Tuesday 18 April 2017

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

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