In reply to MA0FMF:
Talking of rambling…
Andy I cant get used to your new NOV call. I have visions of you standing on top of a mountain waving a little red book at a flock of sheep… am I the only one struggling with this? 
73 Marc G0AZS.
Question! Does the Scottish call sign Nov legally apply to other Nov’s held such as 5mHz and can it be used by anyone from South of the Border when they are North of the Border or must they be genuine GM/MMs?
In reply to GW7AAV:
Answers!
Yes. One NOV modifies the licence to add more frequencies. The other NOV modifies the licence to add more secondary locators.
No. The main station address must be based in Scotland.
Andy
GA3PYU (as Marc sees reds under the bed when I sign MA0FMF!)
August 2009 From Heaven to Hell with a view
G/SB-009 Ros Hill
The drive from our near perfect cottage in the North East of Scotland to the North East of England would have been uneventful but for a couple of things. Firstly Helen had insisted that the price of fuel must be cheaper somewhere other than Brora, as it was ten pence dearer than at home and secondly we encountered the same one-hour delay we had met on the way up a week earlier. The later was mostly avoided by re-routing according to the Sat-Nav, although we had a small delay because lots of other people have Sat-Navs too and were taking the same diversion. The fuel on the other hand seemed to be getting no cheaper until near Aviemore we had no choice but to turn off into the town for fuel. Bad move! It took about half an hour of queuing before we reached the pumps and then another half an hour to get back on to the A9. Apart from that it was plain sailing for three hundred miles.
We could not get in to property number two until 1600hrs (local) and eight hours after leaving Brora we arrived in Seahouses. I should have been glad we had arrived but I realised with a sinking feeling I had been here before. The small town centre comprises of chip restaurants and amusement arcades and is as tacky and dirty as Blackpool, but without the lights or the tower. We had visited on a trip out on a pervious occasion and I declared it a waste of petrol.
Worse was yet to come. The ‘cottage’ we had booked was not a cottage at all but a second floor apartment. Firstly we could not get the Land Rover Discovery in to the tiny courtyard parking area. A call to the keeper revealed one apartment was rented to someone with three vehicles, the smallest of which was a BMW 4x4. After much discussion with the property manager we were sent down an impossibly narrow alleyway, which required a three-shunt manoeuvre just to turn left down it and then we were able to park under our apartments bay window. Then we had to hump all our belongings up a narrow staircase and in to a dirty, flea bitten matchbox. The whole apartment was smaller than the kitchen in the house we had just left. To make it worse the main bedroom was on the ground floor and accessed by a spiral staircase in the lounge. The lounge was ten feet square and the door impacted, half open on the banister for the staircase, which was six feet square. The other side of this was a useless dinning table, because no one could get between the banister and the table or the wall and the table to sit down. This left a gap of ten feet by four into which was fitted a two-seater settee and three arm chairs, a round table with a lamp on, a nest of three tables and a television. Sitting down in the grotty chairs it was hard to move without elbowing one or other of the family in the side of the head. There was really no-where to store the walking gear or radios and certainly no-where for the kids to set up their games consuls and laptops. In fact there was not really anywhere to put the clothes we brought either. The view from the picture bay window was the only redeeming feature; it was stunning looking out over the quayside and across to the Farne Islands beyond and Banburgh Castle. I kept repeating my new mantra “it’s only a base, it’s only a base it’s only a base”.
We awoke late Sunday 9th August 2009 morning to bright blue skies, which as we ate breakfast, looking out over the Harbour turned dark and threatening. “Ros Hill” I enquired. “Looks like it might rain”, said Helen. I enquired what we were going to do instead and Helen suggested Banburgh Castle, probably because she was looking at it across the bay. At 11:40 BST we were sat in the castle car park waiting for the rain to stop. We had nearly been here when we were previously in the area but were put off by the entrance fee, fortunately we were a little better off these days, but I think we had both been hoping it was National Trust so our membership would get us in free. The weather could best be described as changeable all day. As we got out of the Discovery and headed for the entrance the rain seemed to be going off and I even managed to fire off a few shots with the camera before putting it safely out of the rain. We took a look at the entrance fee, took a sharp intake of breath and then paid. Two or three other parties who were in the queue looked at the prices said something unrepeatable and turned on their heels.
As we entered the castle proper the rain turned torrential and like everyone else we followed the signs for the house tour and legged it. The tour of the house lasted long enough for the rain to subside and for us to dry off. I don’t know who came up with the idea for the walking trousers I was wearing but it was a stroke of genius to make then from a thin cotton like material because they dry really quickly, whereas other people in their “normal” clothes were still sopping wet. I laughed at more than one person with a heart shaped damp patch on their rear end. As we explored the rest of the castle there was the odd shower but not enough to put us off. Lunch in the café was at least more reasonable than the entrance fee and by the time that was over there was the makings of a nice afternoon and the beach down bellow was filling up with typical British holiday makers all carrying their regulation buck, spade and four cans of lager. Lots of photographs later we headed back to the car and I tuned on two metres. We seemed fairly high up but the two-metre band was dead.
The next day we awoke to more rain. No SOTA today then. The kids had found a leaflet that announced “Harry Potters Castle” so we headed for Alnwick Castle. The Harry Potter connection is that it was used for some of the Hogwart scenes, in particularly the part in the first movie were he learns to fly the broomstick. We figured we could do the same as yesterday and tour the house until the rain went off. There was no need because as we parked in the vast but extremely busy car park for Alnwick the sky cleared and the sun came out. This stately home is also privately owned so our National Trust membership was no good here either. The entrance fees were even worse than those at Banburgh with a separate fee for the gardens and the castle, but if you wanted you could use the tickets for entry on two days.
As the sun was now shining we headed for the gardens. The scene that greets you is an enormous cascading fountain that makes you stand and stare. It also caused Helen to spend about twenty minutes waiting for it to repeat the sequence it was doing as we first went in so she could photograph it. The gardens are fabulous with curious water features but do seem to lack the variety and colour of flowers seen in some less impressive gardens. They are also nearly symmetrical so you only need to visit half the garden to have seen it all. After touring the garden we had lunch in the garden restaurant, which provides a great view of the fountain and then headed for the castle. There is certainly a lot to see and I would recommend anyone going gets there early and takes advantage of the two-day ticket. We managed to miss the falconry display while we ate lunch and there had been other demonstrations we also missed. The house, the grounds and the garden are certainly notable and unlike some places I have visited I would not simply cross it off as done, but would like to return maybe at a different time of year as long as someone else was paying. The other side of the car park to the entrance there is a massive tree house that houses a restaurant, which in the fading light as we left seemed to have an ethereal quality, like it had been plucked from a fairy tale. It doesn’t quite maintain that feeling in the bright sunshine or when you get up close and you are staring down though the gaps in the boards but it is pretty ‘cool’.
The morning of Tuesday 11th started like Monday afternoon with the sun shinning so after breakfast we packed up the walking bags and headed for G/SB-009 Ros Hill. At last, I was getting the shakes, I had not been on the radio since Friday and I was experiencing some RF withdrawal symptoms or at least I thought I was. Helen on the other hand said I was always a miserable old git and so she had not noticed.
We were only 15 miles away from the summit and from the A1 South bound we turned right at North Charlton following the signs for Chillingham until we reached the parking spot downloaded, to the TomTom, from Richard G3CWI’s site. There was a car park shown on the map a little further on and we checked it out but returned to park on the grass verge near the start of the path to the summit. Despite the day starting sunny and it only being 30 minutes away fro the holiday accommodation the sky was looking ominously dark.
The ascent was easier than it looked and within ten minutes we were on the summit. At the trig there was an elderly couple so we moved to the other side of a viewing platform built in to a wall that runs across the summit and started setting up. Once we were set up we ate a little lunch and waited for the couple to leave before starting up. 5mHz SSB yielded eight contacts starting with Peter EI7CC but by Helen was calling in vain on 2metres and we shared a handful of contacts so she could qualify the summit and then started logging for me. The wind was now getting up and there were spots of rain. A QSY to 80m SSB only got another four in the log including Steve G1INK who was very weak but readable on his vertical antenna. 40m SSB started slowly but the Europeans suddenly started coming in thick, fast and loud. It was really raining heavily now and the children took the keys and headed back down the hill to the car. I was desperately trying to keep the rig dry but water kept getting in the fuse holders causing the power to go off. I kept going as long as I could and worked another thirteen before packing up to save the rig. The only G station on 40m was Mike GM0BPU/P on South Uist. I believe left a pile up of probably disappointed EU station un-worked, but it was going well while it lasted. By the time we had packed everything away and were stood in our rucksacks the rain had virtually stopped. Leaving Helen at the trig I descended the hill to grab the chaser point via the handheld and get one 70cms contact in the log for the activation to go with the only 2m contact I had from working Helen on her ascent. The descent was much trickier than the ascent. What was a nice natural step on the way up was a slippery trap on the way down after the rain and every one seemed to be just stretching that bit too far. It was still quicker going down than going up and from the bottom I warned Helen to be careful and then got the camera out in case she wasn’t. She managed it safely but complained that the stretching had caused her calves to tighten up so we headed back to Seahouses and a swim in the pool (maybe this place had another good point) to ease the not all that tired muscles.
What followed was a nice evening with the hope that it would be better tomorrow. We spent the evening watching the lifeboat from the picture window, which was exciting and fortunately only an exercise, before sun turned the sky strange shades of orange, pink and yellow. It made me realise that the East coast is to sunrise as the West is to sunset and the only way to get a sunset over the Farne Islands was on a boat and I was not getting up a dawn each day to get a sunrise photograph no matter how much I wanted to get one.
Wednesday 12th was definitely the better tomorrow with warm clear skies and the sea like a mirror. Perfect for the planned boat trip to the Farne Islands. We walked down to the harbour and tried to book a trip on one of Billy Shiel’s Glad Tidings boats, but due to the appearance of a great flaming ball of hydrogen in the sky everyone else had the same idea. We booked our tickets for a later trip and walked back to kill the next 90 minutes.
The sea was still very calm as we took our trip around the various Farne Islands photographing seals and sea birds. It was just a great pity we were too late for the Puffins and Gullimots, which nest there. Our skipper kept up an informative commentary telling us all about the wildlife and the Longstone Lighthouse, which was built in 1825. It was made famous by Grace Darling and her father William Darling who was the lighthouse keeper. On the night of the 7th September 1838 they rescued nine survivors from the Forfarshire, a paddle steam ship bound for Dundee, which ran aground on Big Harcar in stormy seas.
The last part of the Farne experience was landing on the bird sanctuary of Inner Farne. Here at last I could save a few pound due to our National Trust membership, which was a good job because it was not really worth the landing fee. Here we ate our lunch and watched Artic Terns, Gulls and Shags swoop and dive. It was nice to be able to get so close to the birds nesting below you on the cliff face and them to seem so unperturbed by the presence of so many humans.
The swell started to pick up on the way back and the odd wave sprayed everyone with seawater. Something stirred that may be in my DNA from my seafaring ancestors or maybe I just like watching other people get worried, who knows?
Thursday 13th was another great day and we headed North following the coast and then over the causeway to Lindisfarne or Holy Island. The plan was to play some radio and visit the castle and the priory. We got to the main car park on the Island and it was very full but we found a space. I had seen a place back down the road a little where I could set up the radio, but decided seeing how we had squeezed in one of the last spaces in the car park we would go and visit the castle first.
The castle is interesting but not very big and we spent as long queuing as we did in the castle. This time our National Trust membership was good and it cost us nothing. Chatting to one of the staff they said that the Priory was English Heritage not national trust and decided to get some lunch instead. We found a pub and I ordered a bacon baguette and a pint of Guinness. The kids had ordered pizzas and when they came they where about the size of a cartwheel. I had finished my meal and my beer before the kids had eaten one slice of their pizzas and it was a hour later that we left the pub with only Stuart having demolished his completely. We headed back to the car doing a little shopping on the way and then we drove back towards the causeway. We parked up alongside the road and I set the linked dipole running parallel with the road and the dunes.
I switched on to 5.3985mHz and was delighted to hear Phil GM4OBK/P on the mass activation of GM/SS-246 Ailsa Craig. I worked Phil but was concerned as he was a good signal to me but I got a worse report back. This did not seem right as I was running the full 100watts from the FT-857D in the car. I later managed to work Peter EI7CC and Brian G8ADD who also gave me poor reports and then Peter M0COP who gave me a good one on 5mHz. A QSY to 80m brought only one response from the old faithful and nearly always the Paul G0HNW who said I had a problem and I was seriously over driving the rig. Moving the microphone further away did a little but reducing power to 30watts made most impression. I tried 40m hoping some EU stations might like EU-120 Lindisfarne in the log for IOTA but nothing. I still haven’t had chance to do any tests with the mobile HF set up but I suspect something is amiss. I was kicking myself after for not just setting up the normal portable station as it was in the rucksack in the back of the Discovery. If there is a problem such as RF feed back it might explain why the Atas antenna has been a dead loss except on ten metres where I have made a few good contacts while travelling at 60 to 70 miles per hour, chatting to France and Spain 5/9 each way for 20 minutes with Helen at the wheel of course.
On Friday 14th we had planned to do G/SB-007 Tosson Hill but the weather had other ideas and it was throwing it down with rain. We had all the bags packed from the night before; the SatNav had been programmed with the parking spot and the GPS with the walking route. After much discussion we set out for the stately home of Cragside, which once belonged to Lord Armstrong of Armstrong Siddley fame and is now in the hands of the National Trust. We hoped it might dry up as before we got there. On arrival the car parks seem full, very full. It seemed like everyone from a hundred mile radius had the same idea. The idea was to visit the house and get out of the rain. Duh! After one and a half hours queuing we got into the house and sloshed are way around.
If you look up Cragside you will see it was one of the first houses in England with electric light and the electricity was generated by a hydro scheme in the grounds. It is famous for the iron footbridge in the grounds and contains some great inventions such as a water-powered lift and a water-powered spit for roasting. The gardens are vast and exploring them probably requires a couple of days.
Once we came out of the house we headed for the restaurant about 10 minutes walk from the house only to be told that they stopped serving 30 minutes earlier. “Well if we hadn’t been queuing in the rain for an hour and a half we could of eaten then?” I asked snidely then turned on my heels and left followed by about fifteen other wet and annoyed visitors. We eventually found a greasy spoon café, which was obviously a biker haunt by the posters on the notice board and had a good old-fashioned all-day breakfast. There is nothing like it for reviving the spirits when you are cold, wet and hungry.
Saturday 15th we were up and out of there but with mixed feelings. I hated the apartment and the town. I loved the harbour and the view. It had mostly been a great holiday but I wanted to do more SOTA. I loved the islands and there are plenty of places of interest so we will be back sometime to tick off a few more Scottish Borders summits but we will have to be oh so careful picking future holiday accommodation next time.
I had hoped to grab some chaser points on the way home but although the alerts kept going off and I tuned the bands I never heard any SOTA on any band from 40m to 70cms. I did work GB2TS at the Tollerton Village Show and grabbed GB4LL Leasow Lighthouse UK-0014 as I was Mobile M56, but that was all. It was a long and boring drive and we all arrived home feeling like we needed a holiday just to get over the drive. All that was rapidly forgotten as I soon had a screwdriver in my hand to repair what my eldest had broken while we were away including the shower, which he managed to blow the relief valve on. Oh joy! It is good to be home. Never mind I was back to work on Sunday night. It must be good to have a job you still enjoy.
To be continued…
This report is intended to appear on my website at http://gw7aav.googlepages.com
when I get around to it and will include photographs that will appear first at GW7AAV - Steve's collections on Flickr
Regards Steve GW7AAV
Please visit my amateur radio blog at http://cqtownhq.blogspot.com/ or http://cqhq.wordpress.com/
August 2009 Half a century on
G/WB-008 Hergest Ridge
Helen asked me “Do you want a party?” it was a hard question but I had already thought about it “No” I said “Lets just you and I have a weekend away.”
I have always loved parties. Some people need a few drinks to get them up on the dance floor. I just need the right kind of music. Start playing that disco crap and I sit and sulk. Put Abba on and I will put my fingers in my ears and hum very loudly, Brown Sugar by the Stones will on the other hand have me strutting my stuff and making a complete ass of myself. Someone once said to me that they never believed it possible to dance to Pink Floyd until they saw me. From other peoples comments and maybe they were right, it is not possible but I do like to boogie and I know what I like.
Other people’s parties either rock or I go home early, but our last few parties, for my son’s 18th & 21st birthdays and our 25th Wedding anniversary left me feeling more stressed than partied out. In particular the inability for disc jockeys to play anything other than what they want to play gets on my nerves. The jocks involved were all told “we are a rock crowd” well in advance. They all said they could provide a rock disco and then played dance music and wondered why we all sat on our hands. Better not go there again if it were my party I would probably kill the guy if he played Abba. I still feel like killing the chap at my wedding reception for playing ‘The Birdy Song’ even though my own bloody father asked him to play it because he knew how much I hated it. Very funny Dad!
So we were going away and Helen started trawling the Internet for somewhere to go.
I fancied Stratford upon Avon but I wanted to make up for the lack of SOTA during our main holiday. Maybe it was because I had visited the Isle of Lindisfarne, which was like a musical pilgrimage, “Lady Eleanor” by Lindisfarne having been an all time favourite of mine, but Hergest Ridge came to mind. Hergest Ridge was Mike Oldfield’s second album and one of the first LPs I ever bought. Helen started searching around Hereford for somewhere to stay. A place was found in Middleton on the hill, which is between Leominster and Ludlow. It looked a bit small in the pictures and Helen warned me, mindful of our last outing.
Friday 28th August and Helen had half a day off work. Well almost half a day, she was delayed several times as she was leaving as people said “can you just sort his before you go?” We got on the road okay as the Discovery was almost packed when she got home. I just needed her stuff. The journey down was uneventful but the traffic was busier than we had hoped for due possibly to the later than planned start. Still we had time to chill out and change and still be at the pub for our evening meal an hour before opening. The cottage was superb and by no means as small as it appeared on the net.
Instead of going back to wait we explored the area and found a pub who’s food I had seen well reviewed on the net. We stopped and asked for a table. The chef was on holiday. What kind of place lets their chef have a busy bank holiday off? The bar staff recommended the Ship in Tenbury Wells. The place was tiny and the well-starched tablecloths gave an impression of a nice place but when we were seated the stains from previous customers raised our suspicions. The real ale was good, although I forget what it was but the food was distinctly mediocre and I would not recommend this place to anyone. We returned to the cottage and settled down some of the contents of the fridge we brought along.
G/WB-008 Hergest Ridge 29th August 2009 –
We had slept like logs but were up far too early the next morning and over breakfast I opened the cards and presents I had been given. Strange but only my mother-in-law, my kids and my wife had sent a card with fifty on. I had a total of well over £100 that might pay for something radio related off eBay plus a DVD I had been dying to see. Somewhat slowly we gathered our gear and packed our rucksacks and headed out to the car.
We parked at the recommended parking spot at the end of the lane just past the Hergest Croft Gardens, which looks like it deserves a visit sometime and followed the obvious path to the summit. Well obvious until you reach the brow of the hill and need to veer off left to find the trig point. We found the trig and then moved about 100 feet away to a clump of boulders and erected the masts. I had actually alerted for this one and much to my surprise I was set up on the summit at spot on the alerted time, 1200UTC.
After a quick drink I started on 5mHz with Paul G0HNW and got a brilliant 15 in the log. It was great to see the band in such good shape for a change. Helen on the other hand told me she could not get anything at all on 2m and suspected an antenna fault. She took down the J-pole and tried the SOTA beam, which was no better. Eventually she gave up and doubled up on four of my contacts on 5.3985mHz before logging for me. Another 13 on 40m made it 28 with a surprisingly strong and stable signal from Gert ON7TWA/M who was driving in Antwerp. 15 more followed on 80m with Heinz-Josef DK5WL amongst the inter–UK contacts and a special events call GB4MO from the Military Odyssey Show in Kent. Final call on 3.666mHz was from Ted G7AIR who’s direct QSL with a picture of my favourite airplane arrived home almost before I did. Ted was contact number 44 and I had set my sights on surpassing my best ever number of contacts from a summit of 47 by getting at least 50. One for each year it being my fiftieth birthday. A QSY to 20m took me by surprise, but it should have been no surprise to find wall-to-wall contest stations. I gave up looking for a free slot and called the nearest 5/9 station to my intended frequency. I was running 25w from the linked dipole set as an inverted vee and this guy would be running kilowatts into a beam and he had a massive pile up. One call was all it took. I was amazed. I worked five and it was like shelling peas, but it did not seem like SOTA as I was answering their CQs rather than the other way around.
I did not want my 50th contact to be another contest station and as Helen had given up on 2m I decided to give it a try. We needed to prove the J-pole anyway. I called out CQ on 145.500 and gave out my QSY frequency. My first reply and number 50 in the log was Steve G4TRA 2 years and 11 days since I last spoke to him as GM7AAV/P on 5mHz from a cottage at Wanlock Head. The next call was a summit-to-summit from Chris M1DTJ/P doing a last chance to get G/SP-016 Raw Head activation. There followed another S2S this time from Geoff 2W0BTR/P on GW/SW-016 Ysgyryd Fawr who we last met on our activation of G/WB-010 The Wrekin on 13th September 2008. Nine calls on 2m Fm and we were getting a bit cold so I decided to give 2m SSB a try but despite a spot the only reply was Steve G8OBV who was mobile on the M5 and who I had already spoken to earlier on FM. That made 59 contacts so I was fairly happy with the days tally and we disassembled the station while I finished my lunch. As we set off we noticed the huge string of ponies that had gathered.
The ponies were responsible for the 60th contact of the day because we stopped to watch them and I tried to take some photographs, which proved more difficult than it should have. With my Canon digital SLR you press the shutter and you have your shot, it is instant. I am also used to using a viewfinder both on the Canon and every other camera I have owned in the last fifty years, except for a Leica twin lens reflex. I was using Helens Fujifilm Finepix S1000. It has a viewfinder but why it is there is a mystery because you cannot see anything through it and it was impossible to see anything on the screen due to the bright sunlight. Added to that you press the shutter release and go and can make a cup of tea before it actually takes the shot so that the ponies had moved out of position almost every time. I also found that using the screen to align a shot makes it almost impossible to hold the camera steady. Consequently I took a lot of photographs in the hope of some good ones.
It was time well wasted as we were still well within the activation zone when an alert came through in the form of a text on my mobile from Martyn M1MAJ’s SOTAwatch to Twitter service. It was Jimmy MW3EYP/P on GW/MW-025 The Begwns for the third summit-to-summit of the day and caused a mad scramble to recover one of the two Kenwood dual band handies from Helen’s rucksack. Jimmy was a great signal with us but gave us a disappointing 5/1 but who cares it was a good easy contact. I always used to use a rucksack antenna for listening on the ascent/descents but seem to have got out of that habit and started putting the rigs away. It probably started when we had no juice in any of the batteries, but the contact with Jimmy reminded us how useful it can be to monitor the 2m calling frequency on the way up and down.
The walk up was pleasant enough even with the rucksack full of gear, but the stroll down was one of the easiest we had done. I feel that if I lived in the area I would make this my hill and even buy a dog just for an excuse to walk up there. The views are nowhere near as stunning as some of the one pointers we have done but the shear peace and quiet of the place, even with all the walkers made effort worthwhile. We noticed how far sound travelled as some children ran excited to see the ponies calling to each other and I hoped my calling CQ for a couple of hours had not carried as far and disturbed anyone. I was glad we decided to set up well away from the trig and the centre of activity.
We both wanted a coffee but the Hergest Croft Gardens with its café closed in half an hour and it was £6 each to get in so we gave it a miss and headed for our cottage. After coffee I put all the batteries on charge, had a shower and got changed to go out. We headed down the lane for a mile or so to the Stockton Cross. “Have you booked the barman asked in broad Scouse?” We shook our heads. “It will be quarter past eight before I can fit you in,” he said. “No problems, it will give me chance to try all your real ales” I said. He seated us at a table and took our order. At quarter past the barman looked at me and swore under his breath before apologising to us for not putting our order through the computerised till system. It was half past before we got our meal. Normally I would have been fuming at this but I was in a good mood, enjoying the previously un-tasted real ales and I had been kept informed. That is the key; keep your customers informed and they may be more understanding. The meal was well worth the wait, it was one of the best steaks I have had in a long time, but if you cannot get a good steak in Hereford where can you? I had eyed up the desert menu on the way in but the beer and the large portions had taken its toll, no room even for an XL like me. We headed back to the cottage. I had a bottle of celebratory Champagne in the fridge but I had no desire to drink it so it stayed there. So it was off to bed for an early night and a planned early start next morning.
To be continued…
This report is intended to appear on my website at http://gw7aav.googlepages.com
when I get around to it and will include photographs that will appear first at GW7AAV - Steve's collections on Flickr
Regards Steve GW7AAV
Please visit my amateur radio blog at http://cqtownhq.blogspot.com/ or http://cqhq.wordpress.com/
In reply to GW7AAV:
Dance to the Floyd? Of course you can dance to the Floyd! Well, the occasional excursion into five to a bar might wrong foot some people who can’t count, and I can see that “Interstellar Overdive” or parts of “Echoes” might be problematic, but otherwise its perfectly danceable! On the other hand, “Apocalypse in 9/8” by Genesis always immobilises me as I try and keep on top of the accent changes…
Thanks for reminding me about the gardens, I now have the perfect excuse to coax Pauline back to WB and that lovely campsite at Bishop’s Castle!
I hadn’t realised it was a celebratory activation or I would have given you my best wishes at the time!
73
Brian G8ADD
August 2009 Time in Hereford Marches on
G/WB-016 Wapley Hill
I woke early. I think it was the quiet that woke me. I snuck downstairs and the wall of silence in this place hit me but was broken for a few seconds by the sound of the refrigerator. I cursed our modern way of life and reliance on noisy machines. So as not to disturb Helen I trickled the water into the kettle and switched it on. Compared to the lack of any noise whatsoever the boiling kettle was like an F11 jet fighter climbing with the afterburners on. I gently pushed the kitchen door closed. “What on Earth are you banging around at?” Helen yelled in to my right ear. I must have jumped six feet in the air because any higher I would have banged my head. After recovering from a shock akin to 30,00volts I asked Helen if she wanted a coffee.
With our coffee and a bowl of cereal (mine was Special K – I have to think of my figure) we retired to the lounge where we turned on the TV to watch the weather forecast. It was sunny outside and seemed to have the makings of a nice day. We finished our breakfast and were overcome with a wave of lethargy. So after staring at the idiot box for a while we decided to go back to bed for another hour, which turned in to two.
We awoke feeling much more refreshed and after another cup of coffee Helen made some lunch while I packed the rucksacks. As I put the rucksacks in the car it started to rain and I sighed a big sigh. I was locking the cottage door when Helen asked if I had put the ham baguettes in the rucksacks. Phew! They were still on the kitchen worktop; disaster averted. The rain was no more than a quick shower and the drive to G/WB-016 Wapley Hill was interspersed wet road, dry road, wet road so we did not know what to expect.
I was listening, as I usually do when mobile, to several frequencies when at 11:41UTC Jimmy MW3EYP/P popped up on 145.500mHz. He was on GW/SW-009 Mynydd Troed and both Helen and I worked him easily at 5/9 each way. That was a nice start but I thought it was just a pity we did not start out early like we planned and get a summit-to-summit. Half an hour later we were parked in the small free Forestry Commission car park that gives access to Wapley Hill Wood OS Grid Reference: SO358621. The car park is approximately 1 mile off the B4362, Shobdon to Pesteigne road and the nearest town is Stansbatch.
We booted up and walked up the forest road. There is a forest trail, which is possibly a shorter route as it cuts through the woods but with the SOTA beam and squid pole masts sticking out of the rucksacks it did not seem like a good idea with over hanging branches and the like. The road goes up the hill then bears to the right and then just before a cottage in the woods we took a track on the right with a sign saying ‘No horses’. The riders have obviously been taking this seriously (not) because it was well cut up by hoof marks. It was a good job it had not rained too much or this bit would have been a quagmire. Shortly after we came to as sign on the right explaining about the Iron Age Fort and how they farmed rabbits.
After reading up about the Iron Age equivalent to Liverpool’s Echo and the Bunnymen we turned left and over the stile into the roughly triangular hill fort formed by a precipitous hillside to the North and earth mounds and ditches to the south and east. SOTA has the reference for Wapley Hill at SO346624 but the flat area within the fort walls covers a vast area and the total fort covers 20.5 acres. Examining the topography the lowest point within the walls is around 325m and with a summit height of 329m that leave plenty of space for antennas well within the activation area.
We followed the track through the fort and set up in a suitable clearing well away for a large family of monkeys hanging out of what I think was a huge oak tree. Mum, dad and a gaggle of screaming youngsters all at various levels in the branches. I wanted to call out “Don’t come running to me when you break your leg” but refrained and was slightly disappointed when none of them actually fell out.
Helen started up on 2m FM and was getting nowhere. I went onto 5.3985 and worked Mike G4DYC followed closely by Steve G1INK/P on G/NP-015 Great Knoutberry Hill for the first summit-to-summit of he day. I got 10 on 5mHz and both Helen and I were spotted. The spot worked briefly for Helen and she soon had 6 in the log. She stopped for lunch calling CQ in between mouthfuls but was greeted by silence. I went on to 40m and worked six stations from Croatia, Germany and Switzerland but despite good reports and what seemed like good propagation there was no repeat of yesterdays pile up. I wondered if all the others were somewhere else trying to work Inky but I could not find any evidence of that. Helen declared she was getting cold and packed her station away while I tried 80m. With only four contacts here I declared it a dead loss. Helen was ready to go but waited while I ate the lunch I had forgotten about for the second time today and then with the sky suddenly turning black I packed my gear away. I had 19 in the log. Not quite 50 but a respectable tally.
This time on the descent I kept the portable 2/70 rig clipped to my pocket as we walked back to the car. We had just got out of the woods and on to the road when an alert came through on the mobile phone for Jimmy MW3EYP/P on GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse. We just had time to check the GPS, we were still at 310m and Jimmy called on 145.500. We QSYed and this time it was just 5/1 each way but it made up for missing the earlier chance of an S2S. That contact gave me number 20 and put Helen’s total up to 7.
Back at the car and after a quick discussion as to if it was going to rain or not we set the TomTom to take us to Hegdon Hill.
To be continued…
This report is intended to appear on my website at http://gw7aav.googlepages.com
when I get around to it and will include photographs that will appear first at GW7AAV - Steve's collections on Flickr
Regards Steve GW7AAV
Please visit my amateur radio blog at http://cqtownhq.blogspot.com/ or http://cqhq.wordpress.com/
Great reports Steve. The SB region is waiting to be ‘done’ by Jimmy and I, with only The Cheviot G/SB-001 yet activated by Jimmy and I, on the last day of the Pennine Way. Northumberland is thus targeted for a future camping holiday!
We too have enjoyed our SOTA sorties into Herefordshire, and the pub meals on offer. The best was the six days there in 2006 when we did the 24 WB summits plus three Welsh ones.
Don’t worry about your 5/1 report from Jimmy. The signal “meter” indication on the VX-110 tends to show either no bars or all the bars, so most reports given out by Jimmy are either 51 or 59. I used to stick faithfully to the S reading displayed on my 817 myself when giving reports, but no longer. I now give whatever my ears tell me, not my eyes.
Congratulations on the 50th. I hope you and Helen had a great time.
Dancing to Floyd ranges from easy (“Another Brick In The Wall”) to v.diff (“Money”), but doesn’t really hit the difficulty levels of dancing to Zappa (“Inca Roads”, “Fembot” from Joe’s Garage, “Filthy Habits” etc).
All this talk of classic rock music brings me back to the DVD - “The Boat That Rocked” - that we watched at home last night. I really enjoyed it; I do have a keen interest in the history of offshore radio myself, as visitors to my website will be aware. A 2nd hardback edition (with a new chapter about all the RSL tributes in the last 20 years) of Pop Went The Pirates by Keith Skues has just been published and is well worth a look.
Looking forward to more reports Steve.
Cheers, Tom M1EYP
Hi Steve,
Good activation reports, hope you and Helen GW7AAU had a time and I hope you enjoyed your 50th birthday.
Jimmy M3EYP
In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom, Yes we had a great time and understandable about Jimmy’s VX-110, that explains how some of his other reports have seemed slightly odd over the last few years. The important thing being getting a report passed and received not what it is. Occasionally I have been using 50 watts into my 3x5/8ths collinear and had a 5/1 from Jimmy and he has been 5/3 yet I know he is running flea power and I should be considerably stronger then he is.
I never tried dancing to Fank Zappa and the Mothers but I used go to college with some guys who did. I think from knowing them that dancing to the Zappa requires what might be called ‘chemical assistance’. The modern term is probably ‘stoners’ but we called them ‘acid heads’. I never approved of such things my self, my drugs of choice being coffee, beer and chocolate. One cannot however deny the influence strange substances have had on music over the years in the same way that whatever your stance on Pirate Radio it is impossible to deny their influence on musical tastes or the changes in broadcasting.
I look forward to ‘The Boat That Rocked’ when it is shown on Sky Movies but I do not think I will be rushing out and buying it. I don’t think there are any car chases or explosions in it and maybe only a hint of gratuitous sex and violence. ;0)
You want more reports? here comes the next one…
Regards Steve GW7AAV
In reply to M3EYP:
Thanks Jimmy we had several times* and my 50th was great. It was great to get those S2S contacts in the log along with the other chaser points from you. Keep up the good work and once again well done on the exam results.
All the best Steve GW7AAV
- Big list of times in my log ;0)
30th August 2009 Jeux sans frontieres (Games Without Frontiers)
G/WB-023 Hegdon Hill
On our way from G/WB-016 Wapley Hill I heard a familiar voice on 2m it was Richard G3CWI and he was calling Jimmy MW3EYP/P or Tom MW1EYP/P on GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse. At that point I had no idea he was on a summit but followed him up to 145.525mHz and listened. As the terrain changed I got snippets of information and I was fairly sure he was on G/SP-004 Shining Tor this was eventually confirmed by a SOTA Tweet from Martyn M1MAJ’s SOTA to Twitter service. Whenever Richard called CQ I called in but kept loosing contact. Eventually I got a proper readable signal, we stopped the car and both Helen and I worked him. I knew we were very close to Hegdon Hill but was not sure we could get the station up and running in time for a summit-to-summit. After driving about 100 yards further on the TomTom said “You have arrived at your destination.” Where the heck was the trig? We were opposite the transmitter station. Both Helen and I were sure it said in the write up that there was a lay-by we could set up in similar to that other roadside summit G/TW-004 Bishop Wilton Wold, but when I rechecked the print out I realised we were wrong. We drove up and down the road three times and turning the Discovery around on narrow lanes is not fun. We eventually parked up just a little further down the hill than from where I worked Richard and I got out to look for the trig.
The trig was directly opposite the transmitter station in a field but we had missed it due to trees on the field’s edge. I decided to set up on the verge by the gateway to the field and walked back to get my gear. I dropped my rucksack on the ground where I intended to set up and Helen called to me to look up. There was an overhead power cable running up that side of the road. Helen told me it was also wiping out HT on the FT-857 in the car. No point in setting up there then and maybe no point in trying to do HF. I crossed the road and started to set up near a gateway on opposite. Helen came over with her rucksack and was fishing in her bag for the handie, “You won’t need that we are just doing 2m FM and I will use the 857” I said. Apart from anything the light was fading fast and I did not want to be stood on the edge of an unlit road in the dark. I borrowed the J-pole and tuned to 145.525 and Richard was still at it. A summit-to-summit was in the bag a nice start.
Running the full fifty watts I soon sucked the life out of my last 7AH seal lead acid battery but not before I had ten in my log and Helen had her four. Number nine was Tom MW1EYP/P on his descent from GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse. For a while we both thought it was another summit-to-summit but Tom later informed me he was outside the activation area. It was not much of a loss as we already had the chaser points from Jimmy on that summit from our activation of G/WB-016 Wapley Hill. However it was just a pity I could not give Jimmy the point but I could not hear him even though he was higher up the hill than Tom. Chris M0VQE was the final station in the log and then after three or four CQ calls on both my chosen frequency and the calling frequency I gave up with a few drops of rain splattering the down. I was in such a hurry to pack up that Helen had to point out that the mast was still strapped to the gatepost I had used and I had to open up the rucksack for the wire cutters to clip the cable ties. Back in the car we realised just how cold it had gone.
Soon we were back in the cosy cottage and after a coffee I went for a shower then changed to go out for our evening meal. We never got to the pub we planned to visit because Helen said she was not really hungry after the baguette we had eaten for lunch so we settled down to watch a repeat of ‘Top Gear’ on Dave. A while later instead of the big meal and beer I had been expecting I settled down to boiled egg and soldiers, which I had not eaten in years and enjoyed it. Before we went to bed I put all the batteries on charge and we set up TomTom and GPS for G/WB-017 Shobdon Hill.
When we arrived back at the cottage there was a note on the door saying we did not need to leave at 10 am, as there was no-one coming in after us. Waking on Monday 31st August the weather was looking distinctly poor with dark skies and the occasional shower. We had breakfast and I packed the Discovery putting the walking gear and rucksacks on the top for ease of access. Helen came out to the car and said, “It doesn’t look good!” I said we should head for the hill and see what the weather looked like when we got there.
We had targeted the longer but less strenuous looking walk from the NE end of the hill and headed for the start of the Mortimer Trail at SO406643. I am not sure if Richard G4ERP’s parking spot at SO407642 is the same one as in the one we downloaded into the GPS from Richard G3CWI’s site, but when the TomTom said, “You have arrived at your destination” we were on a bend with nowhere to park. The GPS did not seem much better as we were having trouble getting a lock on the satellites possibly due to being in the lea of the hill and possibly because of the dark clouds overhead hiding an electrical storm. There was no signal on the mobile phone either. After driving up and down the road looking for a parking place we pulled in to re-examine the map. There did not seem to be enough detail and I got out the laptop to check multi-map. I needed Google earth or something but having no mobile phone meant we also had no mobile Internet.
We discussed leaving the car where it was and following a nearby path that I could not find on the map but uncertainty and the fact we might be blocking access to a field added to the disincentive to walk maybe a mile and a half further than planned. We made our decision we would go home, come back another day and try from the SW end. As I got out of the car to return the laptop to the luggage compartment big drops of rain told me we probably were making the right move. I was seriously disappointed our wonderful weekend had to end this way and even more so when the rain never really got a foot hold all the way home.
The cottage was great and we hope to make a return trip soon to the same venue and tackle Shobdon Hill and three others within easy reach of there. If it is not later this year then a return trip should also include a second activation from Hergest Ridge after a visit to Hergest Croft Gardens with the camera, but don’t tell the mother-in-law. I know she would love the gardens but if she wants to come we will need a bigger cottage and have to take two cars. We now have 8 out of 23 WBs in the bag, which is a big enough chunk to think of trying to finish them off but then again we have 8 out of 17 SPs and 5 out 7 DCs so the book is open as to which region gets finished and how many years it takes us.
This report is intended to appear on my website at http://gw7aav.googlepages.com
when I get around to it and will include photographs that will appear first at http://www.flickr.com/photos/gw7aav/collections/
Regards Steve GW7AAV
Please visit my amateur radio blog at http://cqtownhq.blogspot.com/ or http://cqhq.wordpress.com/
Thank you Steve.
Jimmy M3EYP
In reply to GW7AAV:
Hi, Steve and Helen.
Thanks for the QSO - and sorry you had fun trying to find my parking spot for Shobden. I just checked Richard’s latest POI file and it’s pretty well spot on. Your SatNav should have taken you to Covenhope Farm and the start of the track on the northern side of the buildings which are on both sides of the road.
It may not have rained on your route home but just perhaps it carried on over Shobden! It is very close to Wales. How about that for positive thinking?
73, Richard
In reply to G4ERP:
I just checked Richard’s latest POI file and it’s
pretty well spot on.
For some reason my Tomtom occasionally says that I have arrived before I have actually arrived. This is often when the final road is an unclassified road. That may perhaps have happened in Steve’s case? The clue is usually that the parking-location icon is still in the distance on the Tomtom screen. The icon always seems to be in the right spot.
Regards
Richard
G3CWI
In reply to G3CWI:
The clue is usually that the parking-location icon is still in the distance on
the Tomtom screen.
Or consult a map before hand so you know what to expect! Works for me 
Andy
MA0FMF
In reply to G4ERP:
Hi Richard, we could not figure out where the start of the track was as the farm which is both sides of the road is on a bend and we could see no safe place to pull over for about a mile. We could have pulled into the farm but I was reluctant to do that as it did not seem right.
Please tell me it was bucketing down over Shobden it would make me feel so much better;0) I would love to be positive about it but our British weather stinks most of the time and it messes up so many plans. Rain is why I gave up my golf club membership, it was impossible to get my monies worth.
The weekend was great and Monday would have been the icing on the cake but not doing it was no big deal, there is always another day.
I just wish I could activate far more. I love being out on the hills in the fresh air and being on the end of a pile up. The two together followed by a big steak washed down with real ale constitute a nearly perfect day.
Regards Steve
In reply to MM0FMF:
Or consult a map before hand so you know what to expect! Works for me
We did Andy just not to a high enough scale. As you are now signing MA0 you should know all about resolution. Oh sorry it is revolution you know about;0)
Steve
In reply to GW7AAV:
Tee hee!
Actually keeping MA0 would be nice as it sounds so much better on CW than MM0. Not that I’ve done much with it. Nor with the club call that’s in my name either.
Andy
GA3PYU
(User of maps and occasional user of a GPS)
In reply to GW7AAV:
“Please tell me it was bucketing down over Shobden it would make me feel so much better;0)”
Okay - it was bucketing down over Shobden (he says with fingers crossed etc …)
The track starts alongside the northern side of the farm buildings on the western side of the road. You may have been confused as initially it’s also the drive to at least one bungalow. This tarmac drive swings right and north and at that point there is a gate - well, barrier if I remember correctly - into the forest.
I parked up against the farm buildings having asked at the farmhouse first but I think I was being rather over-cautious. I don’t think there was any way I would have blocked anyone. At least anyone following in my wheel tracks should hopefully get a kind reception. I know someone who farms some of the land around Hergest Ridge and whilst talking to the farmer here the subject got onto milk production etc. Don’t go there! I was late for the activation.
73, Richard