This morning's commute, a 5 mile bike ride as the sun was rising over the Yorkshire Dales.

Low effort lunchtime SOTA. Cardputer does the QSOs and logging whilst I eat snacks.

Enjoyed playing with SD Kez this morning. 😀

Trying out Mini-FT8 V1.3.2 today. 6 QSOs in the automatic log.

Trying FT8 with my QMX and Cardputer from Whernside G/NP-004 earlier.

Mmmmmm, doughnuts!

Great to catch up with Trainee Search Dog Jura at Kendal Mountain Festival today. It was meeting Jura last year that inspired me to volunteer with my local MRSDE group as a 'body'.

Drove to Barnard Castle this morning. 👀

150 mile road trip over Shap yesterday, just for fun!

Ignacio, EA2BD, captured my CW from northern Spain today.

Seems to have been flying ant day on High Willhays G/DC-001 today. 11 QSOs in the bag using my old MTR2B.

Pencil for scale. (Haven't been food shopping yet, so no banana available.)

This pop aisle in Oban Lidl looks very different to the one in the Lancaster store!

Heading to the Inner Hebrides tomorrow on my bike. I'm taking a QMX and dipole and planning to be on air on 40m SSB/CW Wednesday morning and daytime Thursday. Will be signing as MM1BUU/P. IOTA EU-008

Volunteered with the search dogs again on Sunday. Here I've been found by SD Kez.

Had the QMX out last week. Seems to work OK.

Smoke test. ✅️ Phew!

Really enjoyed volunteering with Mountain Rescue Search Dogs this morning!

Was in Wales for the GW SOTA event this weekend. At 2am rally cars were going past the tent for over an hour!

Last year I was weighing my t-shirts and buying titanium cookware, trying to get my all up bike weight below 115kg for my bike tour trip. 115kg is the stated bike+rider weight in the Cube handbook. I've just found out that the 25kg rear carrier load isn't counted in that! Gross weight is 140kg. Doh!

SOTA seems to have fallen off my radar recently but I did manage a brief activation of G/NP-005 last week. I'm still about!

Awesome day up Ingleborough G/NP-005 yesterday. HF propagation was awful but still managed 8 QSOs with my RockMite 20.

Nice day for a bike ride to my favourite cafe. 14 mile round trip.

#driveitday Trip out to Bancroft Mill in Barnoldswick in the Moggy.

Haven't followed F1 for quite some time but I heard Guenther on Radio X one day and thought it would be a laugh to see his show, so here I am!1

Was a big surprise to work Hatori-San, JH1MXV, this morning from Sharp Haw SOTA G/NP-029!

How do I dispose of a Yaesu FRG-7700? The set is battered and probably only suitable as a source of spares.

Took the Moggy to the classic car event at Wray yesterday.

Yaesu FT60 with intermittent audio. Also intermittent keypad. A bit of a clean up with a pencil eraser and putting a bit more tension in the speaker contact fingers seems to have cured both ills.

Managed to open the boot yesterday, looks like it's McDonald's drive-thru rather a picnic then!

New toy added to the family fleet. 🙂

Went to freezing cold Blackpool today. Nice to catch up up with some fellow hams at the radio rally.

Super day up at Coniston, lots of contacts on 2m FM - HF was broken so just one FT8 QSO and no CW contacts. I'm glad I took VHF gear!

Along with some CW QSOs, I also had four contacts using SSB with my QMX yesterday from Wards Stone G/SP-003.

SPRAT turned up today. I saw the article about the solar powered rig and I remembered that I built one at a Buildathon. The rig still works although the cells went bad a long time ago.

Discovered to my cost that small, juicy, 'easy peelers' aren't exactly a perfect SOTA snack. Sticky orange juice all over my rig and log!

Quick sprint to the finish before the end of SOTA Winter Bonus. 72 activator points in one week!

This SOTA thing is quite physical!

This power meter thing actually seems to work! Next step is making a case.

Another gorgeous sunny day in the Lake District

31 SOTA activator points earned today.

The VSWR/ Power meter project is alive! I guess the PIC programmed OK 😀

Had to do an in the field bodge for today's SOTA activation. The wire failed at the feed point so I twisted the bare wires together. Made plenty of QSOs!

Current project on the bench; VSWR / Power meter.

A glorious day to add another goat!

Morecambe Baylight 2025. Friday evening.

The sea was rough yesterday!

9 QSOs with my Kanga Products Rooster 40 yesterday from Easington Fell G/SP-012. Forgot to take a straight key. Doh! Palm Pico had to stand in. Major QLF but it did the job!

Been running my shack from a solar panel and 2 off 70Ah lead acid leisure batteries for nearly 6 years. My solar controller now cuts off the supply if I so much as dare to turn on a soldering iron. Clearly I need to replace the batteries. Wondering if changing to lithium would be beneficial?

Great views from Great Whernside G/NP-008 today