Planned DXpedition to Tan Hill, an update

I have looked on Google Street View for suitable spots to set up a /p station up at Tan Hill, in front of the pub itself is a car park, with large fields all around, my aim is to set up somewhere out of the way of the pub so I don't upset the landlord and landlady, there is a side road just down from the pub, so I could use a spot just past there, provided I can find somewhere dry, boggy ground could upset various components.

I was thinking a quick to erect tent would make a suitable shelter, of course I'd need to ensure that my antenna coax would reach sufficiently to the radio and my temporary mast wouldn't fall down (I plan to get one that has stays on it that would just fit in the ground much like tent pegs which can simply be removed quickly at the end of the day), as I've already completed a pair of power leads for portable power I simply need a portable power supply, mast, shelter, and antenna, the antenna wouldn't be too difficult to source as it's the T2LT I mentioned in my last post that I will be making, I found a suitable mast on a site that specialises in this kind of equipment, and I can pick up a small, easy to erect, tent from either Yeomans or Mountain Warehouse, the power supply may come from Halfords or Maplin, as a jump starter for car batteries would suffice as these tend to have cigarette lighter sockets, the radio I will use for now will be my Midland 78, as mentioned on my previous post, later I will be investing in a President Grant 2 but whether I use it for this remains to be seen.

My home made power lead is a cigarette lighter plug, a short run of cable (which was already fitted), a ring terminal with a bolt through it for negative, and a terminal block for positive, this would make it exceedingly difficult to reverse the connections as the vast majority of rigs have a ring terminal on their negative line, and I usually fit one to rigs that do not anyway.

I include a picture of the lead in question

This picture was taken in the "shack" not long after I put it together, the radio it is on top of is the same Midland Alan 78 Plus Multi B that I will be using, the bolt came from the metal frame my scooter was delivered in, the terminal block and the power cord itself were both lying around, also on the desk is a coax cable stripper and roll of electrical tape that I did not use and the solder that I used to tin the wires to prevent copper oxidisation occurring.  The "CB 27MHz label on the rig is there so I know what the rig operates on if I don't take a good look at what the rig is but all my mobile type rigs are CB anyway, though the picture shows the radio has  PL259 plugged into it, this goes to a salt water dummy load via an SWR meter.

I made a second lead using the plug off the car kit that came with my early (2007) Intek H-520 Plus, the newer H-520 has one with it and it didn't appear to work as well when I tested it so I figured I may as well, there is no picture of this however but it is similar to the first one except it has a black and red wire per pole.

So, preparations are underway, hopefully I will be up on Tan Hill sometime in August all being well.

73 de 26CT730