It was a last minute decision for Barry M0IML and Allan GW4VPX, to activate their local summits after seeing my alert.
So, three summits activated on the 10m band.
As usual, the wonderful mud plug to the Trig Point of G/SP-013 Gun
My first impression of the10m ssb band ā¦it was not in as good a shape as Sunday. The DX was not as prominent. There was some odd calls making the log. Newcastle, Sussex and probably the biggest surprise Dave G4ASA/P, who was working QRP with his 817 by the Humber Bridge (back scatter?)
Anyhow, summit to summits were completed with both Allan and Barry. A visit to the FM portion of the band was a little disappointing with just eleven contacts. Once again both Herm and Merl making the trip on both ssb and fm. As ever, thanks for the call guys.
90 contacts for the activation.
79 contacts on 10m ssb
11 contacts on 10m fm.
Notable DX. Brazil, Venezuela, Argentina, Bahrain and Costa Rico all coming back to my call.
28 North American contacts logged.
23 contacts on 10m ssb
5 contacts on 10m fm.
Once again,big thanks to all the chasers for making the activation so much fun.
Hi Mike,
Very well done again. We might not see you on 20 m again for years at this rate.
I know it might be considered un-British but given the volume of traffic to some of those summits could not the local council shell out a few bob to lay gravel on these tracks to prevent erosion to say nothing of the loss of gumboots in the mire. I know many summits are in private land but given the strange law that allows folk to walk on private land those folk surely ought to via their local reps ākick inā. Sorry if I have wandered into forbidden political territory. Sorry too if my suggestion threatens the fun of getting soaked and mud encased halfway to the knees in an approaching winter. Just saying ā¦
Dear Mike,
Congrats for such great work!
I feel jealous of you for having the free time to get to summits at around noon or the early afternoon for such big number of DX QSOs on 10m.
When Iāll grow up, I want to be like you,
Cheers, Guru - EA2IF
In the honey spots the National Parks or AONBs or County Councils close to those areas will shell out as they have done in the Lake District or Pennines with projects such as Fix The Fells. Putting slabs and steps in where serious erosion has taken place. Here are two pictures I took close to the top of G/NP-004 Whernside in September 2013. The digger ws driven across the moor to a height of 700m ASL!
Outside of the honey pots austerity has meant resources have been cut to the bone. For instance in North Yorkshire the ranger Public Rights of Way team has been depleted to around half what it was a few years ago. Money has gone elswhere, so its really hard to get them to repair anything when it is needed. Itās not just erosion - trying to get the County Council to pursue landowners who fence public rights of way off (a criminal act in the UK) is nigh impossible. The attitude is the councils will rather risk being taking to court for dereliction of duty by the Ramblers or an individual, as it is unlikely to happen. If it does happen paying court costs and a fine is often cheaper than fixing the problem by employing rights of way workers. Stiles get broken, bridges fall down, fingerposts and waymarker go, few are being repaired at present. It doesnāt affect SOTA that much in England and Wales because footfall on most summits is significant, the Gun being typical, erosion is the problem as stated - mostly caused by one Mike 2E0YYY!
I donāt think Tom M1EYP has unduly worn away the path up to The Cloud yet. The last time I went there the path I used was mostly on rock and is looked after by the National Trust who own it.
Another side to this discussion: many of us old-timers bitterly resent all the nicely made footpaths, the flights of stairs up mountains and the gangs of workers with their noisy helicopters hauling ballast to the work teams. Sure the paths were eroding, but eroding is what mountains do - show me a summit and I will show you a monument to erosion! The stone stairs can themselves be dangerous: the flight up Dale Head G/LD-020 from Dale Head Tarn gets covered with scree which your boots slide on! The chief gripe, though, is the un-naturalness of it, converting our wild mountains into a tame country park. Yes, I know that my words are controversial and there will be people who object to them, but I see tamed mountains that in my youth were wild adventures, and I mourn.
Iāll try and get out next week and give you a call. Iām not too sure what the propagation is like on 20m between G/VK or whether one of the higher frequencies will work?
Iāll PM Andrew VK1NAM and see what heās doing.
Iām afraid the local councils are flat broke
G/SP-013 Gun is private land and so thereās little chance of them paying to fix the track. There were plans to put a wind turbine on Gun a couple of yeras ago, however, the local residents kicked up merry Hell and they were dropped.
BTW, despite what Phil G4OBK says, itās not all my fault the track along Gun is erroded, Iāve only done 119 of its 580 activations
BT messed up the broadband in our area last night and itās only just come back so apologies for not responding earlier.
A big thank you to all the chasers yesterday for making my visit to Hafod Ithel GW/MW-029 an enjoyable one.
Amongst the numerous EU stations 10 Stateside contacts, Enos VE1YR and David 4X6DK Israel made it into the log. It was really nice to hear all the UK stations calling in so thank you all and apologies to Dave G4ASA if I missed you. I did drop down onto 15m and made quite a few contacts including Walter NE4TN with 5/5 each way so that was open as well.
Ended my session on 60m intending to go on 40m afterwards but the rain came down and I made a hasty retreat off the summit - apologies to anyone that might have been awaiting my visit to this band. So 50 contacts in total with 3 s2s.
My log will be up on the database shortly and a full report will be on http://mw0bbu.blogspot.co.uk in the next couple of days.
Mike, it was great to work you, Barry & Allan on 10m phone all in a 45 minute time span. I uploaded small video clips of all 3 of you in QSO or calling CQ on the SOTA Facebook Group - (Sota) Summits On The Air. | Facebook
Big thanks for being out there again. Hope to work you guys from your next trek.
Cheers Brian,
I was most impressed with Barryās audio quality, FB.
BTW, thanks for an interesting rag-chew at the end of my activation. The sun went down and the temperature plummeted, so I went QRT shortly after our natter.
Hi Mike,
Iām another one of those ārara avisā, although Iām pretty sure itās not that rare within people born in the 60ās and earlier.
Best 73 de Guru - EA2IF
