Failed 2m FM SOTA Activation (saved using HF)

[@m7trsradio]

Oh no mate. At least you got out. That's what's it about mate. Fingers crossed I can get out soon. Sorry I missed you're live stream too.. I was in North Wales and signal wasn't great. Motters M7TRS 73

[@IrishHamRadio]

Thank god it’s not just me that has days like that so! 😅 Nice video Seamus. ☘️ 🇮🇪 😉

[@M0RSF]

Coolest Boss ever giving that chap time off to go Chase a SOTA Unique. Weather didn’t look great at the Summit and forgetting your lunch want ideal but we’ve only done something similar in the past. Hope the Calf muscle isn’t too sore James. 73 Chris M0RSF

[@AmateurRadioUK]

Thanks Chris. My calf muscle was sore for a few days after this. It didn't help that I went into work & pulled it again before it had fully healed while scrambling into a cargo bay on an aircraft at work. I don't rate this getting old business. I'm definitely not as athletic as I used to be! This video was actually filmed nearly 3 weeks ago, so it's fully healed & absolutely fine now. I'm not as quick & efficient as you when it comes to getting my videos uploaded!

[@2metercrew389]

👍👍👍

[@Jim_2E0HKM]

I made the decision to give up on 2m & 70cm when I moved Home QTH this year, it cost me way more to set up with low loss M&P Coax & the V2000 antenna then HF did but even at 450ft asl, the ability to hit over 30 repeaters the bands were dead bar mates having a rag chew, even the sota/hema activity Slowed up. It's a shame as I can see ya. Loosing big chunks of 70,2m & even 6m as a result. As another said maybe try 4m, people actually want to experiment & communicate on that band. Good video as ever James 👍🏻

[@AmateurRadioUK]

Hi James. Yep, it's a real pity that many of these bands are so under-utilised. Many of these SOTA summits are awesome for VHF/UHF. I've managed from Fan Fawr in South Wales to Epsom Downs in South London on previous activations.....a distance of over 140 miles. Great contacts can be made, if only people would use the bands! I want to give 4m a try at some point but I have a feeling that it might be the same story as 2m.......I'm hoping that I'm wrong about that!

[@willian.direction6740]

SOTA and Keto James well done. regards vk5cz ..

[@alwynmagee2395]

Had days with no 2 meter contacts at all on activations. Always have a good breakfast and a bottle of water in the rucksack. 73’s Alwyn Gi0BFD

[@alwynmagee2395]

James I had that fail yesterday!! SOTA activation of Gi/SW-008. 1 X 2 Meter Fm with Victor Gi4ONL. Then 1 x 2 Meter Ssb with Victor again as he felt sorry for me calling and calling Cq. So 2 on 2 meters!!. Fortunately 40 and 20 made up for the disappointing start on Vhf. 43 ITL. I usually just bring a small bottle of water with me. Left it at home in the fridge. So it happens to more than you LOL. 73'S de Alwyn Gi0BFD.

[@AmateurRadioUK]

We all have days like these. I've been doing SOTA for a while and now have a fairly tried and tested routine that seems to work for me. Thankfully I don't have many failures these days but occasionally things go slightly wrong for me. Better luck next time as they say!

[@theradiorover]

Epic fail James ! And forgetting your lunch, oh dear! 😂

[@AmateurRadioUK]

It wasn't my best attempt at a SOTA activation if I'm completely honest with you!

[@theradiorover]

@@AmateurRadioUK I thought it was a bit half-hearted 🤣 We can't be on our A game all the time James! I do sympathise with the lack on 2 m contacts though. When the weather is rough, I do envy those near populous areas that just whip out a handheld and have a pile up!

[@AmateurRadioUK]

@@theradiorover I was in a bit of a rush when I filmed this as I needed to get back home for something later that afternoon. I had hoped to bosh out 4 contacts on 2m & be done with it. I used 15m as a backup because I didn't really have time to work through a massive pileup like we often get on 20m. Slightly surprisingly 15m only resulted in 2 contacts. I qualified the summit (only just) but not on 2m like I'd hoped. It was a bit of a lazy effort to tell the truth. What you didn't see in the video was that I pulled my calf muscle on the descent while trying to jump over the stream! The last half KM or so was a somewhat painful hobble back to the car!!!

[@IZ0MTW]

once again thumbs up for your effort. Not easy with that wx. Try some kind of yagi perhaps. I used to have a light 2 element and was already a good boost. Cheers, Diego

[@AmateurRadioUK]

Thanks Diego. I keep threatening to take my massive Tonna beam onto a summit to try 2m SSB. I just need to find a quiet summit without too many people + easy access as it's quite a big lump to carry & set up!

[@alzeNL]

Really enjoyed this one - thanks as ever for the great videos, always inspiring me to get out there !

[@AmateurRadioUK]

Thanks. I wouldn't consider this to be the most inspiring of videos but since starting this KZbin channel I've always made a point of showing both the good & the bad. There's plenty of videos on my channel where it has gone really well & I've ended up with a massive pileup. Unfortunately this was one of those occasions where it didn't work out for me!!!

[@alzeNL]

@@AmateurRadioUK and thats why its a great channel ! :D

[@dd6fm]

2m is here also dead in Germany.... very sad... 73

[@MrEdTraveller]

Have you tried 4 meters FM? Dave G8XDD does quite a lot of SOTA, HEMA etc here along the south coast, and I get the impression that he does quite well on 70MHz. 73 and thanks for the video. Ed M0MNG.

[@AmateurRadioUK]

Good suggestion Ed. I did try it once before in the Lake District but it wasn't overly successful (partly down to the setup that I was trying to use). I might have to give that another go.

[@gerhardvanwykzs4rum685]

A 2m kite antenna wil definitely give you a advantage on vhf and above hight is might let's see you do it with a simple coax antenna made from rg58 or something

[@AmateurRadioUK]

That's something that I have definitely considered on several occasions. The problem I see with it is that coax is a bit too heavy to be lifted by the kite unless you use something really light. You would need a quite a long length of coax cable (15m-20m+) to get the antenna up high enough to make it worth it. Unfortunately lightweight coax (realistically probably looking at RG-174 to be light enough to be lifted by the kite) is quite lossy at 2m, so any gains from elevating the antenna would probably be defeated with losses in the coax.....especially if I am already on a SOTA summit with the advantage of a bit of altitude and & good take-off. The only other option is to get a much bigger kite with greater lifting capability (expensive), in the hope of using something like Ultraflex 7. It's a really nice idea though. Maybe one day!

[@gerhardvanwykzs4rum685]

@@AmateurRadioUK ah makes sense only other option i can think of is having a handheld up there that is capable of crossband repeating and another handheld to communicate with it but then you have the con of only being able to use one frequency unless it can be remotely changed somehow lots of smart guys out there someone wil eventually figure something out

[@AmateurRadioUK]

@@gerhardvanwykzs4rum685 Also, not all countries allow you to use cross-band repeat. Here in the UK, you either have to get NOV (Notice Of Variation) for a repeater.......which is quite an ordeal from a bureaucratic perspective and as far as I am aware is only available for fixed repeater sites.....or be in a RAYNET emergency communications group who have a dispensation to install temporary repeaters under a permit scheme. Obviously this is different in other countries (I believe your proposal would be legal in the USA for example). The thought that immediately springs to my mind is something with Bluetooth control (Yaesu FT5D maybe)?

[@2E0RME]

You'd think they'd be more activity on 2m SSB - given the added range.

[@AmateurRadioUK]

2m SSB - now there's something that I've been wanting to try from a SOTA summit!

[@nickjh1968]

Can we expect to see Dina in any videos this year?

[@AmateurRadioUK]

@nick H I'm confused! Who is Dina? Am I being silly & missing something obvious here?

[@nickjh1968]

@@AmateurRadioUK Ha ha sorry to confuse you James this comment was meant for a different video🤣

[@AmateurRadioUK]

@@nickjh1968 No worries. It doesn't take much to confuse me!

[@stirlingpark6145]

Have you got a Twitter feed (or similar) where we can have notification that you are going to be activating?

[@AmateurRadioUK]

I'm not on Twitter I'm afraid. Most of my activations are very last minute (usually only decided the night before). I do sometimes post an alert on the SOTA website if I know I'm going to be out. Do you have the "SOTA Spotter" app (or similar) on your phone? It's possible to set it up to send a push notification to your phone when a specific callsign posts a spot on SOTA Watch. I did think about posting on my KZbin Community page when I know I'm going to be out but wondered if that would just get on people's nerves?

[@stirlingpark6145]

@@AmateurRadioUK I have SOTA spotter but haven't had it running in ages. I take it that I can put some sort of filter/rule in place to notify when you are spotted/activating. Thanks for the pointer - Terry

[@AmateurRadioUK]

@@stirlingpark6145 Precisely. If you've followed the channel for a while you might have noticed that I've done a few collaborations with Fraser, Dave & Chris. I have alerts set on my phone to notify me whenever they spot themselves on SOTA Watch.

[@brian.7966]

first :)

[@alzeNL]

you win a long walk off cardiff pier

[@yrath5034]

@@alzeNL Cardiff doesn't have a pier! :-)

[@alzeNL]

@@yrath5034 :)