G4YSS: Activation of ‘New SOTA’ - GM/NS-037, 12-09-14.
Report 6 of 7 in 2014 G4YSS GM/NS series. Draft-1
MEALLAN LIATH COIRE MHIC DHUGHAILL - GM/NS-037 - 4 points.
FIRST ACTIVATION for SOTA.
GM4YSS/P and SSEG Clubcall GS0OOO/P.
HF QRO/ VHF QRP; 76 QSO’s on 160m; 40m; 30m; 20m and 2m-FM.
All times: BST (UTC plus 1hr, UOS as z).
Sixth SOTA in the series of GM/NS-114; NS-101; NS-074; NS-014; NS-111; NS-037 & NS-020 during 10 night stay in the Dornoch Hotel 5th to 15th September 2014. (See other reports).
GENERAL DATA for this series of activations:
7 SOTA’s each on 7 separate days including:
All-time new SOTA’s: 4
Munros: 2
Total Ascent: 4,560m (14,960ft).
Total Distance Walked: 82km (51 miles)
Total Activator Points: 24.
Total QSO’s: 512.
EQUIPMENT:
FT817ND HF/VHF/UHF 5W Transceiver.
SainSonic MX-P50A, 50 Watt HF Linear Amplifier (designed for FT817).
Link dipole for 80m thru 20m on a 5m CFC mast with 1m end sticks.
Home-Brew tunable loading coils for 160m.
6 Ah Li-Po battery (2.2Ah in reserve - not used).
Vertical J-Pole for 2m FM.
Reserve 2m-FM/ PMR rig: Vero VGC UV-X4; 2W VHFM/ UHFM, 5oz H/H (Like UV-3R).
QRO pack: 9.9kg (21.8 pounds) including 1.25 litre drinks, food and light fleece pullover.
INTRODUCTION:
This expedition was the sixth during a 10-night self-drive/ 7-SOTA holiday at the Dornoch Hotel from 5th to 15th of September 2014. SOTA`s worked in chronological order and separately reported were as follows: GM/NS-114 Meall Dheirgidh; NS-101 Carn Garbh; NS-074 Beinn Tharsuinn; NS-014 Ben Klibreck; NS-111 Maovally; NS-037 Meallan Liath Coire Mhic Dhughaill & NS-020 Ben Hope.
GM/NS-037:
Like NS-111 of the previous day, this ‘new’ SOTA was only researched recently merely in order to add choice. In the end it became joint highlight of this years stay in Northern Scotland. I did check the internet for a route but only after I’d worked the most likely approach out for myself. One glance at 25k Map-445 and it’s not difficult to see that NS37 can most easily be done from the south end of Loch More.
Though its character is utterly different, NS37 with its ‘Yard of Scottish’ for a name, is not far away from two of my old friends; the ‘racehorses’ Arkle and Foinaven. There would be no racing on this one however; the map indicating only minimal assistance from tracks. The higher reaches of the mountain looked like rough country and so it turned out to be. After adding waypoints for the two tracks, I made only a point to point route for the rest. This one would require a full day but I was loath to miss meal times. It was as much a holiday for the XYL and I, as a SOTA trip.
ROUTE & EXECUTION - GM/NS-037:
The route to NS37 divides neatly into four sections each with its own characteristics:
- A brisk walk past the end of Loch More as far as Aultanrynie on an excellent track which is more or less flat.
- A minor but well defined grassy track which enables rapid and efficient height gain to a point north of Aultanrynie Plantation.
- An intermediate section comprising a trackless waste of ups and downs, peat haggs and burns which must be endured.
- The final section is the hill itself, comprising a steep ascent with good, though pathless walking on grass amongst rock fields.
Slow decision:
Because I’d felt tired the day before due to a bad night’s sleep, I didn’t decide to go for this big walk until after a late breakfast. After a better night and some food, I felt refreshed but didn’t get away from Dornoch until 09:30.
A 55 minute drive brought me to the south end of Loch More to park off the A838 at the end of the Aultanrynie track at NC 34810 34299 at 10:25. It’s a wide entrance with plenty of space. A text to Roy on the way through Lairg informed him of the target for today. 90% of the drive was through fog but it was clear at the parking spot and remained clear all day apart from a haze. I considered taking the folding bike as far as the house, which is a 20 minute walk but deemed it not worth the time and effort to prepare it for use and then pack it away again later.
I was quite pleased to get underway by 10:46 and I think I can remember being able to see the very top of the target mountain from the road. The track provides easy walking; bending left at NC 35130 35380. The required turnoff, just before Aultanrynie, is a track going to the right and uphill from NC 34692 36012. This grassy track takes on steep ground by means of zig-zags via NC 34967 36254; NC 35168 36184; NC 35142 36305; NC 35230 36375; NC 35436 36248 and NC 35476 36375 to a point at 335m ASL - NC 35749 36136 where it intersects the youthful Allt an Fhearna Mor burn. After this point there is no advantage in following it further.
From here, 52 minutes into the walk, I headed generally north into bad ground but trying all the time to keep to the base of the steep hill on my right and away from the bogs and haggs as much as possible. Despite finding no path and encountering obstacles I marked waypoints as follows: NC 35826 36173; NC 35879 36551 and NC 36044 36691. Along here I encountered a big area of bare rock and mud which had washed down the steep gradient on my right. After crossing the Allt an Reinidh burn on a bend at NC 36125 36996 (380m ASL) I pressed on, shadowing the burn most of the time and passing waterfalls to NC 36039 37652. It gradually got easier as here and there, flat rock began to comprise the burn’s bed and bank.
By NC 36218 38006, I felt like I was at last making some progress out of the rough section and onto the lower slopes of NS37. About time too! I had been walking for almost an hour and three quarters and the 1.4 miles of bad ground had taken 50 minutes to cross!
Passing over increasingly easy but steeper ground, I picked my way around rock fields via NC 36121 38304 and NC 35698 38654. There I spied a herd of deer on the skyline to my right and they had me under observation too. After curving right via: NC 35603 38837; NC 35600 38986 and NC 35644 39082, I spotted the summit trig point, marking at NC 35716 39133. In 2 hours and 22 minutes of walking, tedious for much of the way, I had finally arrived. The time was 13:08.
The summit is composed of short grass and alpine plants interspersed by rock fields. A reasonably good summit shelter, similar to the one on Ben Klibreck, surrounds the ‘lidless’ trig pillar. Views are stunning especially down the NW face of Coire Mhic Dhughaill to Loch Mhic Dhughaill below; though it was hazy at a distance today.
A text to Roy G4SSH stated, ‘Will be on at 13:45 local.’ I set up the dipole with the mast just outside the shelter. I was hoping for a breeze to discourage the flies but it was rare. This was six out of six so far for deserted summits and nobody dropped by in over three hours of occupation.
MEALLAN LIATH COIRE MHIC DHUGHAILL - GM/NS-037 - 4 pts. 13:08 to 16:25. Wind variable 0 to 3mph. Temp 15 deg C. Intermittent hazy sunshine. Flies. Intermittent EE (Orange) Mobile phone coverage. LOC: IO78OH, WAB: NC33. No previous SOTA activations.
7.033 CW - 26 QSO`s:
After donning the head net for the second day running and accepting the green blur, I called G4SSH. Roy came straight back with a 569 RST; his 200 Watts registering 59 with me. The power was 30 Watts. After that life was hectic with 26 stations logged in just over 30 minutes. The tally was exactly equal between UK and overseas stations and they were keener than ever to bag a new one, which was actually worth more than 2 points.
Though a few reported QSB, conditions on 40m seemed almost perfect for SOTA chasers at this time and reports were good to excellent if less than ideal for Europe some of the time. I turned the power up to 50 Watts to log M0BKV Damian, who gave me 449. Friends Phil G4OBK and Nick G4OOE worked NS37. I congratulated Nick on his attainment of SOTA MG on LD8, the day before! Countries worked: G; DL; GM; LA; PA; EI; EA; HB9 and F.
For the final six QSO’s I nudged up 300 Hz to avoid QRM. It was a great start and despite the insect net, I was really enjoying my surroundings; this mountain being somewhat hard won. I finished traditionally with ‘SSB; SSB’ which Roy picked up and spotted.
7.129 SSB - 35 QSO`s:
Though I was a channel lower than advertised due to QRL, it’s not unusual for Don G0RQL to find the SSB operation first. Without a timely spot from G4SSH it wouldn’t be quite so easy of course. After Don I could hear the distinctive voice of Carolyn G6WRW, then Terry in York G0VWP. Bob G6ODU got in with 59 both ways. Mike G4BLH had gone portable, ‘In a field’ in order to make the contact with low noise. A few people (eg:G0VOF) do this with good results.
31 of the 35 stations in the SSB log were UK based and at least ten were WAB ops. Also worked were: EI9GLB; ON5SWA; PA0SKP and DL7ZH. 50 Watts were used for most of this session but I thought it prudent to drop to 30 Watts near the end. Incoming signal reports were generally around the 57 to 59 mark with one 59 plus 20dB from GM0FGI (Tom on the Isle of Bute) and a 59 plus 10dB from Mark G1PIE in Preston. The session spanned 37 minutes. Thanks again to the WAB ops who came down from 7.160 MHz. G0RMD Frank and M0MDA Mick rounded things off.
I spoke to Roy on the frequency to let him know my plans but just after this my phone signal vanished. This would cause problems later on when I found that the frequency I had given Roy (14.265) and which he’d added to the notes of his 10.118 spot, had a QSO on it when I eventually arrived there.
Lunch:
This was an exact repeat of the previous day (i.e. ready the antenna for 30m and consume crisps and a giant Twix) except that I swapped a rock cairn harbouring a wasps nest for a great view from a rock seat overlooking the NW face. Breathtaking! Ben Klibreck had been superb but I think this one equalled it. I knew that come the time, I would have to tear myself away from this mountaintop!
The price of activating and pileups etc is that there is little time to really ‘drink in’ the summit and simply BE there. Before SOTA I used to think little of spending 3 or 4 hours on my favourite Mickle Fell doing very little. I reasoned that having spent a lot of time and energy getting there, why would I want to rush off? It’s one of the reasons I enjoy summit overnighters.
10.118 CW – 10 QSO`s:
Evidenced by the fact that it took some 30 minutes to work ten stations, conditions on 30m can’t have been too good today. Remaining on the band calling CQ for so long was not an efficient use of limited time and I should have been off somewhere else a lot sooner. I worked Gerald G0OIG first (599/ 599) thinking that he and Paul might eventually climb this one for a ‘complete.’ The only other UK station on here was John G4WSX. The remainder were all in Europe: DL; SP; EI and PA. I used 30 Watts and apart from SP9AMH (339) incoming RST’s were in the range 559 to 579. After that I gave up the quest.
14.265 & 14.276 SSB - 2 QSO’s:
When I found an Italian Special Event station using the frequency which I’d asked Roy to advertise some 45 minutes earlier, I was a little crestfallen. I tried and tried but the ‘Phone-a-spot’ service from G4SSH was not available; I had zero phone signal. The next few minutes were spent CQ’ing on frequencies close by but without result. I then reasoned that there was a remote chance that potential chasers might just be keen enough to monitor the advertised frequency for any information they could glean. With that as the aim, I called the Italian. He came back with a 55 report but his accent was so pronounced that I could not get his callsign. I tried again but got the same mangled phonetics.
By keeping the overs going a few more times by telling him about my QTH, I eventually deciphered what I thought was I0IAET? Now was my chance! In one sentence I thanked him for the QSO, said 73, gave my full callsign and announced a QSY to 14.276 - a channel I’d checked earlier. Up the band I went, more in hope that expectation but when nobody came back to my CQ SOTA immediately, I knew that this long-shot had merely been another time waster.
In fact I did work one station on 14.276 - SA0ABK; Kris in Stockholm but he was obviously not a chaser or anybody that could give me a spot. Of course I had a QSO with Kris but having to explain everything took up almost ten more minutes. I ended up hoping that no one else would call; I had spent close to 20 minutes on this futile (and as far as SOTA is concerned) hopeless 20m SSB venture.
Before trying 2m-FM I set up the dipole with the 160m coils in place but forgot to close the 20m links. This I would only discover later.
145.575 FM - 1 QSO:
At least this worked and like a dream. I got the very station I was looking for with one call on the tiny Chinese handheld with just a rubber duck and 2 Watts. Signals to Ray GM3PIL in Nairn were 59/ 52. I know that Ray has an excellent antenna; a big co-linear but today I was 100km from his QTH with plenty of high ground between us! After a brief chat we decided to try 160m CW first as, for reasons unknown, SSB had been well down in strength the day before.
1.832 CW - 1 QSO:
I called Ray GM3PIL as arranged on 2m-FM but he heard nothing. After fiddling around with the linear and checking everything, I realised my omission in that the 20m links were still open. With that fixed, Ray and I made a QSO with 599/ 599 reports (100km). So far so good. I called CQ briefly to give others a chance, as Roy had put this in the notes of his 30m spot. To quote that well known 160m chaser EI2CL, ‘Not a squeak’ so I announced a change of mode and QRG on 2m-FM for Ray.
1.843 SSB - 1 QSO:
Strangely the exchange with Ray GM3PIL in SSB was 59/ 42. After the second day of vastly superior signals in CW compared with SSB, this is more or less a mystery but we got the job done and that’s what matters. After a brief closing chat with Ray on 2m-FM without further callers, I went QRT at 16:13 BST.
That was it; the station was dismantled but as predicted, I didn’t want to leave this wonderful summit in the pleasant late afternoon sunshine! The last thing I did besides downing 500ml of water, was to grab a few choice rock samples. A little piece of NS37 was coming with me.
Descent:
As I walked off at 16:25 following a desperate need for a phone spot but no signal an hour before, ironically I now had four bars on the phone’s ‘S’ meter! I phoned Roy and far from it being unreliable, we kept talking until I was most of the way down the summit cone! It didn’t even drop out there but we closed in case it did.
As far as possible I followed my ascent track on the return. After all, I had invested time and effort in carefully sighting the way ahead and marking it in the morning. Knowing I was a little on the late side, with a long way to walk and an hour’s drive, I had no desire to go wrong and end up wasting further time. I didn’t reciprocate precisely but was never more than 50m to one side or the other through the bad section, which this time was cleared in little more than half an hour.
The return had taken 1hr-39 minutes arriving at 18:04 and I was at the hotel somewhat later than usual at 19:02. Fortunately food is served until 19:45.
ASCENT & DISTANCE:
816m (2,677ft) ascent / 15.2 km (9.4 miles) walked.
Walking times: 2 hr-22 min up / 1hr-39 min down. Total: 4hr-1min.
Summit time: 3hr-33 min.
QSO`s
26 on 40m CW
35 on 40m SSB
10 on 30m CW
2 on 20m SSB
1 on 160m CW
1 on 160m SSB
1 on 2m FM
Total: 76
Battery utilisation: 5.7 Ah estimated.
COMMENTS:
With the better part of ten miles covered in the day and the lack of a path for most of it, the difficulty rating was about on a par with Ben Klibreck. I find summer walking harder and it was quite warm again today with very little and often no breeze. For that reason, the flies (Keds?) were annoying again.
The middle section was more demanding and tedious than all the rest of the walk added together but it was quite picturesque beside the burn and its waterfalls. The top of this mountain is attractive too but haze detracted a little from the views at a distance. Some of the 2-point ‘new’ ones that I’d put on in the days earlier were slightly boring but not this summit. It had a bit of everything and is probably a well kept secret because of the lack of good access.
The 40m band was outstanding again but 30m was disappointing. The latter may or not have been down to conditions. It could simply have been that with a total of 61 contacts on 7 MHz, most chasers had already worked me. I should have QSY’d earlier from 30m to 20m but it was a case of frying pan and fire as I faired even worse there. Nobody knew where to find me following the occupation of my alerted QRG by a Special Event Station.
It is fairly well known that 160m is a speciality of mine but I needed the local help. Spots alone would not have worked this far north and even an alert with a week’s notice may have failed. Ray GM3PIL did me proud again and this was the third SOTA featuring 160m this holiday. I was pleased to get him in the log.
As for 2m-FM, it would have been nice to get a few more callers on there as I like talking to the locals and to see how far 2m will reach. If there had been time I would have set up the half-wave vertical J-Pole but delays with 30m & 20m precluded that. In fact I was somewhere between pleasantly surprised and astonished when my 2W to a ‘duck’ got me a ‘52’ from 100km away! To look at the rig, you wouldn’t believe it. (It can reach Irton from Valley Bridge too!)
Just being on NS37’s summit was such a good feeling. I won’t forget it any time soon. That’s surprising since I’d never heard of it 3 months ago. What other gems await discovery?
THANKS to:
ALL STATIONS worked. This was the fourth, final and as far as I’m concerned, easily the best ‘new’ summit of the batch, so I hope the chasers enjoyed bagging it like I loved putting it on. Despite my best efforts with the Italian on 14.265, G4SSH was the sole spotter again. Thanks Roy.
73, John G4YSS
Using GM4YSS/P (database) & Scarborough Special Events Group Club call - GS0OOO/P.
Previous Reports: GM/NS-114; GM/NS-101; GM/NS-074; GM/NS-014; GM/NS-111.
Next & Final Report: GM/NS-020 in due course.
NS-037 Photo No’s:
14-Bad Ground-Slow Progress
29-Allt an Reinidh Burn & NS37
74-Trig & Activation
78-Radio Equipment
82-View NW from Summit
91-160m Coil & Carn Deirg
98-Descent 5min from summit
104- 2.3km of ‘Bad’ Ground
