M7FPX, G5LSI and I had organised a day out in the Howardian Hills National Landscape (I had to look it up too, think Castle Howard area). I met M7FPX and we drove off to a spot he knew that should work well for radio and got set up. I had brought almost all my radios so we could have a play and see what works and what doesn’t.
Started with the 7300 so we knew the antenna and bands were working and got some contacts in the log.
Where we were set up was a good spot, but the wind had picked up, and we were getting a bit cold. M7FPX had an idea and turned his car round and backed it up to mine. Out came a tarp and some bungie cords and then we had a nice little shelter.
G5LSI was planning to meet up with us later in the day and sent us a message that he had going to his spot and would work from there and catch up with us later in the day.
I swapped the 7300 for Clansman PRC-320 and started to call CQ on it. It’s a great radio to use, but its not user friendly, the dials do not turn all the way round, you start 0 and turn anticlockwise until get to 9 and then the dial stops. If you want to get back to 0 you turn it back the way it came. The phone handset does make it feel really cool when using it.
By this time G5LSI was setup and called us and managed to record the QSO.
G5LSI said he would pack up and come down to met us. We swapped back to the 7300 for a bit more power as the PRC-320 is limited to 30w.
Was a great day in the great outdoors using the radios. Here’s hoping for many more like it.
| Operation Details |
| Park: https://pota.app/#/park/GB-0224 Grid square: IO94nd WAB square: SE77 |
| Working Conditions |
| Icom IC-7300 Icom IC-705 Icom AH-705 Clansman PRC 320 Sotabeams tactical mini Sotabeams EFLW Sotabeams Band Springer Midi Ham2K Polo |
| Operation Totals |
| 32 QSOs 12 DXCC Entities 9 P2P 4 Band and 1 mode 40m – 10 SSB 20m – 5 SSB 15m – 2 SSB 2m – 1 FM |
