Without looking at any propagation forecasts I appear to have hit a
purple patch of Sporadic E ionisation during my 45 minute activation of
G/TW-004 Bishop Wilton Wold this morning, on the first day of the SOTA 6m/10m 2015 Challenge.
The summit is a "drive on" (accessible by car) and lies 21 miles from my home QTH,
so I was out and back in time for morning coffee. I chose to operate my
station 100m away from my car at spot height 226 grid ref SE 832551
which is my favourite operating location on the Garrowby Hill (local
name) plateau.
Transceiver: Yaesu FT-857 running 80 watts from a 5Ah14v LiFePo
Antenna: Wire link dipole for 6m/10m/15m (15m band not used) 5m above ground
QSOs: 18 total (10m=7 QSO 6m=11 QSO)
QRV: 0745z - 0830z
My first CQ SOTA on 10m CW produced Franz OE6WIG at 0745z. I made 7
contacts on 10m, including 4 G Stations (I did hear Victor GI4ONL for
about 10 seconds, went back but no QSO - probably aircraft scatter).
I moved up to 6m and found the band full of Italian stations. I
worked a few of these randoms before calling CQ myself on CW, attracting
several known SOTA Chasers including a few G stations in the Midlands
and Yorkshire. This was a great start to the latest SOTA Challenge...
My Log:
