Summat on the air?

In a rare moment of rashness I decided to not do any building work today on the summer house. Partly because its nearly finished and partly because Mrs g7kse was sent to the builders yard for 5off sheets of 22m ply and came back with 10 bags of gravel. So as punishment she had to do something construction-like with it. I on the other hand spent a few hours /p in a new venture I’m calling ‘summat on the air?’ There are a few rules to follow.

  1. You have to be /p – Its best if you walk up a nice hill that may or may not be a summit, hump, lump, fell or other such designation.
  2. Take a radio and antenna. Set this up in the usual manner.
  3. Tune about for around an hour, call CQ a few times but in general the idea is that you don’t have a QSO. Or if you do it needs to be with a contest station who is rattling off CW as if it was some kind of percussive attack.
  4. Enjoy the view, this is imperative.
  5. Go home and question if you’ve broken something in your rig / antenna / key / brain etc

Here’s a few photo’s to remind me of today’s events. I’m sure you’ll agree that St Bees head is a nice place. There’s an old wartime lookout post (which must have been miserable) and a nice view towards the Isle of Man to the wets and the Lakeland fells to the south and east.

Stay away from the edge

 

A simple set up with an LNR precision MTR5b and end fed antenna, note leg in lower left of picture.

 

I can see my house from here

A little postscript….

The Cumbrian dialect has many variations. To the outsider they all sound a bit similar so to help the Cumbrian Dictionary will help you understand. So I have taken this from the dictionary to help:

summat1.(noun. summert) something, e.g. There must be summat wrang, he can normally mek it ower yon yat easy = I think something is amiss as he is usually able to jump that gate with ease.

My favourite word is ‘dookers’ if you were interested….eh?

Alex Hill, G7KSE, is a regular contributor to AmateurRadio.com and writes from Cumbria, UK. Contact him at [email protected].

3 Responses to “Summat on the air?”

  • Dave, WD8CIV:

    Thank you for defining “summat” for us. I’ve run across it a few times in books, and assumed it was a variant of “somewhat” although that usually didn’t fit the context well. “Something” makes much more sense.

  • Jan DK3LJ:

    Exceptionally sweet location. Lucky you! Contacts might become secondary with that view. 73

  • Alex g7kse:

    Any other odd northern english words you need translating Dave? I was given the book by a guy that works for me as I’m from the south and couldn’t understand a word the locals were saying 😉

    I’ll give you a taste in winter time Jan. It’ll put you off going up the head for ever! Good thing is the sea is the same temperature all year round. Freezing.

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