G/LD-049 Kirkby Moor

G/LD-049 Kirkby Moor 

12/04/2017

A damp and foggy start

It had promised showers and wind on the higher peaks so we decided to activate another easy unique.  It would also be the last one of our brief visit to the Lake District. The rain and high wind was correctly forecast but nevertheless we kitted up and headed up through the Wind farm to the summit. It would be ‘bothy bag’ time for the activation.

My GPS track...park at SD260829

Wet and windy...on our way

Summit cairn

Ready for the activation...KX2 deep down in the dry bag

First in the log once more was Dave LKB with 5/9 signals both ways.  Dave told me that he had activated this summit more than a 100 times.  I had a nice run of chasers with brief conversations with most of them but it all went quiet after 15 minutes.

Bothy bag deployed

I sent a spot for 60m but was disappointed with only Don RQL and  Michael EI3GYB making the log….skip seemed to be quite long on 60m.

11:16z	G6LKB	144MHz	FM	David
11:21z	M6VMS/P	144MHz	FM	Mark
11:23z	G1OHH	144MHz	FM	Sue
11:25z	M3ULV	144MHz	FM	Marjorie
11:26z	M3RDZ	144MHz	FM	Roy
11:29z	M6MPU	144MHz	FM	John
11:31z	M0TWB	144MHz	FM	Tony
11:33z	G4RQJ	144MHz	FM	Rob
11:44z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:45z	EI3GYB	5MHz	SSB	Michael
12:06z	EI9GLB	3.5MHz	SSB	Jim
12:08z	G0VWP	3.5MHz	SSB	Terry
12:22z	M6HLR/P	144MHz	FM	Lauren s2s
12:23z	G0PEK/P	144MHz	FM	Kevin s2s
12:32z	MM0FMF/P	5MHz	SSB	Andy s2s

I got up an attached the loading coils for 80m hoping for better results.  Jim GLB came booming in and my hopes were high for a good run of chasers…Terry VWP and I struggled but made the required exchange.  I could hear Karl M3FEH calling me but he just couldn’t hear me when I replied.  So after numerous calls I called it a day on 80m….little did I realise that there was a problem and that the internal ATU on the KX2 had hidden it.

Weather improves

We had a quick cup of coffee as it was quite comfortable in the bothy bag and both the rain and the wind had eased up…the sun was trying to get through.  I noticed that Andy FMF was due up on his summit so I got up to remove the loading coils and then I saw the 80m problem….one of the coils was only attached by one croc clip…I had missed the problem by pressing the ATU button  on the KX2 at some point in time? ….need to design a more secure fixing for the coils.

Anyway,  I finished the activation with three s2s. Lauren and Kevin were on Low Fell G/LD-042 and Andy was on GM/SS-021 Berneraid…thanks everybody.

Back to the car...room for one car...don't block the track

It's a really nice day now!

Old man of Coniston G/LD-013...our target next time we visit LD

Back to 2, Cambridge Villas, Ambleside ..our base for the last 3 days

My activation set up:-  (HF) Elecraft KX2 (4Ah LiPo), ,  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