Chance meeting G/SP-003 with G4MD and G0VOF

Went out for a walk with my wife Sue and four non radio friends today. We did a traverse of Wards Stone.

I took the 2m handy with me just to do a quick activation of the summit because I knew I wouldn’t be able to hang about.

As I approached the summit I noticed first one and then another roach pole (SOTA pole).

I thought “what’s the chances of this on a fairly infrequently activated hill”. It’s quite a slog and usually involves a lot of bog hopping, but was mercifully dry today. My last visit was in horrible rain and wind, with 20m visibility all day, so it was great to see the spectacular views all around.

I went over to the first activator and found Mark G0VOF operating on cw and introduced myself! Mark then told me the other operator was Paul G4MD operating as G6GGP/P. I wandered over to see him and he was in full flight with Jack GM4COX/P on 40m SSB. Paul kindly let me use his FT817 for a quick chat with a very surprised Jack before breaking off for a face to face chat with me.

What a very pleasant surprise! Picture of us all below, taken by my wife Sue.

I headed across to where the others had gathered for lunch and then had a very fruitful activation on 2m. All contacts summit to summit!! My walking friends departed and I had to go QRT to catch them up. I know there were other S2S contacts available, on what was an amazing day, but sadly I just couldn’t hang around. Sorry to any other chasers, but I guess most would have got Paul or Mark before I got to the summit.

L-R Mark G0VOF, Gerald M(W)0WML, Paul G6GGP (G4MD)

6 Likes

Hi Gerald,

It was a very nice surprise & an amazing co-incidence to meet you & Sue on Ward’s Stone today, as you say, a quite rarely activated summit for G/SP. Maybe SOTA activators are like Buses, you wait ages, then three turn up at once :smile:

We must have been typing our posts at the same time as I have also posted a topic about today:

I don’t know about you, but I’ve caught the sun, very different conditions to those both you & Paul experienced previously on Ward’s Stone :smile:

Thanks again & very best 73,

Mark G0VOF

1 Like

Likewise I was amazed and delighted that you washed up on Ward’s Stone today!

Great to meet you and many thanks to Sue for the pic and the rest of your party for patiently waiting while we socialised :smile:

Catch you on/from another summit soon :wink:

73 de Paul

1 Like

Thanks for the S2S Gerald and Mark.

There was a fair old scrum of summit stations calling each other then. But then by the time I got up Yarlside I think you’d all gone home. :anguished:

Blog write-up here: Up the Spout

73, Simon

1 Like

An excellent day indeed and a good one to catch Paul and Mark on the final SP. I was out on Shotover Hill G/HCE-021 close to Oxford in similar weather conditions. Thanks for posting the photo of you all on the summit which shows something of the view from Ward’s Stone. Unfortunately it was shrouded in mist the day that Paul and I activated it back in March 2009. I actually lived in Lancaster between 1973 and 1975, but never made the ascent, preferring more well-known hills like Whernside and Ingleborough when I wasn’t pot-holing and caving.

Many thanks to Paul and Mark for the effort put in to activate the summit and the contacts that we made on 60m and 40m. Also thanks to Simon for the H2S on 40m which was much appreciated.

73, Gerald G4OIG