G/LD-58 Arnside Knott

G/LD-58 Arnside Knott

  

21/06/2017

Painful activation

Val and I had intended to activate quite a few SOTA summits whilst we were staying in Carnforth but I had incurred a work related back injury which prevented further SOTA summits after a painful Arnside Knott activation…on the mend now I hope....

Plenty of tracks to the summit from the car park at SD 449773

Plenty of room to park

Welcome to Arnside Knott

Trig in view.....it would soon be raining

Only  4 contacts on 2m despite a second spot from Mark M6VMS so I quickly moved on to the KX2 and 60m without having to get up

10:14z	M0LKB	144MHz	FM	Andrew
10:17z	M6VMS	144MHz	FM	Mark
10:18z	G7OEM	144MHz	FM	Tony
10:18z	G4RQJ	144MHz	FM	Rob

Conditions were difficult but I was delighted that 11 chasers made my log with those from EI and GI being the strongest.

10:32z	GW3UEP	5MHz	SSB	Roger
10:35z	M0JLA	5MHz	SSB	Rod
10:36z	EI3GYB	5MHz	SSB	Michael
10:37z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:37z	GW0PLP	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:37z	G7BGA	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
10:38z	EI9GLB	5MHz	SSB	Jim
10:40z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
10:41z	G0FVH	5MHz	SSB	David
10:43z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
10:46z	GI4ONL/P	5MHz	SSB	Victor

Bothy bag deployed as it was raining

With my back really hurting now I thought I would give 40m a go and sure enough I had 4 contacts starting with my friend Roger who lives only a few miles away from my home QTH.  Karl M4FEH was next up with his 10 watts followed by Don RQL with a 5/7 each way.  Andrew G4AFI finally made my log after a few long signal report exchanges.  Sadly Rob PA0B and Mike DJ5AV never completed with me as our signals were suffering some deep QSB…sorry.

10:55z	GW3UEP	7MHz	SSB	Roger
10:58z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
11:00z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
11:01z	G4AFI	7MHz	SSB	Andrew

Towards Grange over Sands

Towards Morecambe Bay

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

Internal Fire Museum of Power

Internal Fire Museum of Power - GB2MOP

08/06/2017

The Internal Fire Museum of Power had opened up their doors at 7:30pm on the 8^th of June to the Aberystwyth and District Amateur Radio Society …I was one of the 16 members that attended ..it turned out to be a very enjoyable evening. 

Members of ADARS watching the Allen  3S47 being started

Petter 15hp Atomic two stroke diesel

Many of the engines were operational although the highlight of the evening for me was seeing their new exhibition of commercial radio equipment that were installed in ships and to see John Lawrence’s collection of valves that had been donated to the museum and located in the Radio Exhibition. 

The valve collection

A small selection of the valves on show

Morse keys on display

A 'Have a go at cw' and Titanic display

A ship's radio room

Lloyd 2W0LLT tuning in the Rhode & Schwarz HF transceiver built into the RACAL rack and fired up when the special event callsign GB2MOP is used on the HF bands.

The museum is worth a visit and details can be found on their website. Follow the link below:-

https://www.internalfire.com/

73 Allan GW4VPX

GW/SW-011 Sugar Loaf

GW/SW-011 Sugar Loaf

03/06/2017

Quick activation

Tasos M6VAR sent me an e-mail to say he was coming up to SW from London on Friday afternoon and could we do an easy summit on Saturday.  He was having problems with a leg injury so wanted something easy..Sugar Loaf was ideal and I hadn't activated this year.

My GPS track

On our way

11:10z	MW0ZVR/M	144MHz	FM	Barry, Mobile nr Crickhowell
11:12z	G7BGA	144MHz	FM	Geoffrey, Ruyton
11:13z	G0EYO	144MHz	FM	Chris, Birmingham
11:16z	G0LGS	144MHz	FM	Stuart, Cheltenham
11:25z	G0VNZ	144MHz	FM	John, Stratford Upon Avon
11:28z	G8WSM/P	144MHz	FM	Martin, Weston S Mare, Special event
11:33z	M1EYP/P	144MHz	FM	Tom s2s, The Cloud G/SP-015

We shared the contacts and as Tasos wanted to start back early this was a quick activation using only 2m.  It was a bonus and a surprise to get Tom M1EYP/p in the log for our one and only summit to summit.

Busy summit...we shared the contacts on 2m

Our activation set up:-  (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole, Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX & Tasos MW6VAR