It’s been a while since I did a monthly recap, I thought after my recent Forth cycle post, it was time to kick off again.
We are still placed under Covid-19 lock down with a slight easing near the end of the month so apart from the ‘daily exercise’ of the bike, I played a lot of radio.
At the end of May, I spent my hard earned on an upgrade SDRPlay DX, my intention seeing we are in the low between Sunspot Cycle 24 and Cycle 25, I would spend some time chasing DX on the medium wave band in the upcoming winter months, that is listening for AM radio stations across in NA and EUR, some sleepless nights ahead (darkness hours are the best) or like in the ’80s, I found listening after 3 am was more productive and that was me doing a day’s work after that, I had a Sony 7600D (which I still have) RX at my bedside just to have a quick check of conditions before I would fall out of bed or just roll over again, mostly I tended just to roll over.
Other radio work was mostly using two datamodes, FT8 and FT4 on various HF bands with an odd trip onto 2m VHF earlier in the month, mostly European with the odd contact in NA, SA, Africa and Asia, contacts are short and automated with these modes, 17 m (!8.100 Mhz) was my most productive.
I took my 2m handheld out on my bike trips and made calls from some of the higher spots and made the occasional contact, a good way to rest after ascending some steep hills.
SDR was mostly listening about the HF short wave bands, checking out what countries are still using SW broadcasting, more than a few big names missing from my early days listening. There is still enough to look for. The internet age hasn’t killed everything yet…
Cycling..
First trip was the previous blog post around the Forth HERE
I’ve picked two from the various trips done over the 30 days, some spent ‘enjoying’ new roads, one a return visit to Shielbrae but from the Carron Valley side, a long, sharp climb through forest and open countryside but a long descent to almost Stirling with a couple of lumps,
The trip near the end of the month to Sheriffmuir was originally a cycle out to Dunblane BUT as I was about to leave Bridge of Allan and the temptation of seeing the blue NCN sign , I started a (for me) a long gradual climb out to above Dunblane, and I saw a fateful road sign which said ‘Sheriffmuir’, it tempted me but as I headed towards my original destination, my head and legs had an argument, the head won so I turned back and started an almost relentless ascent, being passed by another cyclist who enthusiastically called ‘not long to go now’, I dread those words as it never is, so turning a corner I was greeted by a long, even stiffer looking climb, I let out a swearie, I’m sure she laughed.
The ascent now levelled out and I stopped briefly at the monument built to commemorate the Clan Macrae who died fighting in the nearby battlefield part of the Jacobite Rebellion of 1715, Battle info HERE
Upon reaching a junction, I chose to head back to Bridge of Allan so off along a roller coaster single track, busy with folk out for lock down exercise, it was with relief I arrived at the closed Dumyat car parking, busier than ever, but knowing I’d a descent ahead but soon found out how horrible a road surface this was..
A long detour to home and over 50 mile in the log.
Two days later, it was a trip into the hills to the south, skirting the SE edge of Cumbernauld then finding my way along some new roads and tracks to Shieldhill and a long descent to outside Grangemouth then finding my way home via known cycle routes and roads, 43 this time.
Over 420 miles for the month so the best month of the year but still lagging behind my 2019 total.
In my last post, I posted an image of Plean Castle, the image below is a hand made signpost.. Plane?
July ? we’ll see..something flat, I think
aching legs and CQ 