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.
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.
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,