NAC, Tuesday 17th June.

 After last month's adventure I made the trip to the local hill to do some more 1296MHz activity.

The hill is 80m (250ft)high and has an unobstructed view for a few 10s of km.

As before, I was running 10W SSB/FM/CW and a 12 element Yagi antenna. Not a big setup, 

Everything was transported from the parking place to the top, distance to walk, about 400-500m, and steep uphill, bit I can do it alone if necessary.

If the weather behaves well, I might also go up there on a Friday evening where we have a weekly FM-simplex net on 433, 50, 70, 145MHz and 1296MHz was recently added. 10W with a good view should be quite good, especially on 1296. 

I was a bit late in getting ready, so I arrived and was ready to operate about 20 minutes after the test started, and immediately there was a QSO with extremely strong signals from another hill about 25km away. Both hills about 8m ASL, so line-of sight.

I worked the highest number of stations in this test, that I have ever done on 23cm. 

The best distance was SM6UTZ at 307km distance, and a few others were above 100km, so I have no complaints.

My antenna was, as usual, mounted horizontally, and I also worked a Copenhagen station OZ13JK, working with a 3-band vertical, I think about 2-3m above ground. That was an improvement over the test last year, when he was trying, and just making a QSO with a handheld 23cm radio and a small handheld yagi antenna.

I tested the sewtup, listening to beacons, 2 of the LA beacons were heard at about 400km, two Swedish beacons not far from Gothenburg, and the Polish SR1KOL at 370km was heard all evening.

I think there was a bit of a tropo lift, as some signals got stronger later in the evening.This was a good outing, and I expect to try it again when the weather allows.