Alan Hamradio UK - Adventures on the air!
Operating portable, SOTA, WAB trig points & HEMA
Tuesday 14 May 2024
Freeholds top - G/SP-011 TP4100 - WABsq SD92. The ONLY operator in England!
Saturday 30 March 2024
Battling Gun - G/SP-013 - TP3538 29/03/24
Monday 8 January 2024
First HF activation G/SP-004 Shining Tor TP5950 25/11/23
Monday 30 October 2023
21 & 29/10/23 - A BOTA completion, and a bonus trig to trig..... B/G-0944 Crossland Moor and TP2622 Crossland heath.
Unfortunately due to "life" I haven't been as active as Id hoped on activating the bunkers, i am quite lucky here, that I am within half an hours drive of several bunkers, but settled on the one at Crossland Moor, Huddersfield as my first one.
The Bunker is located in front of the Huddersfield Observatory, and has sadly been demolished, or rather the surface features have been, I'm unsure if the bunker its self is still underground.
I first activated the Bunker on the 21/10/2023 on HF, using the little Xeigu G106 and an EFHW on 40M, but I ROYALLY messed up my timing, Worked all Germany weekend and the usual big station contesters were making life VERY difficult, with my little 5W QRP station! I persevered and with some internet assistance managed 17 calls, including a few into France and Belgium, but sadly short of the 25 needed to qualify a bunker as activated. I gave up in the end, as the band conditions were worsening by the second...
Now this is where the rules work to an activators advantage, you dont have to do all 25 qualifying contacts in 1 session so I planned a return at some point...
I returned on the 29/10/23, I did take the HF gear, but planned on doing the activation on VHF, using the car antenna and the usual FT4XE handheld, I made a start calling on the 2M calling frequncey, but calls were slow! I needed 8 to qualify the bunker, and boy did I struggle!
The first out of the bag was G6XBF - Walt and then M7GDE - Andy K in Kippax, north Leeds. who proceeded to text his radio friends and DX groups he knew of to try and get me over the line, Thanks Andy!
I got a few more in the log, and then spoke to Paul, M0AIA/P who was at a trig point, we got talking and he mentioned there was a trig near to the bunker! A golden opportunity for a trig to trig... he helped me over the line with my last 3 contacts, and a change of antenna to the slim G helped AGAIN to get the last couple in the log, happy with 25 uniques, it was tick tick... bunker activated!
Trig point TP2622 - Crossland heath
Bunker done, I was off to the trig point, its literally a few mins walk from the road, Paul had kindly agreed to hang around for a trig to trig. so i made my way over with the handheld, and called "trig to trig, trig to trig 2E0JWA/P" and we did it! A VHF trig to trig TP2622 Crossland heath to TP3676 Haw Cliff Top .. had a little QSO from the trig, and with the light failing and the temperatures dropping rapidly I made a dart back to the car!
A really nice trig point, in a picturesque location made a nice end to the activation.
Special thanks to the Bunkers on the Air crew, for setting up and managing a fantastic scheme, long may it continue! Andy K M7GDE for Rallying the troops and Paul M0AIA for telling me about the trig, passing some of his calls to me so I could get over the line, and for hanging around so we could get the trig to trig. Sometimes I am humbled by the amateur radio community's willingness to help others and keep the spirit of amateur radio alive..
Till next time 73s - Alan
Monday 25 September 2023
Bunkers on the Air - A new Scheme for Radio Hams!
Lets talk about Bunkers on the air...
As far as i can work out there was a previous incarnation of this programme, and they are NOT in any way connected. the following s a completely NEW award scheme Skilfully put together by A small dedicated team and will be starting as a one month event from the 1st to the 31st of October 2023!
I will hopefully activating both on VHF and HF from 2 or 3 locations for this event as I think its great! The scheme is based around the former Royal Observer Core nuclear war observation bunkers stationed all over the country, all the details of which can be can be found on the Bunkers on the Air website! you can also find the rules, how to log and links to the Facebook group on the link..
The long term plan of the BOTA MT is to open up the scheme and expand its operating locations to other fortifications from WW2, the cold war ETC ETC.....
Good luck to all operators operating the event, and I hope to work some of you!!
73 - Alan
Sunday 17 September 2023
POTA - Peak District National Park G-0048 - A foggy activation! 16/09/23
Still on the now long road to leg recovery, and owning a new radio I have been itching to do SOMETHING for a few weeks now... I had the thought of a potentially easy SOTA on the Gun, and then the Cloud, but the weather looked like it was turning and it was decided that maybe my fitness isnt quite there to deal with crappy weather!
Not fancying another Mountain Rescue, myself and my son (William) decided a POTA might be a nice idea. Living on the edge of the Peak District national park has the advantage that we don't have to go far to have a play! anyway, we decided that Holme Moss car park might be a handy spot for some QRP HF action.
Thursday 7 September 2023
SOTA Chaser 500!
Finally got my SOTA chaser 500 points..... only 500 more to the Shack sloth, and the glass block! 😂😂
Still, feeling pretty chuffed with that.... especially as my activation activities have been somewhat curtailed this year...
73 - Alan