Top O'Selside SOTA & WOTAs

With the weather report looking pretty iffy for Sunday I decided to stay low and combine one SOTA activation with four WOTA activations within walking distance of High Nibthwaite - with a fifth quick grab of Finsthwaite Heights.

|WOTA ID|SOTA ID|Name|Book|
|—|—|—|—|—|
|LDO-064|LD-048|Top O’Selside|OF|
|LDO-085||High Light Haw|OF|
|LDO-091||Low Light Haw|OF|
|LDO-106||Top O’Selside-Brock Barrow|OF|Y|
|LDO-104||Finsthwaite Heights|OF|

Here is a map of the route from Wainwrights from High Nibthwaite to Top O’Selside:

I got up at 7:00AM in Windermere - I didn’t make a note of the time I started - I was planning on using the GPS logging facilities built into my FT1XD, not knowing at the time that it didn’t have a MicroSD card in it so wasn’t going to log anything!

I followed the instructions on the Wainwright Routes website but in reverse, so after the gate and sign turned left and followed the rough road signposted Low Parkamoor. For most of the walk there was a view of sort over Coniston Water - the cloudbase was substantially lower than Coniston Old Man.

I turned too early off the track towards the summit and therefore had to do some traversing. I’m trying to improve my navigation skills without resorting to the GPS - clearly have some work to do still!

The summit stones appeared eventually in what was now low cloud.

I setup the HF station comprising the Sotabeams QuadBand Linked Dipole, the FT-857 using the Sotabeams 10m compact travel mast. I also attached the 8 element linked coaxial colinear and the whole setup was fairly stable after re-positioning after the first fall.

I seem to be doing well with the number of HF and VHF QSO’s - in a little under two hours I recorded 55 QSOs including some HF SOTA S2S’s:

Date: 06/Jan/2019 Summit: G/LD-048 (Top o’Selside) Call Used: M0NOM/P Points: 1 Bonus: 0

Time Call Band Mode Notes
09:08z MW0XRT/P 144MHz FM Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:26z G7CDA 144MHz FM Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:29z 2E0BLL 144MHz FM Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:37z DL/PA3FYG/P 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:42z EA2DT 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:42z IK2LEY 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:43z CT1MH 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:43z PA0B 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:43z PA1BR 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:44z CT2OHV 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:44z ON6ZQ 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:45z HB9AGH 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:48z HB9BHU 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:50z EC2AG/P 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:51z 9A1AA 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:51z EA2CKX 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:51z ON5SWA 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:52z 2E0FEH 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:52z G4OBK 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:54z G0VWP 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:55z F4HHL 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:55z SQ9MDF 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:55z SQ9NOT 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:56z F6FTB 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:57z G0RQL 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:58z F5JSK 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
09:58z OE5JKL 7MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:02z MW0XOT 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:03z GB50WAB 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:03z MI1AIB 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:04z G4YBU 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:07z GI0AZA 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:09z G4OOE 3.5MHz SSB Nick
10:10z G0TDM 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:10z GB9WAB 3.5MHz SSB Dave
10:12z GM4WHA 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:13z G0VWP 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:14z M0BKV 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:14z PE1PIC 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:15z G0RQL 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:16z G0ELJ 3.5MHz SSB Dave Norfolk
10:17z 2E0FEH 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:17z G8ADD 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:18z M0WPS 3.5MHz SSB Wayne Birmingham
10:18z MW0ISC 3.5MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:20z G0CAM 3.5MHz SSB Cam 3m W of Truro
10:22z G6NHW 3.5MHz SSB Pete Birmingham
10:23z G0BPU 3.5MHz SSB Mike Ipswich
10:24z M0GQC 3.5MHz SSB Swindon
10:26z MW0WBG/P 144MHz FM Neil FT-270
10:28z M0LKB 144MHz FM Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:35z OH3GZ 14MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:36z EB1IFK 14MHz SSB Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:40z G1OHH 144MHz FM Thx for SOTA QSO from G/LD-048 73!
10:51z S59WT/P 14MHz SSB Gigo

About 3/4 of the way through the mist thickened which was now settling on the radio and equipment. I decided to pack-up and head to the first of three WOTAs on the descent: LDO-085 High Light Haw. Footing was reasonable on the way down with a semi-discernable path. Boggy in places but not unmanageably so. On the descent I just made out Arnsbarrow Tarn:

On arrival at High Light Haw you are greeted by a modest pile of Cairn stones on arrival! I used the handheld for the most part but with an alternative telescopic whip (see below). Sue let me know that M6ZVD was a recent convert to C4FM and with the help of the coaxial colinear we were able to complete a QSO, his first using that mode!

image

I overestimated the time it took to get to both Low Light Haw and Brock Barrow so both were fairly quick in succession. Signal reports for both were very similar to High Light Haw, if not better.

The descent to High Nibthwaite was obvious and uneventful with a mostly obvious path.


The bonus summit of Finsthwaite Heights near High Dam was next after a short car journey. I parked on the road below the car park and with tips from David found the bridge that crosses the stream. ‘Head for the top’ is sensible advice and actually it is possible to either follow the track as I did on the way up or just make your own way.

The moss in place on walls and trees was spectacular with vivid greens. The final set of QSOs ended in my FT1XD battery packing up mid QSO with 2E0MRR.

image

Thanks to all the chasers for today’s Wainwrights - I think I made the best of some fairly typical Lake District weather, my legs are certainly telling me so!

8 Likes