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