(Dec) Radio Days ’11

Not a busy month due to the continuing bad weather. Here goes with the last ‘Radio Days’ for 2011.

SOTA..

No activations to report, the varied wind and rain that battered December had kinda blew any plans out of the water.

Chasing…

Adverse weather made this not a busy month except for the following.

First Saturday of the month, I managed to catch Iain WJZ who was on the Loch Earn area Ben Vorlich, the following week I heard and worked Craig HCF whilst I was on the Side Hills area near Kilmacolm on the Pap (see this blogpost) to be more exact, Craig was on Scald Law in the Pentlands. The following Sat, Iain WJZ activated a snowy Ben Lomond, I had spoken to Iain from the local golf course car park, a line of sight contact. Iain kindly sent me some photos of his day and you will see one on this blog post showing the snowy last ascent of the Ptarmigan Ridge to the summit. I’ve used the image in a previous blog post but cannot resist the opportunity to use it again…

Final approach to the summit of Lomond © Iain MM3WJZ

Finally for what has been a quiet month, I had nipped up to the local trig point to catch Neil 2MØNCM who was on Corse Hill and whilst I was chatting with Neil, Jack COX popped in from Tinto and I caught Jack for an extra 4 points.

The weather made the holiday season a quiet time..

HF… 

Due to other things happening, I was not as active during the month as I would have liked. Conditions were variable from day-to-day and I seemed to miss the better conditions. JT65 and PSK was the main modes that I was using although I caught a DL2 station on Contestia whilst I was monitoring 30m data, a surprise and my first contact in that mode although for some reason I have a couple of eQSLs for the mode. Downloaded and am presently having more than a serious look at O_P_E_R_A, another data mode created in conjunction between a G station and the creator of ROS, a quick guide FAQ is here.

Contacts in Euroland, Asia and across the pond to North America. DXCC wise I finally managed to snaffle Andorra on 30m.

Other…

Still pounding the local byways and trying to catch the activations as I head out but unfortunately I’ve missed a couple as I have been on the wrong side of the hill, if I am out in the summer months, I have more than a few cracking high spots in which I can sit and wait providing the sun decides to pay us a visit. I live in hope….

Once again thanks to Iain MM3WJZ for the use of such an inspiring picture, it makes me want to treat myself to crampons, ice axe etc. The image is copyright of  Iain.

Thanks per usual to Wikipedia and other sources for information.

Whilst I’m here..

I was out tramping the local cycle track and came across this ‘Loop Antenna’ and as it would have it, it was pointing N which covers 90% of the SOTA activators I work, I wonder if it would be able to tune in ?

Loop Antenna