Hey, hands off! The reputation for inclement weather belongs to Paul and myself. We can’t have any challengers vying for that crown.
Spare boots - an absolute necessity and I have some of those ball things you stuff inside to dry them out. Mind you, I shall be wearing my Berghaus Kibos, so if the boggy conditions are no deeper than the height of the boot, I should be okay. They are rarely breached - usually only when we are out in persistent and very heavy rain and then only what manages to creep behind the gaiters. Of course that includes when you sit in a puddle to operate!
Sorry to hear that your detour to Fort George was not what you hoped it would be. Maybe you should have done Hill of Nigg instead.
Hey, hands off! The reputation for inclement weather belongs to Paul
and myself. We can`t have any challengers vying for that crown.
Good Lord no! The reputation for inclement weather belongs to Scotland itself - though its not always deserved! I remember, though, spending a week camping in Torridon in May and not seeing any blue sky from beginning to end of the week. Still, if you havent got a sense of humour you shouldnt cross the Highland Boundary Fault!
I saw the sign for Nigg and thought about it for almost a second before continuing around the roundabout! It was the ZRP chap who told me to go to Fort George. It was about a 5 mile detour so not a problem and I had 30mins walking on the shingle beach. I got a good photo of the Mount Eagle mast and actually could see the “hill”. Normally you’re too close and have to try and stitch photos to get the mast. I’ve just finished stripping the camera for the n-th time to remove fluff from the sensor. Seems to need doing every 6 months or so and especially after a wet walk.
usually only when we are out in persistent and very heavy rain and then only >what manages to creep behind the gaiters.
Snap. I was surprised to see the legs of socks damp with mine. Not wet just damp. Exceptional conditions needed for that. I normally only wear gaitors when there’s snow, but there was so much long wet grass and heather this time it would be foolish not to have them on. By the way, the heather is in bloom so when the sun does shine (it that about 35% of my trip) you should be in for some good colours.
I should have said “the reputation for attracting inclement weather”… from experience, we know where to get it, but try as we might, we just don’t seem to be able to avoid it!
First go on the new reflector - hope this comes out right!
Thanks to all who worked Gerald and I on Ord Ban today. Conditions on LF were very strange and somewhat challenging. Not surprisingly Gerald drew a blank on 2m but was very grateful for the chasers who tried!
Weather Forecast looking favourable, alerts posted for tomorrow.
Access is restricted so summits may change if we can’t get in - times for Plan B approx 1hr earlier,
Thanks for the contact this afternoon. You were very quiet on 40m here in Cambridge for most of your activation, just came up long enough for me to work you, so I’m sorry I was rather brief. Please give my regards to Gerald, and I hope you both have an excellent week. Alas no SOTA for me tomorrow as the builders are here, but maybe speak to you in a day or two…
73 de John M0VCM
(my first post on the new reflector as well)
Hi Paul /Gerald,
Good luck tomorrow, looks like some cross country route finding for you. If you would like some local knowledge I would be glad to meet up for a chat. Home QTH is 6 mikes south of Inverness. I have activated most of the hills within about an hours drive from Inverness, might be able to help with suggestions!
The weather is looking better for the next couple of days, lucky you!
The local chat frequency on 2m is 145.575
If you would like to meet up email me at dhyclimber@yahoo.co.uk
Have a great time and fingers crossed the weather is kind!
73
Adrian
MM0DHY
Conditions were very strange yesterday - you were a huge 59, as were many other chasers, but I was getting reports of my signal varying from S1 to S9 within the same over… hope things are a bit more settled today.
Good luck with the builders and catch you again soon
Thanks for the info and the good wishes. Today’s venture will be somewhat of a voyage of discovery, hence the slight uncertainty about the alerts! All adds an extra frisson
Does look like we have hit lucky on the Wx (for now at least!) but the sky is looking like it might be a bit dodgy…
Would be good to meet up, I’ll have a chat with Gerald and PM you.
I am within (relative) spitting distance of Ord Ban and hoped I would hear you on ground wave - no such luck!
Well, I could hear you were disturbing the aether but no chance of getting a report from either of you (in fact CW was harder to make out).
If you venture slightly to the east of the A9 I can at least arrange coffee or tea and, possibly, get a pass to join you (although I am guiding for the walking festival this weekend)
Have fun, the forecast for the next three days is excellent
Sorry you couldn’t hear us from Ord Ban - conditions were very strange that day…
Many thanks for the kind offer, it would be great to meet up but unfortunately plans at the moment put us generally to the West, although with the weather set to change on Thursday we may look in your direction for something more sheltered to tackle, so we’ll keep you posted - unusually for us we’re planning this expedition day by day!
The Inverness stage of our expedition is now over and tomorrow we start the journey back to the border.
Our original plan was to spend two days travelling south, activating four or five summits en route. However due to the dire forecast for tomorrow, we have now chosen one target that we will try to do “come hell or high water” (and it probably will…) Alert posted.
Depending on how battered/wet we get tomorrow, we may do another on Saturday and will alert as soon as we know for sure.
Just like to say thanks to all the chasers who have worked us thus far, often under difficult conditions with a special vote of thanks to Bill, G4WSB whose constant presence and assistance today made my activations much easier than they might have been.
Hoping to catch as many of you as possible tomorrow,
Hi Paul & Gerald, glad you enjoyed your trip & had reasonable weather mainly. I was watching your activations and as you crept west I thought you may do some of my targets - but you didn’t. I will drive up next Friday, hopefully activating one or more summits around Inverness then spending a week on the NW coast in the Gairloch area. Hope to work lots of chasers on HF, may even do 2m ssb if the wx plays ball (wishing for an Indian Summer )
73
Thanks Steve we have had some truly spectacular days
We were not so much creeping west as radiating out from Inverness. Glad we didn’t compromise any of your targets, we know how much planning has to go into these expeditions. Looking forward to seeing where you get to.
Hoping you get that Indian summer, and good luck with the 2m SSB - quite a challenge! Gerald is better placed to comment on that
SS-188 and the old Leacainn Forest Drive route from Furnace. I was talking to Jack GM4COX about this last Sunday about this. He’s probably on his way to it as we speak.
That’s the way we did it Andy. Only 2.4km according to my GPS from the forest drive, and only half this distance through bog more than ankle deep Had an eye on it for 18 months or so, couldn’t work out why nobody else had done it. Apologies if we pipped anyone to the post.
Didn’t see any fresh boot prints… Quad bike had been up the track recently though…
It’s a long way from anywhere is the main reason it’s not been done. I’ve done 128 out 286 SS summits so I still have lots of uniques to collect. The nearest summit to me I haven’t done is a crow fly distance of 27miles. So going all that way is hard to justify just to get a “1st activated by” tag. I think the other reason is the OS maps don’t show the forest road and so it seems to be a long walk in when you can park moderately close. When I was in Tongue last week it was only 6miles from the B&B to Beinn Stumanadh parking place and about 1/2mile more for Beinn Hiel. Ben Hiel is 2 pts and is Beinn Stumanadh, both are uniques to me but one has never been on the air, it’s a no brainer picking which summit to activate.
It was Jack who mentioned it last week when I was chatting to him, I told him there’s a Forestry Commission tourist drive up to near it. I’ve “driven” it on Google Streetview and it looks a good surface but as my car has about 5/8 inch ground clearance and suspension harder than a Jason Statham movie character I’ve not fancied it TBH. Had I known about it when I had my CRV I’d have been up there like a rat up a drainpipe and it’s sort-of surfaced again since I bought a pickup with 4wd and diff locks and lo/hi ranges. It’s somewhere you can get to where there are some more challenging tracks to play on other than the main tourist route and I can bag a summit too.
We got your moist WX here about 3.30pm onwards. That must have been so much fun, felled forest, bog and heavy rain. Still what do you expect in August up here!
We’d noticed several people had been activating in the area over the last couple of months - INKy, Colin 'UXH and Terry 'VWP to mention but a few and were sure that one or both of the remaining unactivated summits were about to fall.
Had the awful weather forecast not persuaded us to “moderate” our itinerary, we’d have bagged both but discretion being the better part Carn Duchara got left for someone else. Would still like to get up there and do it though sometime to see if the GPS route I planned through the forest works…
The forest drive up to SS-188 isn’t too bad, would be drivable with care in a “normal” car but Gerald’s Quattro had no problem. It’s not a bad walk in if you avoid the bog. Need someone else to give it a go now to get the Complete
73 de Paul G4MD
edit: have put some tips for SS-188 on the summit page
Thanks for the chases, good to work you again. sorry about the QRM, seemed to be a lot about that I just couldn’t hear up in GM. Difficult to avoid it when you can’t hear it…
Look forward to catching you on the next expedition
)