the heck, it was a nice day!

Just after you bear left at the junction, there is a path, to the right, that leads up the side of the hill. This is the way I went.

The path up the side of the hill

Now.. I realised it had been raining earlier in the week, but didn’t realise just how much!
There was a deep gully running down one side of the path, obviously from all the rain that had traveled down that way, and on the more level parts, it was incredibly muddy!

 

 

After about 500m slipping and sliding up the side of the hill, you manage to climb from around 270M ASL to 340M ASL and you end up at a junction with a wider track.

You double back on yourself at the top of the climb

 

You emerge from the trees at the top of the path on the right in this picture, and just about double back on yourself up the wider track, which leads up to the summit which is about another 250 yards ahead.

 

 

 

 

Wooden structure on top of the hill

 

Right on top of the hill there’s this wooden structure which resembles something out of an America forest fire disaster movie from the 1950s 😉

(I really should get out more!)

Nice part is there are numerous wooden fence posts to tie poles too, and a nice seat with a view westwards. This is where I played radio.

 

Quite an enjoyable time, with a fair number of curious onlookers to keep amused!

Many thanks to the following for the contacts:

 

12:40z M0TYM 144MHz FM Alistair in Penn
12:45z M6HMA 144MHz FM in Penn
12:50z M0MTJ/M 144MHz FM Mike in Perton
13:14z G4WUH/M 144MHz FM Ian in Newent
13:15z G4TXF 144MHz FM Colin in Pershore
13:40z M0JZH/P 144MHz FM John on GW/NW-012
13:44z G8XYJ 144MHz FM Matt in Ludlow
13:45z M6WMP/M 144MHz FM Mick on Clee Hill
13:55z M6FOA 144MHz FM Mick in Warwickshire

I was going to do a little HF, but having missed lunch I was getting hungry!

All in all, a very enjoyable walk, if a little muddy on the way up!

Apologies about the rubbish pics… I left the real camera in the car – Doh!

SOTA – Brown Clee Hill (G/WB-002) 18th August 2012

If at first you don’t succeed…….

My first attempt at activating  Brown Clee Hill was a total failure!. I blame Bradley Wiggins and his Tour de France win, which was the same Sunday.. The result was a whole 2 QSOs on 20M, and nothing at all on 2M..

So, it was time to try again 🙂

Saturday 18th August saw me jumping in the car for the short journey (for me anyway!) to the parking spot at SO585868. Actually I parked on the hill just above the phone box, maybe I should have parked at the gate, to take 50 yards or so off the walk 🙂 Grabbing the stuff, I set off up the lane and through the gate.

Only 2 minutes to Brown Clee Hill!

Just through the gate there’s a nice sign…

2 minutes to Brown Clee Hill!  Yay!
Remember, you’re not a horse!
Consequently, it’s going to take a tad more than 2 minutes to get up there.. Actually, I’m not sure a horse can get up there in 2 minutes, but who am I to doubt the sign maker?
It’s a bit of a slog really, most of the time in a dip between the hill and a grassy bank, lots of sheep, a lot of rubble, and quite a bit of animal poo…..  but nice views to the west towards Wales. But within about 15-20 minutes I was at the top of the ‘climb’ at the gate where you turn left and navigate your way across a bit of boggy terrain.. At least from here you can see the masts, and you can see where you’re going to!

Ambling up the gentle slope, I heard 2E0CHV/P calling from The Stiperstones. Unfortunately, at this point I wasn’t within the activation zone, so I left a reply until later.

By 16:20 I was ready, 4 sections if the fishing pole with the 2M SOTAbeam on top with the 817nd attached. I heard 2E0CHV/P calling again, and answered, giving me my first contact.

Closely followed by M0IBC in Rowley Regis who kindly spotted me on SOTAwatch. This resulted in a further 5 contacts, meaning I’d bettered the 2 from the last time!

All contacts on 2M FM, I did try 2M SSB, but failed to make any contacts whatsoever.. never mind.

Many thanks to the following:

 

 Callsign  Time Name/Location Frequency Mode
 2E0CHV/P  16:20z Simon, Stiperstones (G/WB-003)  2M FM
 M0IBC  16:40z Dave, Rowley Regis  2M FM
 G8ILP/A  16:55z Tim, Ross on Wye  2M FM
 G0UWU  17:00z Mike, Gloucester  2M FM
 MOJLA  17:05z Rod, Hereford  2M FM
 GW7HDC  17:10z Tony, Knighton  2M FM
 GW0HUS  17:20z Graham, Moel y Crio  2M FM

I thought about doing some HF, but after getting the link dipole out and finding it was more tangled than a tangled thing from the planet tangled, I threw it back in the back pack and packed up!

It was a lot easier walking back down! A very nice afternoon in the sunshine really!

 

End of the boggy bit, time to go downhill

Half way down the steep bit!

 

 

 

 

 

 

SOTA – Beacon Batch (G/SC-003) 14th August 2012

Umm…  second attempt to qualify this summit (First was sort of curtailed a couple of weeks ago when a load of horses decided to take a liking to my antenna…  I now know why the collective noun for horses is a ‘Harras’ 😉  Suffice to say I only managed one QSO that night!

Anyway, after fighting through what seemed busier than normal Bristol, I pulled into the car park at ST489581 with about another 5 cars, most of which seemed to have bike racks on, and was ready to go at about 18:50 GMT.

I followed the route I did last time, up across the road and up the path at the side of Ellick House, through the gate and taking the well defined way up SW towards the summit (ish)

Up the path, straight into the sun!

Up the top of this section, the path takes a little swing to the south and up towards the Trig Point.

It appeared that there had been quite a bit of drainage work done at this point, and quite a lot of small rocks placed along the track, no doubt to see how many mountain bikers they could dislodge from their seats!

There also appeared to be 2 trailers full of rubbish parked here for some unknown reason 🙁

Just before I reached the Trig Point, about 25 minutes after setting off, I disappeared into the heather and gorse to find a small hollow beside a small tree, hoping to avoid any further horse related incidents.

I had my fishing pole fastened to a small tree, and the sota beam in the air. I had a quick check on sotawatch, but couldn’t see any potential S2S activity, so I spotted myself and gave out a CQ

It all seemed pretty dead, I could hear a few fairly distant, mainly mobile, stations, but couldn’t work them, and eventually ended up with martin, M0HCT, from Nailsea.. Very spooky!  Only one letter out from my callsign!

Rubbish pic of the trig point in the gathering gloom!

Rubbish pic of the trig point in the gathering gloom!

Quickly followed by Paul, M0PRJ, from Kingswood, and a few others, including Keith, G6LLX/P who was on May Hill G/WB-019, but not doing any SOTA activation, Since I have no idea if he was within the activation zone, I can’t really claim it as a S2S.

Finishing off with M6KBC in Bath as the sun went down, with 6 QSOs, all on 2M FM, that was it.. I packed up and had a wander up to the trig point. Just to say I’d been there (again!) before making my way back down, being almost dark by the time I got back to the car.

So, second time lucky for this one.

Many thanks to the following:

 

Callsign Time Frequency Mode
M0HCT 18:30z 2M FM
M0PRJ 18:42z 2M FM
G1TYK 18:55z 2M FM
M0BAS 19:07z 2M FM
G6LLX/P 19:13z 2M FM
M6BAS 19:23z 2M FM

 

 

SOTA – Dundry Down (G/SC-010) 17th July 2012

I’ve been working down in Bristol for a while and wanted to do some radio ‘stuff’ but… It’s just been too damn wet!

Apart from the 17th July, which seemed like it’s the first day for weeks that it hadn’t rained. So, armed with my FT817ND, recently made (but untested) link dipole, fishing pole and very necessary groundsheet(!), off I went to Dundry Down (G/SC-010) after work.

Bristol being Bristol was a pain to drive through, but the satnav eventually brought me within a few feet of the car park recommended by Richard on SOTAwatch, and off I went through the field full of cows..!

Far from being a tip, I think this route was quite pleasant, even if some large puddles and a *lot* of cow pats needed to be navigated around! Quite easy for someone as unfit as me….

So, fishing pole was erected and link dipole setup, but for some reason SWR was found to be way out on 40M, and since I only cut it for 40, 20 and 10, that probably left only 20 to use.

No competition from these then…

Having a look on SOTAwatch spots, I noticed Hans Christian ( LA1EBA/P) on some unpronounceable 😉 summit (LA/RL-061) in Norway. He was coming through about 4/7 but I just couldn’t get in due to a long winded QSO he was in with someone in Holland I think.

Anyway, I spotted myself on SOTAwatch and was on air around 18:35z Quickly followed by a couple of contacts in Slovakia and Denmark.

Then tried getting back to LA1EBA/P who could just about hear me, but he was soon lost in the noise, unfortunately. maybe another day!

Followed by a QSO with Andy in Falkirk who very kindly put out another spot for my one remaining QSO, which was picked up by Tony in Manchester, followed closely by Sara, his XYL.

Graeme in Glasgow followed, as did 4 walkers who asked me to send their regards to Glasgow 😉 And the evening finished off with Michael from near Lake Constance in Germany.

Just before packing up, I thought I’d investigate the antenna, only to find that it was working perfectly on 40m.. Probably something to do with the ends being about a foot off the ground… oh well, never mind!

 

Looking West-ish

Looking sort of North towards Bristol

Many thanks to the following:

 

Callsign Time Frequency Mode
OM7DX 18:38z 14.321 MHz SSB
OZ4RT 18:40z 14.321 MHz SSB
MM0USU 18:55z 14.321 MHz SSB
M3NHA 19:00z 14.321 MHz SSB
M6NHA 19:05z 14.321 MHz SSB
2M0GIL 19:10z 14.321 MHz SSB
DJ5AV 19:11z 14.321 MHz SSB

Altogether quite a successful first HF activation. There was quite a few stations heard on 2M FM, but the interference from the transmitters was quite bad at times, so in true ‘give up’ style, I didn’t bother 🙂