11th October 2025
145Alive is an event I really enjoy! Everybody congregates on the 2m band and has a great time, and there are frequently pretty good DX contacts to be had. This one was exceptional though, not only because it was the first time I had gone out mobile with my new antenna, but also because the band conditions were possibly some of the best this year, and I was able to hear stations over 300 miles away… on a Baofeng!
It being my birthday last weekend, I had wanted to go up Simonside hill near Rothbury, Northumberland for a walk. The storm we had last weekend put a stop to that one, so in lieu, I went up this weekend instead. I hadn’t even realised there was a radio event on until I recieved an email this morning as a reminder, so it’s good that things worked out the way that they did!
I was using the new SlimJim, mounted inside some plastic conduit, which I had in turn mounted on to a backpack. This… well it raised some questions needless to say, but I’ve no issue with that as it introduces the public to the hobby! It also meant that this antenna, which I’ve previously only used as a Portable setup, was able to be used Mobile instead. This was plugged into the Baofeng UV5RM at 8W, which remains a very solid cheap radio, and genuinely impressive for the price point. In all, I think I had less than £100 worth of equipment with me.
Net control was Paul GØHEU, with occasional guest operators Simon and Phil under the same call. They were located in Waskerley, County Durham, perhaps 35 miles to my south-west. Signal report was 5/9 both ways, and that was before I was even up the top of the hill! I was climbing the north side of Simonside, so doubly impressive. Net Control was doing 50W (FT-991 I think?) into a vertical at first, then into a 6-element beam for the second half of the net. I didn’t notice much of a difference whatever!
What was perhaps more impressive was the frankly incredible DXs I was hearing. No doubt that at 8 watts they wouldn’t have heard me, but I heard 1/1 inttermittent signals from South Wales, Devon, and the Midlands. Manchester, Liverpool, and the surrounding areas were 5/9 amazingly, just shows the power of height at VHF. Scotland was having a bit more difficulty, not surprising as even though I was physically closer than even Net Control (who also had difficulties on G/MMs) there was quite a bit of hill for them to get through.
But further south, with the weather absolutely on our side both in terms of great tropo and actually being pleasant to be out operating in, everybody was coming through really well. I was hoping for a Mainland Europe call perhaps, but it wasn’t to be, and I’ve still got that one to look forward to.
All that remains to say is many thanks to the organisers, Net Control and everyone who called in. The purpose of 145Alive, as the name suggests, is to keep the 2m band active and alive. Today proved to me the flexibilty of the 2m band: it’s not just walkie-talkies, this is a serious amateur band with fantastic DX potential, and I am proud to be a primarily 2m FM operator!
Tagged as: walks outdoors radio technology