It’s been a few weeks since my last activation and I wanted to go out. I didn’t have much time as I was meant to be sorting out the garage, so I picked a summit close to home, Cairn-Mon-Earn (GM/ES-080).

It’s quite an easy walk following the loggers roads up to the summit. There are multiple towers there for mobile phones and other networks. The local repeater, GB3GN, is also here. The weather was dry, and I had the occasional blue sky, but showers were forecasted.

It was windy too, so I hunkered down by the cairn, however, this probably wasn’t the best place being so close to the towers. I setup my slim G 2m on the mast and called CQ. I didn’t get any response so setup on HF. The ground slopes away with heather and bushes, so I decided just to go for the random wire vertical. It has a 5.5m radiator and 2 counterpoises. I started on 20m, and two stations replied, Spain and Finland. This turned out to be my lot on HF. I tried other bands and calling other stations but no one could hear me. It was a shame as there were several other summits I could hear.

I managed to get MM0EFI on the HT, and so I was at 3 contacts. A SOTA summit needs 4 to activate. It had been about an hour and the rain started to come down heavily. I dashed across to some nearby trees and setup underneath one of them. After trying all the bands I came back to 20m, put out another spot and the same Spanish station came back to me…well at least I knew it wasn’t operator error with the radio or antenna!

This was meant to be a quick activation and I’d now been there for over and hour, and so decided to pack up HF. I could see the TV mast in the clouds and so walked over to get a better look. I then found what would be a great spot to activate (if it wasn’t raining) as it had clear views all around. I thought I might as well call on 2m and see if I could get anyone.

I spoke to Fraser again, MM0EFI, now /M as he was driving to work. We made a contact with his intermediate callsign, 2M0EFI/M, so technically I’d activated the site. However, I was determined to get four different people, and in my next CQ, George, MM0SAX/M, replied.

George was driving up from Glasgow on the A90 and has a radio in his work van. We had a nice chat for about 15 minutes, and that turned my “this has been a waste of time ” attitude into a “that wasn’t so bad ” one!

I enjoy HF and setting up different antenna, but if I could reliably activate with just 2m/70cm I’d love to go up the hillside with just my HT.

It was back down and back home. The kids were soon home from school and the garage didn’t get sorted out. I’ll try again next week…

I’ve chased a few SOTA activators before, it’s quite a fun thing to do, you watch the spotting website and then see if you can get them. Once someone posts a spot it’s pretty quick for them to get a pile up. I’ve kept thinking about doing it, and I do live in an ideal place where there are plenty of summits to chose from. I’ve not been on the radio much this year and I ended up taking a day off today to drop off and pick up the kids from school, so I decided I should make the most of it and go up a mountain!

Using the great SOTA map website, Sotlas, I had a look around to see where I should go first. As I was doing the school run, I was limited on time to about 6 hours all in. I also thought I shouldn’t try too much on my first attempt, in both walking and radio setup. I noticed that some summits get bonus points during the winter (between about December and March), and one of those was near me so I thought that would be ideal. The place is called Bennachie, and one of its highest peaks is Oxen Craig. The peaks are call a ‘tap’. This is the summit GM/ES-061, which is worth two points and five in the winter.

As you can see from this photo taken by MM7MWL, it’s a beautiful view.

Gear

Radio-wise, I still have my Xiegu G90, which was my first radio, that is portable enough – certainly when compared to the Yaesu FTDX10! It’s got a bit of heft to it (2.5 kg ), but is 20W, has a great ATU and a nice waterfall.

For the antenna, I wanted to keep it as simple as possible and to make use of my carbon 6m mast. I found MM0EFI’s random wire suggestion and it looked ideal. This is 5.5m radiator, with two 4.25m counterpoises. They’re attached via bananaplugs to a BNC, then a short piece of coax with a common mode choke into the radio.

The battery situation isn’t ideal. I’m using an ultramax 18 Ah LiFePO4 battery, which has loads of capacity and much better than a lead acid or a LiPo one but it’s still around 2.5 kg. I use it when out in the garden, but have never had to carry it very far. I do have a few 18650 lithium cells which I’m meaning to make my own portable battery but I’ve not got round to it yet. So the ultramax had to do.

I also brought my Boafeng 2m/70cm radio to try some 2m FM. I have a Kenwood TH-D72, which I thought of bringing for APRS, but it’s too complex for my liking. Plus I could’ve just used my phone for APRS if I really wanted to.

All in, with lunch and water, my backpack was over 6 kg. Fine, but plenty of room for optimisation next time.

The Activation

With the kids dropped off at school, and backpack packed, I set off about 0915 to drive to the car park behind the summit.

I wasn’t sure how long everything was going to take, so I opted to find the shortest and most direct route to the summit. There are quite a few walks you can do in the area via various taps and approach from different sides, but starting at the “back” looked the quickest. It was basically a straight up.

I had looked at doing two activations in one trip, as Millstone Hill, GM/ES-077, isn’t that far away. However, when I worked out a couple of routes they were 4-5 hours of walking and I decided that was trying to do too much in one day.

I paid my parking at 0953, and was being blown away on the summit by 1040, which was a bit quicker than the 1:08 hrs OSMaps suggested it would take to walk up. I was pretty hot and sweaty by the time I got to the top, and had taken off my hat, but once exposed in the wind, I was glad to have it.

It was quite nice weather on the way up, I could see the summits were under cloud cover, and when I reached the top the wind was howling and the air was very cold.

I looked around for a nice place to setup, and ate my sandwich. Another guy came up and we said hello. I tried a few calls on 145.500 MHz, but I think I would’ve needed to organise this ahead of time with the locals. I found a nice outcrop to shelter behind that was in front of the summit, and setup the pole and radio on a rock. I had a little nook to crouch in and there I started to see if I could make any contacts.

I started on 40m, had a listen to 10m, but it seemed dead, then moved to 15m and then finally 20m. I managed 37 contacts, with 14 countries, two summit to summit QSOs, and one parks on the air contact. My furthest contact was with Z36T in The Republic of North Macedonia at 1501 miles.

I’d been on the air 50 minutes and my logging hand was getting cold! Plus I was getting stiff in my funny crouching position, and concious of getting back in time to pick up the kids. I was using Cloudlogoffline app to log, which is handy as it can then sync to my cloudlog database but I don’t like that it doesn’t keep the frequency from the previous QSO as the default entry. [update: you can under the settings, so set it there before starting to add QSOs.] It’s also fiddly to add another SOTA reference due to the iOS keyboard coming up when you select an input box and not being able to scroll. I might just do ‘Fast Log Entry’ (FLE) next time in an Apple note file. I’ll see what else there is too. VK port-a-log seems to be a favourite for SOTA but it’s Android only.

I was back in time for a nice cup of tea and sit down before it was school pick up. I look forward to the next one. It’s fun being the DX!

If ever there’s a time when the bands are busy, it’s the huge contest of CQWW.

12th in Scotland isn’t bad for 3.9 hours of operation. Least I don’t think so.

Here’s my log summary

************************** Summary ***************************

      94 Raw    QSO before checking (does not include duplicates or missing exchanges)
      93 Final  QSO after  checking reductions

     108 Raw    QSO points
     105 Final  QSO points

      17 Raw    zones
      17 Final  zones

      56 Raw    countries
      56 Final  countries

      73 Raw    mults
      73 Final  mults

    7884 Raw    score
    7665 Final  score

    1.1% error rate based on raw and final qso counts
    2.8% score reduction
      1  (1.1%) not in log
      0  (0.0%) incorrect calls
      0  (0.0%) incorrect exchanges
      0  (0.0%) missing exchanges
      0  (0.0%) duplicates removed
      0  (0.0%) calls unique to this log only (not removed)

********************** Results By Band ***********************

             Band   QSO  QPts  Zone Cty Mult

   Raw       160M     0     0     0   0    0
   Final     160M     0     0     0   0    0

   Raw        80M     0     0     0   0    0
   Final      80M     0     0     0   0    0

   Raw        40M    36    38     4  19   23
   Final      40M    35    35     4  19   23

   Raw        20M    33    39     5  21   26
   Final      20M    33    39     5  21   26

   Raw        15M     3     3     3   3    6
   Final      15M     3     3     3   3    6

   Raw        10M    22    28     5  13   18
   Final      10M    22    28     5  13   18

   Raw        All    94   108    17  56   73      7884
   Final      All    93   105    17  56   73      7665

************************* Not In Log *************************

 7061 PH 2023-10-29 2102 GM5ALX   14   IZ1OSP   15 

*******************  Multipliers by Band  ********************

40M multiplier total 23

9A    DL    F     G     GW    I     LA    LY    OE    OK    
OM    ON    OZ    PA    S5    SP    UA9   YO    YT    

 14 15 18 20

20M multiplier total 26

9A    CN    CT    E7    EA    EA8   ES    F     HA    I     
IG9   IT9   LX    LZ    S5    SP    SV    UA    UR    YL    
YT    

 14 15 16 20 33

15M multiplier total 6

CU    HA    UA    

 14 15 16

10M multiplier total 18

9K    CT3   HA    I     IT9   LZ    SV    TA    UA    UR    
YO    YT    Z3    

 15 16 20 21 33


************ Stations Copying GM5ALX Incorrectly *************

14209 PH 2023-10-29 1320 HA2KMR   15   GN5ALX   14 
14205 PH 2023-10-29 1322 HG5A     15   M5ALX    14 
 7198 PH 2023-10-29 1957 YT1A     15   GM5ALE   14 
 7163 PH 2023-10-29 2018 SP8R     15   GM5DLX   14 

If you’ve been paying any attention you would know propagation on 10m has been exceptional this past week or so. Given my shack relocation, I’ve been missing out on it…until today!

I had some time around lunchtime and when I looked at the maximum usable frequency on this site, I was amazed to see the whole of the UK (including Scotland!) was around 40!

Needless to say, I could hear all over the world, and they could hear me too.

Several new DX locations for me today: China, Taiwan, Columbia, Azerbaijan, United Arab Emirates, plus some other good locations like South Africa. Later on the evening I tried 20m and got Cayman Islands, and Thailand.

Hopefully these new locations confirm the QSOs, and that’ll take me closer to the 100 DXCC milestone. I have now worked 100 DX entities in my log, but only 75 have confirmed via LOTW (although 87 via qrz.com).

For a little while, the Matrix Radio group have been talking about a HF net at some stage. I think I offered to do something, but have yet to do so! Steve, M0XVT, raised that he joins a 60m net and we all thought that sounded like a good idea to try. We’d agreed to join at 9pm on 5.3985 MHz. This would be my first attempts on the 60 m / 5 MHz band.

My HF antenna is a EFHW for 40m, and it’s not naturally resonant on 60m, but I suspected my Xiegu G90 would be able to tune it up as it’s pretty decent at matching anything to anything!

My only experience with the 5 MHz band is from my full licence exam. The UK band plan is probably the most complex band plan there is for amateur radio. It makes it ideal for writing exam questions! The amount of warnings about transmitting outside the band plan due to the other user of the frequecy, aka the military, does make for careful planning. The RSGB page has lots of info on it, but it’s not the sort of thing you just quickly tune to and call CQ or even respond to others.

The 60m net, 5.3985 MHz, is on Sunday mornings at 0700 UTC, but I’ve not joined in as I’m still between shacks.

I also learnt of the trick of using a WebSDR to listen to a net you’re in. Sometimes they can hear you but not vice-versa, and so at least this helps with the flow of the net. You can get some software to sync your SDR and rig (or write your own with NodeRed) but for a net, when you’re not moving about, manually setting is good enough.

Was on the computer doing things and switched tabs to YouTube and I saw Callum, M0XXT, of DXCommander, doing a live stream on 40m. Thought I might as well give him a call.

My antenna was unplugged, as it comes in through the window and now it’s getting chilly in the mornings, so I had to nip out to get that sorted. I don’t know why I was in a rush, he was on for hours, but always a chance he’d move on to 20m for EU/US stations. This meant I was still on 25 W from last time I used the radio for FT8 when I called him. Now, 25W to 100W is only 6 dB (notionally an S point), so in some respects not a big deal, but you never know and sometimes it can make a difference.

He heard me just fine, 56. I meant to tell him he was 59 but forgot with telling him my name and location – he gets a bit frustrated when people don’t tell him their name – and thought I’d say it on the next over, but I didn’t get one. Not that it mattered at all.

So now my QSO is immortalised by Google on YouTube.

Is this the radio equivalent of being behind a reporter on a live TV show? I don’t know, but a bit of fun anyway.

For some reason, I tend to avoid trying out 15 meters, but yesterday I decided to give it a shot, and it went quite well. I began by experimenting with my 39.5-meter random wire antenna in the garden. It has excellent reception, and I could hear approximately 20 Japanese stations. However, when it came to transmitting, it didn’t perform as well as expected. I thought that the higher frequency of 15 meters might compensate for its low height, but according to pskreporter, it seemed that no one was receiving my signals. While I believe I managed to make a few QSOs, I eventually wanted to move indoors. The random wire is just a temporary setup, and I have to sit outside to use it.

I switched back to using my EFHW (End-Fed Half-Wave) antenna, which still provided good reception. Being positioned at about 8 meters in height, it was much more effective for transmitting. My radio is currently set up in the kitchen, and I sit on the floor with a beanbag while operating it. I’m currently (or at least I like to think I am) in the process of designing a new workbench or shack in the garage. I’ve also been contemplating the idea of remote operation. I wanted to continue designing my garage setup, but at the same time, I was making numerous FT8 contacts with desirable DX countries. Given that I’m using a Windows laptop with the radio, an obvious solution is the Remote Desktop Connection application. I’m not sure why I didn’t try it earlier. The only thing I needed to check was the audio settings, as the default settings would route the remote computer’s audio to me, causing WSJT-X to lose access to the soundcard. However, it’s a simple fix in the options to prevent this.

With that sorted out, WSJT-X and Grid Tracker could occupy one screen while I worked on the other comfortably from my desk. WSJT-X doesn’t have all the CAT commands required, so if I needed to adjust more settings on the radio, I’d have to use another program. I’m also unsure if CAT can control everything on the FT-DX10, such as the preset option I use for digital modes. For the time being, that’s acceptable since it’s just across the house.

Last night, 15 meters, with occasional forays into 17 meters, turned out to be quite successful for me. There were instances of signal fading, and sometimes it took a while to receive a “RR73” reply from the other station, so whether or not everyone will log the QSOs depends on their perspective. Nonetheless, from my standpoint, we successfully exchanged signal reports.

I also found pskreporter not very reliable, as it would often show only two stations hearing me when I’d then get multiple replies to my CQ.

Shortly after getting on the air with my Xiegu G90, I became intrigued by FT8. After some initial experimentation, I managed to set it up and began making QSOs. Initially, I was thrilled to hear stations from all over the world – Australia, Japan, South America, and various other places. At first, I believed I could establish contact with all of them. However, after numerous attempts to connect with different stations, I discovered pskreporter. This tool allowed me to determine who could hear me. While it was disappointing to realize that hearing a station didn’t guarantee they could hear me, seeing the immediate feedback on pskreporter was just as enjoyable as making an actual contact, especially on days when distant countries could receive my signals.

The information provided by pskreporter makes FT8 interesting, especially when testing new antennas or different power levels. However, excessive usage of it can become somewhat monotonous. It’s convenient when used alongside other activities, but sitting in front of it for prolonged periods without any other engagement is not advisable. Depending on your antenna setup, you may find that you’re only able to reach specific parts of the world, making it nearly impossible to make new connections. While I occasionally manage to contact a few new countries with my horizontal EFHW antenna, it’s not as effective as a vertical, such as this one described by M0AWS.

I found the user interface of WSJT-X somewhat lacking and soon discovered GridTracker. As it says on the website “GridTracker listens to traffic from WSJT-X and displays it on a map“. While it offers more functionality, that’s the core idea. I use its call roster to identify who’s calling or communicating, making my contacts based on that information. Only recently did I delve into the manual on the website and decide to pursue grid square chasing.

A conversation in the Ham radio matrix chat about gamifying FT8 caught my attention. This intrigued me, as it seemed like a way to inject more interest into FT8. The most apparent approach was to start collecting grid squares from different countries. Now, I had a reason to contact those Italian and German stations. GridTracker proved to be highly useful for this purpose.

Useful GridTracker Settings

I encourage you to read the full manual, it’s not that long and you’ll then understand the whole software much better. Here are the settings I’ve discovered that simplify the process of collecting grid squares using the software.

Call Roster

I hardly ever use the map view in GridTracker. While it does display pskreport spots along with grids, the map can become cluttered, making it challenging to discern the information. I might briefly glance at the spot heatmap or switch to pskreporter for my spotters. My primary focus is on the call roster. This window is positioned next to WSJT-X’s main window and waterfall display. The call roster streamlines the substantial amount of information from WSJT-X into a concise, organized format. It allows for various filters, but I generally keep the filters quite open, toggling between all activity and CQ calls only.

The standout feature is the color coding of cells. A black background signifies a confirmed contact, a black-blue gradient indicates an unconfirmed contact, and a blue background represents a new grid. This arrangement allows me to quickly identify areas I still need to reach. With the CQ Only filter activated, it becomes easy to determine whom to respond to. Another setting I find useful is marking RR73 as a CQ. This way, I can spot stations just finishing up their last QSO, and I might have a chance to catch them as they start calling CQ.

To open the call roster, click on the Clipboard/Medal button in the menu.

Map View

Although I seldom use the map view, it serves as a useful tool to track your progress with grids. The heatmap of spots can also provide valuable insights. Ensure that you have the bands set to “Mixed” rather than the default “Auto.” The Auto setting uses the band you’re currently on, which limts what you see, and unless your trying to get all the grids by band you probably want Mixed. Mixed displays all bands.

Log data

Grid Tracker is only useful if it knows all your logs. By default it’ll read the wsjt-x log file on your computer but that won’t always have everything, and if you want to include voice or other modes that won’t help. The way I’ve found to work best is to use its ability to import log data from elsewhere. There are a few options and you can set them in the Logging page of the settings.

Grid Tracker can pull and push log data. The Startup? and Menu? settings show the options for pulling log data, with startup meaning it queries it when you open Grid Tracker, and Menu meaning it adds a button to the menu for you to trigger a download. As you can see above the options are local files, psk-reporter, qrz, clublog and LoTW. I decided to go with LoTW as that seems to be the most commonly used central logging database. This means that wherever I capture my QSOs, as long as they get into LoTW, Grid Tracker will know about them. I could just add all of the others too.

For longer operating sessions with numerous QSOs, clicking the LoTW button in the menu will pull in confirmations. GridTracker maintains its own log, providing a record of your contacts.

I also use GridTracker to send my WSJT-X logs to Cloudlog, my primary logbook. This process subsequently uploads all my logs to platforms like LoTW, Clublog, and eQSL. As indicated in the Log? column, GridTracker interfaces with various popular logging tools.

In essence, GridTracker’s configuration is straightforward and quick, enhancing the appeal of WSJT-X data and simplifying the tracking of contacts.

Appreciating FT8

While I’ve been licensed for a relatively short time, I’ve encountered strong opinions about FT8, including some negative viewpoints. I don’t enjoy coffee, but I wouldn’t tell coffee enthusiasts that they’re consuming it incorrectly. I won’t speculate on the reasons people dislike FT8, but instead, I’ll share some observations that might not be immediately apparent.

These days, it’s common for unique locations to incorporate FT8 into their setups. Therefore, if you’re aiming to access new DX locations, FT8 offers a viable method. I also appreciate that it levels the playing field to some extent, unlike SSB or even CW. How often have I heard a VK or JA station (not incredibly rare DX, just less common), only to be faced with an overwhelming pileup as European countries with 2 kW power outputs drown out smaller stations like mine, operating at 100 W? Breaking through is nearly impossible. While CW might provide slightly better odds due to fewer operators compared to SSB, the challenge for QRP stations remains. With FT8, if your signal reaches them with 10W or 50W, your presence is acknowledged, significantly improving your chances. While there may be techniques for gaining an edge when working a pileup station on FT8, such as adjusting transmit settings or clock settings, the gap is much smaller. Skill is required here as well.

When engaging with a popular station on SSB or CW, conversations are often minimal. Regular HF QSOs frequently consist of a brief exchange involving callsigns, RST, and possibly a name or location. This is not drastically different from an FT8 QSO. If your goal is to accumulate numerous contacts, reach various locations, or connect with rare stations, FT8 offers similar dynamics. If you seek in-depth discussions, FT8 isn’t the appropriate choice; it’s not a direct comparison. For that purpose, you might explore JS8Call.

In closing, while I risk getting sidetracked into an argument, I emphasize that the beauty of amateur radio as a hobby is rooted in personal enjoyment. If you find it enjoyable, that’s fantastic! If not, then there’s no obligation to pursue it; everyone’s preferences differ.

Now, back to the quilt! I initially thought the UK would be an easy starting point!

My first radio was the Xiegu G90, and when I bought my Yaesu FT-DX10 I decided I’d keep the G90 for portable operations. It’s pretty small, 20W, and I already have it and know how it works. With a few days planned to stay near Aviemore in the summer holidays I thought it was the perfect time to try it out.

I have a 6m telescopic pole and decided to make a vertical antenna with it. In an effort to keep it simple, I went for a 1/4 wave for 20m with some radials and a 1:1 choke wrapping the coax around a toroid.

I’d left making the antenna until the night before we were due to go and so it was a bit of a rush to make it! I cut the wire considerably longer as I didn’t want to try and be too smart on my first attempt, and would use the NanoVNA to cut it to the right length.

I think this worked against me as I ended up cutting it many times and then got sloppy and rushed, which meant I went from a 1.1 SWR at 14.035 MHz to 1.07 at 14.385 MHz..oops! By this time it was 9pm and I was meant to be packing other things. So I took the bit of wire I cut off and figured I’d reattach it later. I had also cut 5x 5m ish radials, and was using a dipole connector I had for the coax to wire connections.

We were staying with friends who were interested in hearing about amateur radio and why I was doing it, particularly when I set everything up outside. I tried not to blah on too much…

Our house backed onto the forest and there was no boundary between the garden ending and the forest starting, so I just setup near the bench and had the antenna towards the trees and out the way of running kids.

As well as my first time portable, it was my first time with a vertical and I was interested in how it performed compared to my horizontal EFHW I have at home. This is where I really like FT8 and pskreporter. Regardless of QSOs I make, I can see who hears me and I can obviously see who I hear.

I immediately noticed how many ZL stations I could hear, far more than I’ve ever had before. I think at home I’ve maybe seen one very briefly, but now I was seeing 5-8 stations for several hours in the morning. In fact I saw countries from all over the world that I’ve rarely heard before, it was like a deluxe buffet of locations!

My hastily cut and then reattached wire wasn’t the greatest, the G90 could tune it on 20m and several other bands but I kept it on 20m as I didn’t have that long to play in the radio and this should be the least worst band for it! Nevertheless, it worked and I was heard all around the world.

I made about 17 contacts that day, in the morning and then a little in the afternoon. A variety of European countries, including a couple of portable stations in Slovenia and Belgium, and also a contact in Oklahoma state. I listened in on SSB but didn’t get round to making any contacts on voice.

All in all, I was pleased with my first go, plenty of things to improve on next time and maybe try a different vertical, perhaps an end fed or just a better job cutting it! I do also want to get a bigger pole to move up to half wave territory. I’m not hiking up mountains so weight isn’t a huge factor, and I’m thinking of taking it down to the sea one time and seeing if the salt water helps me reach the exotic locations!