Ham Radio - Is Anyone Around for a Quick HF QSO Tomorrow?

[DBK]

I'm going to set up my portable HF kit on the top of Kit Hill in Cornwall tomorrow (30 May) at around 10:00 local time. I had originally planned to visit the wondrously named Brown Willy, the highest point on Bodmin Moor but have postponed as I'm suffering from a bit of sciatica. I've chosen Kit Hill instead as you can drive to the summit! Brown Willy will have to wait. I will be driving there in the MH so there is a MHF fun link.

I can't give exact frequencies yet but I will post them online on this website:

https://sotawatch.sota.org.uk/en/ Look for the "Spots" tab if it doesn't take you there directly.

They should also appear on here:

https://sotl.as/spots/sotawatch Where you can also find a map. Kit Hill is NW of Plymouth.

My callsign is M0WIV. The timings on the website are UTC so 10:00 local will appear as 09:00. I will try and start earlier if I can get up in time.

I will start on SSB at 80m then work down through 40m and 20m and possibly down further to 17m and 10m but it will depend on the band conditions at the time. Each change of frequency will be preceded by a "spot" on the above websites.

This is not a "rag-chewing" opportunity as I am doing this under SOTA (Summits On The Air) so an RST report, exchange of names (and MHF usernames where applicable ) and a final 73 is all that is expected.

I will take my 3 element Yagi and will try 2m SSB (horizontal) at the end and If I am feeling extremely brave I may try CW on HF, probably 30m but don't hold your breath on this one. I managed my first ever CW QSO this week but that was sitting at home and I managed to make numerous errors in the process. Doing it out in the field is a big step up.

 

[Grummyb]

Blimey didn't a word of that post but I'm sure it means loads to a fellow hamerist

 

[phase3begins]

Blimey didn't a word of that post but I'm sure it means loads to a fellow hamerist

I believe it is probably Latin

 

[David and Sally]

I can phone you

 

[The Dotties]

I’m handy with a post card, well I would be if I had an address

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[Vipar]

I have only got 2 mtr equipment so have a good CQDX. QSO.

Must get my 70cms rig repaired

73’s. G4SKK

 

[I2C]

DBK - sorry don’t have any kit to reach you, only have a handheld at the moment - good luck, hope you get some good QSOs. Like the idea of SOTA but need to get an HF rig first, Mountain Toppers seem nice and compact.

 

[Realist]

Don’t have any HF gear any more otherwise would of given you a call.

GW0WGW

 

[Fat Albert]

This thread sent me down memory lane, being on the aircraft pan in Belize trying to carry out a HF test call to Portishead and nobody received my test call although Akortiri came through 5by5. Left aircraft for a beer or 2 feeling I had beaten the mysteries of HF communications

 

[Eggs]

I think I've got it, at 10:00am, unless that is 09:00am on the 30/5/2021 there will be a bloke in a MH with a radio, a brown willy, sciatica and a yati at Kit Hill in Cornwall. What he'll be doing there I've absolutely no idea.

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[Realist]

Just signed up to Hamsphere.

 

[Grummyb]

Help I think I've entered a parallel universe?

 

[Fat Albert]

DBK If nobody contacts you tomorrow put it down to the atmospherics. It seemed to work for me when the aircrew asked if the HF was working. Once airborne they would be happy passing position reports. HF is the devils work sometimes it’s clear and next minute you might as well use a loud hailer. I hope tomorrow is a resounding success

 

[sueandjohn]

Flipping heck … as confusing as Line of Duty …. But whatever it is , I hope it goes well

 

[The Coops]

Mork calling Orson?

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[DBK]

Just signed up to Hamsphere.

I hadn't heard of that but having had a quick look I don't think it allows you to listen to actual ham radio, just simulated stuff using the phone. There are WebSDRs you can log into which do listen to actual radio signals but I've found them a bit cumbersome. However, I haven't tried very hard with them and I know some people have found them very effective.

 

[Realist]

No Hamsphere is live TX and RX on all bands.

 

[DBK]

No Hamsphere is live TX and RX on all bands.

Thanks, I didn't know that.

 

[Spriddler]

I'm going to set up my portable HF kit on the top of Kit Hill in Cornwall tomorrow

Cuh!
Nothing to do with 'Send a bread pudding to Kuala Lumpur, sugar on it' or 'It is here are not raining in Railway Cuttings also' but I have fond memories of Kit Hill. I hope your experiment goes well.
I set up a factory on the Moss Side Ind. Estate in Callington where we designed and manufactured a range of marine safety products. I lived nearby at Kelly Bray and we spent a lot of time at the quarry at Kit Hill testing prototypes and taking promotional 'at sea' photographs.

 

[DBK]

Cuh!
Nothing to do with 'Send a bread pudding to Kuala Lumpur, sugar on it' or 'It is here are not raining in Railway Cuttings also' but I have fond memories of Kit Hill. I hope your experiment goes well.
I set up a factory on the Moss Side Ind. Estate in Callington where we designed and manufactured a range of marine safety products. I lived nearby at Kelly Bray and we spent a lot of time at the quarry at Kit Hill testing prototypes and taking promotional 'at sea' photographs.

View attachment 501669

View attachment 501671

I didn't know there was a flooded quarry on the hill but having just checked, it is there on the north side! Under the rules of SOTA I need to be not less than 25m below the summit, measured vertically, so I don't think I will be visiting the quarry on this trip. But perhaps on another trip...

It's a curious hill, on the summit is a massive tower which I understand was for ventilation of the mine which was dug below the hill. Who would have thought that to dig up the riches of the Earth you start digging at the top of a hill!

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[Spriddler]

Indeed. There's some interesting geology and mining/industrial history in that area. We used to test designs up there all year round often in the infamous Cornish clag. According to one of my guys the water in the quarry was virtually bottomless which I found very sinister and unsettling. There will be quite few of my failed 'automatically inflating' prototypes at the non-existent bottom.
The Ginsters pasty factory was across from my units and the staff canteen was popular with us after freezing for hours on the wet and windswept hillside.

 

[DBK]

Indeed. There's some interesting geology and mining/industrial history in that area. We used to test designs up there all year round often in the infamous Cornish clag. According to one of my guys the water in the quarry was virtually bottomless which I found very sinister and unsettling. There will be quite few of my failed 'automatically inflating' prototypes at the non-existent bottom.
The Ginsters pasty factory was across from my units and the staff canteen was popular with us after freezing for hours on the wet and windswept hillside.

I'm amazed by the beacons you can get these days. I'm seriously considering getting one of these:

Cactus Navigation

Free Delivery | Low Prices | Great Range.

www.cactusnav.com

It's £250 and a monthly subscription of around £15 but the reassurance if I fall over and break a leg somewhere away from a phone signal makes it worth thinking about I think. It isn't automatic but still potentially a life saver.

 

[Spriddler]

That's a very good safeguard. When I've been aimlessly wandering o'er hill 'n dale it has crossed my mind that if I needed medical or breakdown rescue (assuming I had a phone signal) I really didn't know with any accuracy where I was. I think nowadays, provided I was in range of a beacon they can determine my position from my switched-on mobile phone. I've even been unsure where I was when just following my nose taking the paths less trod when touring abroad on my motorbike on public roads.
When I was involved in the yachting/boating industry there were EPIRBs but they only transmitted a limited range SOS as a homing signal for the search people. No two-way communication.
I used to work in product development for Duracell Batteries and worked with a company developing submarine radio communication. One application was a powerful battery for the radio beacons fitted in (unarmed) exceedingly expensive practice Polaris missiles to enable their recovery. Apparently very low frequency had to be used in order to transmit through water but this, I was told, could boil bodily organs. All fascinating stuff to me.

 

[jollyrodger]

Good luck with qso's
up the hill if the skip is running.
Got rid of all my hf kit many years back
Kenwood TS50 fully activated + At50
Or the Alinco.
Using 1/4 or 1/2 wave whip.
Or 1/4 wave homemade long wire
got me all over the globe from that location. mobile in campervan back in those days. 26.285 usb
Jollyroger group.
ES22 6.680 lsb
10/10 JR1944 marine mobile
Then the skip died and along came skype

If you work g0tqt tell him he's a plonker

 

[Neil Ric Tic]

Good luck with the activation of G/DC-003 Kit Hill Tomorrow.....No H.F. antenna here, as the wind destroyed the doublet and I haven't got around to replacing it as yet!

2m SSB will give you some good results VHF wise....Listen out for Don, G0RQL, He's a avid chaser, particularly on 2 SSB.

Don't forget to post an alert!....73.

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[DBK]

Good luck with the activation of G/DC-003 Kit Hill Tomorrow.....No H.F. antenna here, as the wind destroyed the doublet and I haven't got around to replacing it as yet!

2m SSB will give you some good results VHF wise....Listen out for Don, G0RQL, He's a avid chaser, particularly on 2 SSB.

Don't forget to post an alert!....73.

Don, G0RQL, is very well known I think. I worked him on 40m on High Willhays a few weeks ago and I read an account recently of someone on a Scottish summit also doing the same.

 

[Captain Yoghurtpot]

Very interesting @ DBK.
Good luck with your experiment.
WishI had kept up with my interest now but still being a novice licence holder I would need to start over.
Still got my course notes though.
Will look again at Hamsphere and will have to think about some equipment at some stage.
All the best
Iain
2E1 CQM

 

[DBK]

Just returned home after a fairly successful morning. The closest contact was with someone in Saltash barely 10 miles away. The outside UK contacts were interesting, two from Spain, one German but the best was a "summit to summit" with HB9CRY who was top of the Schwyberg, a 1644m high mountain in Switzerland. The only bands I found working were 20m and 40m. 80m was completely dead as were 17m and 10m which I briefly visited. At the end I tried 2m SSB but without any response. This is something which needs to be arranged in advance I think so at least you know there is someone out there listening.

I ran out of time to try CW - and I'm sticking with that excuse.

I also forgot to take any photographs.

 

[jollyrodger]

You had some good wx up there today
And the vehicular traffic going into Cornwall is wall to wall,A38.
Just got back.

 

[Polar bear]

Just got home from Cornwall and read post missed you by one day maybe next time. I have all bands up and running except microwave. Hope the day was successful G4TJB

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