I make it well known that I’m not a contester or for that matter have any interest in that part of the hobby.
For me a 59 and serial number is not what amateur radio is about.
Anyway I’d been contacted by a couple of friends from my old club, Macclesfield & District ARS, to try and hook up in the RSGB 144MHz Activity Contest that’s held on the first Tuesday evening of the month.
I was intending to operate in the low power section running 5 watts from my FT-817ND.
My 5 element yagi had been packed away since a rather cold & windy outing to activate The Cloud SOTA Summit G/SP-015 Xmas 2009.
The antenna had been subjected to a garden test over the weekend and all appeared fine.
Charles GW0LVH
For me a 59 and serial number is not what amateur radio is about.
Anyway I’d been contacted by a couple of friends from my old club, Macclesfield & District ARS, to try and hook up in the RSGB 144MHz Activity Contest that’s held on the first Tuesday evening of the month.
I was intending to operate in the low power section running 5 watts from my FT-817ND.
Greg, 2WØRXX was on holiday in Anglesey, almost a totally sea path from my location at Dale Airfield and we’d arranged to have a QSO prior to the start of the contest.
The Cloud SOTA Summit G/SP-015 Xmas 2009.
The antenna had been subjected to a garden test over the weekend and all appeared fine.
Of course all was not to be fine once it was up in good time for a QSO with Greg.
A high SWR was a problem I was unable to fully resolve. I think it may have had something to do with coupling to the wire sheep fence directly below, because the only way I could get an acceptable SWR to transmit was to hand hold the antenna well away from it.
Saying that the SWR wasn’t that high to compromise its ability to receive and I only heard two stations, both of which were way too weak to even resolve their call signs.
144MHz AC attempt 2 August 2011:
I never heard my other colleague either, Roger M0GMG, who was operating from the Macclesfield Forest.
I gave up and went onto 20 metres CW, far more fun.
Initial conclusions, IO71jr is probably not a good location for VHF around the UK, although from my cliff top looking over the sea to the west I had expected to have worked several EI stations.
Perhaps it’s worth another go when I’ve fully resolved the SWR problem.
Charles GW0LVH
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