RadCom April 2024, Vol. 100, No. 4

April 2024 79 Feature B ack in late September 2023 I travelled up to the Outer Hebrides to activate some unique SOTA summits. When I reached my first target, Seaforth Island GM/SI-192, I put a call out and the first station I managed to work was John, GI4BWM, the RSGB President. I decided to invite John to join me on a joint activation when I was next over in Northern Ireland (GI). John took me up on my offer and said he’d join me. As a family, we had a holiday booked to see the New Year over in GI. I thought this was a perfect opportunity to catch up with John and plan our big day on the hill. A few messaged were exchanged, and a date was agreed. I was looking forward to this activation. The summit The SOTA summit chosen was Divis GI/AH- 004. Divis is a hill and area of sprawling moorland northwest of Belfast in County Antrim, Northern Ireland. With a height of 1,568ft (478m), it is the highest of the Belfast hills. It is joined with the neighbouring Black Mountain and, in the past, they may have been seen as one. Divis transmitting station is on the summit. The mountain extends north to the Antrim Plateau and shares its geology, consisting of a basaltic cover underlain by limestone and lias clay. The ascent It was a nice gentle stroll on tarmac road to the top. We began our circular walk at Divis Lodge car park, where we had both parked up for the morning. Unfortunately, the mist was hovering above our heads for the first mile, so the views were non-existent. Just as we were approaching the top, the sun decided to show itself and the sky briefly cleared so we could see the city of Belfast for a short period in the distance. The BBC transmitting towers that were just in front of us also decided to jump out and say hello. After stopping to take a few images while the sky was clear, and have a sip of water, we soon continued our walk and reached the top. Again, the mist had crept over us, so we had to accept that we were going to be activating without a view – that didn’t matter at all, the company was great! Setting up John helped me set up our station up at the top. Our working conditions were as follows: Elecraft KX2 transceiver, 10W, 40m/20m end-fed half- wave antenna, 6m carbon pole, 3m of RG174 coaxial cable, 11.1V RS Li-ion battery, external Elecraft microphone and a Palm Pico keyer. Operating I started the morning off by putting a CQ SOTA call out on 7MHz CW and the reply was amazing! I managed to work 18 stations straight away. It was a lovely, controlled pile-up. Out of those 18 stations, three were summit-to-summit contacts. Thanks go to Esther, GI0AZA who was operating as GI5ALP/P (quite an interesting callsign to look up); Ian, GI0AZB who was with Esther on the same summit; and finally Matt, MW0KAX. Now the warmup had finished, it was time for the main act. John took the microphone and prepared to use the RSGB President’s unique callsign, GB4RS. He tuned the VFO around the 40m band, to find a free frequency, and put a call out using SSB. The first two contacts he made were with RSGB Board Chair Stewart, G3YSX, and RSGB Company Secretary Stephen, GW4SHF – a great start being supported by the Board! At first I don’t think John knew what had hit him as callsigns were coming in very thick and fast! But, I must say, after John had made around five contacts, he was starting to get into the swing of things. The smile on his face was growing larger after every time he de-keyed the mic, he was really enjoying himself and worked 45 stations in total. Out of the 45 stations that John worked, six of them were summit-to-summit contacts. Thanks go to Mal, GW6OVD; Ian, 2W0IWM; and Matt, MW0KAX who were out activating in GW/SW. Thanks also to Esther, GI0AZA; Ian, GI0AZB; and John, GI4OSF who were on their home turf in GI/ SM and GI/AH. John didn’t stop there. Once he’d had a drink of water, he helped me take down the radio gear. We both walked across to the trig point, and he pulled his handheld out and began working 145MHz FM. After working a further nine stations, three being summit-to-summit contacts, we decided to call it a day. The wind was pretty chilly by the trig point and we had no shelter, so it was time to go before we both froze! John and I descended, talking all the way. John was on a high – what a great job he had done. Thank you I’d personally like to say a massive thank you to all SOTA chasers who managed to work John on this activation. He was very happy with the outcome and agreed to do another summit with me in the future. Thank you to all the summit-to-summit stations that called in and also went to the great effort of going out for this occasion. Until next time… keep those mountains alive with the sound of “CQ SOTA.”  Ben Lloyd, GW4BML RSGB Board Director gw4bml@rsgb.org.uk RSGB President works a SOTA pile-up Operating from Divis GI/AH-004.