Tuesday 5 September 2017

G/CE-001 - Cleeve Hill & G/WB-023 - Hegdon Hill

G/CE-001 - Cleeve Hill & G/WB-023 - Hegdon Hill

02/09/2017

On our way to Warwick

This was the weekend of the Telford Hamfest  so we decided to visit Rhodri,  go to the Hamfest and activate a few summits and try and get some more completes (activate and chase).   Cleeve Hill is a very easy summit so I decided to pack the FT857 and some folding chairs.  We parked at the parking place near the Comms Towers (SO 994248) and walked some 200m in a South Easterly direction and set up near the Trig. 

On our way to the Trig in the distance
I set a spot up for 2m and first in the log was David GW3RDQ/p with an s2s from Mynydd Troed....thanks David for that surprise. Despite many calls only another 3 made my log so I quickly moved to 60m which brought the usual run of chasers .  
A very comfortable activation
No breakthrough from the Comms towers
I hadn’t realised that there was a Field day on HF so my visit to 40m was short lived as the only contact I made was with Miroslav telling me that the contest  QRM on his side was making it difficult to hear me..that was my one and only contact despite turning the wick up on the 857.  Back to 2m and Stuart and Matt were booming in from Cheltenham but despite another spot by Stuart there were no takers….
12:22z
GW3RDQ/P
144MHz
FM
David s2s
12:27z
2E0LJZ
144MHz
FM
Matt
12:32z
2E1CAF
144MHz
FM
Sven
12:34z
M0JEA
144MHz
FM
Martin
12:42z
M0BKV
5MHz
SSB
Damian
12:43z
G0RQL
5MHz
SSB
Don
12:44z
M0NTC
5MHz
SSB
Gez
12:45z
G0VWP
5MHz
SSB
Terry
12:45z
G0TDM
5MHz
SSB
John
12:46z
M0MDA
5MHz
SSB
Mick
12:46z
G8VNW
5MHz
SSB
Nick
12:47z
G0TNF
5MHz
SSB
Michael
13:08z
OK1DVM
7MHz
SSB
Miroslav
13:31z
G0LGS
144MHz
FM
Stuart
13:34z
2E0MDJ
144MHz
FM
Matt

Telford Hamfest 2017
I spent so much time rummaging and talking to fellow SOTA enthusiasts that I forgot to take any pictures…very enjoyable visit..down in the diary for next year :)

G/WB-023 – Hegdon Hill

04/09/2017

On our way home

This is a drive on summit and in the words of many other activators ‘one that I will not be returning to’.   I set up by the gate in the farm lane at SO 585539 (see Phil G4OBK’s blog http://catterblog.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/a-welsh-borders-road-trip-doing-sota_14.html )  in order to take advantage of bagging the Trig which was over the hedge in the field behind me.  Another disappointing activation as the bands were not behaving although I did manage to grab a few s2s so thanks to Christophe, Esther and Ian for making that possible.  Once again the wick was turned up on the FT 857…some reports were 5/9+ whilst others could barely hear me.  It began spitting with rain so I didn’t hang around as we had quite a long journey ahead of us..thanks to everyone that made my log.

11:40z
G0RQL
5MHz
SSB
Don
11:42z
G4WHA/A
5MHz
SSB
Geoff
11:43z
G0FEX
5MHz
SSB
Ken
11:44z
G0TDM
5MHz
SSB
John
11:44z
M0BKV
5MHz
SSB
Damian
11:45z
G4IAR
5MHz
SSB
Dave
11:45z
M0TVU
5MHz
SSB
Paul
11:46z
GW0PLP
5MHz
SSB
Don
11:50z
G0SKA
7MHz
SSB
Charles
11:58z
DL1CR/P
7MHz
SSB
Christoph s2s
12:00z
GW3XHG
7MHz
SSB
David
12:05z
G0TDM
7MHz
SSB
John
12:07z
MW0CND
7MHz
SSB
Martin
12:07z
GI8SKN
7MHz
SSB
David
12:08z
G0FEX
7MHz
SSB
Ken
12:09z
DJ5AV
7MHz
SSB
Michael
12:14z
G0AZA/P
5MHz
SSB
Esther s2s
12:15z
G0AZB/P
5MHz
SSB
Ian s2s
12:16z
M0JLA
5MHz
SSB
Rod
12:22z
G4WTF
144MHz
FM
Ian

Hegdon Trig in the distance taken from a gate just off the main tarmac road.

Activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT857 (22Ah LiPo), Antenna - 3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m extensions +80m loading coils),(VHF)  Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole 

Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts


73 Allan GW4VPX

2 comments:

  1. Great to work you Allan, the S2S was a bonus and interesting reading about the 22ah battery option for the 857, must explore that more :)

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