Tag: Cush

Activation Summary

I had originally planned 3 SOTA activations whilst on our 2 week motorhome holiday in Ireland. However, the plan was abruptly changed when we arrived at the base camp for Kockanafrinn. We decided that the pitches were going to be too muddy, especially with our 2 old dogs, and so we decided to move onto another campsite. Luckily we were able to get onto our next planned campsite early. We arrived at the Glen of Aherlow caravan site and once we were setup the next job was to update the SOTA alerts. The weather for Tuesday was looking good and so I committed to activate ‘Cush’ on Tuesday. I would liked to have done the loop taking in both SOTA summits of ‘Cush’ and ‘Galtymore’, but the additional 6 kilometres, out and back, from the campsite to the carpark where the loop starts, would have extended the distance to more than I was comfortable taking on.

My route started from The Glen of Aherlow caravan site and so the first 3 kilometres of the walk was on tarmac or gravel tracks, before eventually leaving the tarmac to start the ascent of ‘Cush’.

The path was mostly well defined and easy to follow, apart from the last 500 metres. As you hit the steep section near the summit, the path becomes more difficult to follow and has some slippy peaty sections, and so some care is needed, especially on descent.

Once on the summit I took the usual 360 video with great views across to Galtymore.

I found a perfect operating spot behind a peat bank that allowed me to shelter out of the wind. I setup on 20m’s using the telescopic 1/4 wave whip and x6100. The whip is fast becoming my antenna of choice for SOTA as it is so quick to setup.
20m band was very active and it took me few moments to find a clear frequency on the band. My data connection was not great and so I had to use SOTA SMS to get a spot out on 14.269 MHz. First in the log was 3Z9VI followed by a bit of pile up. Unfortunately, I started getting some QRM from a nearby station and had to move upto 14.274. I had worked all the callers in about 20 minutes resulting in 16 QSO’s including a S2S with IK2LEY/p on I/LO-214. I did have a quick try and 2m but without any luck .

After I packed my kit away I had something to eat whilst enjoying the scenery and then headed back down. On the descent I met up with a walker who was a regular visitor from near Cork, we walked down together as far as the carpark, the chatting seemed to make the descent pass very quickly.

Equipment Used

• Xiegu x6100
• Yaesu FT65
• 20m telescopic 1/4 wave antenna
• SRH770 (BNC) 2m antenna
• 4000 mAHr LifePo4 Battery pack
• PoLo logging app on iPad mini

Map showing the route taken