Those who have activated any of the G/SB hills will surely be aware of the sterling work that Region Manager Jim G0CQK has done in creating a web site dedicated to these summits.
The task of creating similar sites for my regions has been on the “todo” list for a very long time. I have finally made a start on this project and having had a web site of my own running since early last year, I’ve got somewhere to host the pages.
You won’t find a link from my home page since this is a little “off piste” as far as the rest of the site is concerned but you can navigate to the individual regional “home” pages using:
This project is “work in progress” and at present the information is somewhat lacking when compared with Jim’s excellent work. I intend to re-visit the summits for which I have no images or for which the information is old and perhaps out of date. I’d like to beg your help to progress this project so if you can help by checking what is there or by providing additional material I would be very grateful.
In reply to G4ERP:
Nice work Richard.
Just in the nick of time.
I’m, weather permitting, doing WB-002 and WB-004 tomorrow!
I’ve some pictures of WB-021 from last summer.
It’s got to be one of the easiest summits there is, although to make it more interesting I turned it into a 60 mile bike ride with 1000 Metres of climbing.
If you go via the ‘Summits’ link above, you can see that for each G/SB summit, Jim has listed a link to the relevant page in his G/SB site. Would be a good idea to do likewise on each of the G/WB and G/CE summit SOTAwatch pages I reckon.
Thanks for your comments. I’ve activated this summit four times – including on 6cm and 3cm but I have no photos! That’s the reason I haven’t done a page for Ruardean Hill yet. So, if you have any you don’t mind me using I’d be grateful. I expect to get over there shortly so it will probably be the next summit to be added.
Pete - I hope you find the information both useful and current although I’ll confess some of the images of WB-004 are from back in 2006. Also on the update list … Great video of the bike ride. Good stuff.
Tom - thanks for the suggestion. I will - along with some GPX files and other things. I could have held off until all the pages were complete but I felt it better to at least give everyone access to the bits I’d completed. It didn’t seem too big a project until I’d done a couple of summits then realised there were a total of 28 to do :).
Just a few comments about G/WB-003. Your route refers to the car park on the SE side and the good track from there. There is another good car park on the SW side with a public toilet block, from there you walk up the road and go up a few steps at the road summit to a narrower track that follows the ridge with good views to east and west, joining the SE track near the outcrops. Some years ago I parked at the Stiperstones Inn on the west side where an easy scramble up a rocky arete led via a grassy side ridge to the main ridge with a good footpath south to the summit, recommended for those who hill walk for pleasure.
Brian - thanks for the suggestion. The PC isn’t marked on the map. I guess it’s in the Visitor Centre? I’ll check it out next time I’m there and note the opening times. So many close in the winter. I’m still nowhere near 100%. As a result, I’m unlikely to be attempting all 5 in a day so I’ll have a bit more time to spare. I might just try your alternative route - even if it’s a bit more ascent.
In reply to G4ERP:
Looking good Richard.
One very strange thing with CE-002. For me the text block appears off to the right of the screen outside the grey shaded area. It is the only one where that happens and it only happens with Firefox and not with IE.
You have prompted me to see whether any updates are need for SB as it is so long since I did that.
73, Jim G0CQK
Thank you for your work on this, and for the links. I have yet to visit most of the WB summits, and prior knowledge is most useful!
Just one snippet of information, relating to Brown Clee, and your comment “I have not tried the alternative route from the ENE which starts at SO602877”
At the start of the ENE route there is parking for two or three cars if carefully positioned (and a signpost to a larger parking area nearby, though I haven’t investigated that). The track is used for vehicle access to the commercial radio site, but there is no public vehicle access . Not a particularly pleasant walk, because of the gradient, the hard surface, and the monotony of walking in a straight line, but there is little risk of getting lost! I have been told that it follows the route of an early incline railway used in connection with the former mine workings at the top, though I can’t find any supporting evidence for this.
Feel free to use my 2 photos. If they are too small I can also send the original.
Would it be possible to enlarge the map with the GPS track on your pages? The most important information for me for is location of the car park and which is the best way to get up the hill.
Looks like a useful set of pages, however there appears to be a few problems with the HTML coding. The CE-002 page does not display very well in my Firefox browser (not tried all the pages yet).
I try to remember to try my pages in Internet Exlorer, Firefox and Opera browsers and the W3C Markup Validation Service at http://validator.w3.org/ to ensure that they are as compatible with the various browsers as I can.
Looks like a useful set of pages, however there appears to be a few
problems with the HTML coding. The CE-002 page does not display very
well in my Firefox browser (not tried all the pages yet).
What difficulty are you experiencing, Stewart? It displays perfectly in my Firefox 17.0.1 in Windows 7 (64 bit).
Thanks, Richard, for some very nice and useful pages. BTW, on VHF you have had better luck than I have at Titterstone Clee. The comms station at the summit absolutely demolishes the front end of my Wouxun KG-UVD1P on 2m FM. However 70 cm is clear and my FT817 fares much better than the Wouxun on 2m.
73,
Walt (G3NYY)
P.S. Aha … I’ve just identified the problem, such as it is. The text doesn’t “wrap” if you set the page width too wide to display it all alongside the photos.
Thanks, Richard, for some very nice and useful pages. BTW, on VHF you
have had better luck than I have at Titterstone Clee. The comms
station at the summit absolutely demolishes the front end of my Wouxun
KG-UVD1P on 2m FM. However 70 cm is clear and my FT817 fares much
better than the Wouxun on 2m.
Tell me about it, Walt. A couple of weeks ago, G1STQ and myself, activated Titterstone Clee. Opting for a lightweight activtion I too took the Wouxun KG-UVD1P, only I made the mistake of attaching it to the X-300 colinear. After about 40 minutes, I chucked the towel in. The QRM was far worse than even G/NW-070 Great Orme
No such problems with the FT-857.
In reply to everyone:
Thanks for the comments. I’ll work through the list as time allows but for the meantime, at least it’s a start.
Specifically on G/WB-004 I don’t remember having problems up there with my FT-50 and that’s got a pretty awful receiver. Maybe something’s changed since my last visit - hence needing to get round them all again.
The Hillbagging pages for each summit make a good link and the OS mapping and walkers comments are useful. G/WB-002 again Mountain Search
I like the Summitsbase hill pages too especially for any extra walking routes. Activating a HUMP listed on Summitsbase is good fun, often combines well with a nearby Marilyn and there are 24 in CE region and 38 in WB. If distance to travel is an issue then here are some more summits for SOTA style activations within the regions in question.
I’ve started taking the photos to do just that sort of thing. If you look at my local hill G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill the panoramic picture at the top will give you an idea. I have another one that shows Bredon Hill, Worcestershire Beacon, May Hill, Ruardean Hill etc … however it’s of no use to you if you want to get an picture of what the summit you’re climbing is like. It’s great idea but I have to be realistic - about the chances of being on the remaining 27 summits in decent visibility if nothing else!
