Yesterday I had alerted to activate Boulsworth Hill with Mick 2E0HJD and possibly Thorpe Fell afterwards. As it turned out we were still at Micks house as the intended ETA arrived, so we re-alerted and decided to just do the one hill and make the most of the nice wx.
My previous activations of this Fell have involved approaching from the North. This time by way of a change we parked on the minor road to Hebden Bridge and used the bridleway to approach from the S.E. This was a much better route and will be used in future.
On the summit, I set up for HF and Mick did 2m. There was a massive visible inversion layer with the high pressure (see pics on Flikr) however, I gather conditions on VHF were quite disappointing. The wx was sunny with blue skies throughout with about 7-8C. The temperature did take a nose dive all of a sudden about 1400 utc. The summit was never busy with walkers, but there was a steady stream of them to visit the trig point, most of them came for a chat and seemed interested in our activity. I took the opportunity go grab G0PZOs geocache on the summit, unfortunately there wasnt £1000 in it but I did find a nice geocoin.
On HF I made 54 contacts, most on 40m despite the contest.
80m - 18
60m - 10
40m - 22
20m - 4
And I believe mick logged 33 on 2m. (3 geocaches found)
Thanks to all who called & all the spots. (& G4BLH for the brew)
Steve G1INK.
In reply to G1INK:
Morning, Steve.
It was good to work Mick whilst on my way back down the M6 - and thanks to you both for the morning QSOs.
John GW4BVE mentioned a very low visible inversion layer at his QTH and I think that probably explains the effects I was noticing on Blencathra. I think I was probably above it. Signals weren’t peaking properly with the beam and were generally down in strength. Don G0RQL in Devon was at least 2 S-points down compared with the previous day on Skiddaw. (I couldn’t see the inversion as I was in the cloud most of the time.) Paul G4RRA was a good signal from the same county but I think his QTH is high up and maybe above the boundary.
Interesting, eh?
73, Richard
Sorry to hear about the £1K Steve, :). Ahh well, maybe next time hé.
Glad to work you again.
Peter
In reply to G1INK:
its always a pleasure to work you and mick
73 Barry M3PXW (the whippet)