Yes it’s a lovely hill (and a nice evening too). The NA contact made my day! I wasn’t too keen on the walk along the road from where I parked to the start of the path 
, I think there may be better parking points. edit - I did take a picture of the sheep who gathered around to admire my trans Atlantic exploits, but it won’t upload because it’s not the right format (Apple). I’ll have to spare you my SOTA snaps!
Just done Firle Beacon - another lovely evening walk with a heavy radio! Stayed on VHF tonight in windy and misty conditions. I wish my local SOTAs were this friendly to my knees 
Yes, that is not a good road to walk along!
You can park here and not have to walk on the road at all but there’s only space for one car.
I’ll add a note/activation report to the summit as going a bit off topic here 
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Well it is relevant as it is reasonable summit for S2S events on several counts: a reasonable take off to NW for USA and SW for VK, has a simple short route so it is not easy to get lost in the dark on the ascent or descent, unlikely to attract much interest from Joe Public… As for that parking spot, yes ears as well as eyes are required to make sure you get your car safely back onto the race track. I remember this very well even though it is over 10 years since I activated the hill. 
73, Gerald G4OIG
That spot’s quite overgrown and requires you to stop just over a blind crest to reverse in, so not entirely risk free!
I was looking down at Knoll farm (approx ST794371) from the summit and wondering if you could park near there (even across the road in the wide entrance to the field). Would probably need permission. There looked to be a direct route around the edge of the fields and up the saddle at about ST790375.
Where to go for this event, that is the question? Hope it’s a good day
Yes I’ve activated it 3 times and never seen another person!
I’ll investigate Knoll Farm next time.
Another good choice down here is Win Green SC008. 2 minutes stroll from car park, excellent US take off; had success with US S2S from there on a previous event.
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Based on my experience today (W2/EH-001), I want to encourage all cw activators attempting transatlantic QSOs to include 30M if possible. I think 20M is the primary band and 30M/17M are the secondary bands.
I had good copy on some EU stations on 30M and also had weak copy on K6HPX on a summit in California. 30M can deliver some surprises.
73, Barry N1EU
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Indeed, I copied the activator N1AW from a W1 summit some minutes ago on 30m (10.118).
I was trying my remote station for the first time with everything still local in my rental apartment and I could only reverse the experimental remote set-up and get back to the shack to call him about 2 or 3 minutes after I heard him CQing. I unfortunately never copied him again…
Shame…
My mistake when writing my post. It was N1AW. I’ll edit and correct that post. Corrected now.
Thanks.
73,
Guru
Will try my best to attend. Hopefully will get a Trans-Atlantic contact or two again, with my terrible CW skills I may even manage a S2S! Hopefully the antenna support won’t snap this time around.
I’d pray to the rain Gods but as anyone who has visited the Lake District will know, they are an entirely fickle bunch!
Regards, Mark. M0NOM
Just 2 weeks to go and Paul and I are still debating which summit to go for this event. We are looking for somewhere with a nice sea path, preferable on the west side of the UK. No doubt I will be accused of being already half way there… once again! 
Currently only a few activators have alerted:
73 Ed.
I think the lack of edit capability on SOTAwatch alerts is probably putting a damper on folks alerting far in advance. fwiw, I’ll also be listening/calling EU ssb activators that are spotted.
73 Barry N1EU
I wonder whether the “wash out” of VK last Saturday has also had an effect. The accuracy of most forecasts is only marginal this far off the actual day and not many are equipped for a protacted stay on a summit in inclement weather.
It should all come together during next week… and as for alerting, well Paul (G4MD / G6GGP) and I are still discussing summit possibilities. We will post our alerts as soon as we have decided where to go.
I am hoping we might get a few to participate from Central and South America to make this a truly Trans-Atlantic event.
73, Gerald G4OIG / G8CXK
If we can get some South American involvement that would be great. Perhaps South African as well?
Radio conditions seem to have gone back down to bad (K coming up and SFI going down) - ready for the CQ WW DX SSB contest this weekend (ha ha).
We’ll have to hope for the best - access to my chosen summit requires use of an over 80 years old single seats chair lift that is stopped if there is any amount of wind, so I’m hoping for OK terrestrial and space weather!
73 Ed.
Propagation doesn’t affect HF contests Ed. Irrespective of K and or SFI, 10m will be full of stations and everyone will be 59 no matter how many repeats of their details where needed. 
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Spot on Andy - they’ll also still be 5KHz wide drfifting and operating on frequencies that they haven’t checked are free and complaining that people are QRMing them … Hey a normal contest…
Actually I’ve noticed it’s the wanna-be contesters and LIDs that cause the aggro - the top contest Ops DO follow the code of contact and are as angry with these idiots as we are.
At least next week we only have the following contests on at the time we’ll be out:
Ukranian DX contest HF (SSB & CW)
Marconi Memorial VHF CW contest.
ARRL November sweepstakes (CW)
Collegiate Championship (CW)
IPA Radio Club Contest (2/4) (CW).
Ed.
?
I can edit my own alerts.
Are you sure? This is what the rest of the SOTAwatch world seems to be getting for the last few days when they try to edit their alerts (although you can delete your alert and re-enter):
Ahh! Apologies Barry - I used to be able to edit… I haven’t had to for a while
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The latest solar prediction from the RSGB news broadcast today has a coronal hole on the suns face turning towards Earth on next Saturday (November 3rd) - this is the same Coronal Hole that took the K Index up to 5 the last time it was facing Earth.
If we are lucky and the solar winds only arrive on Sunday we could see improved conditions for the transatlatic S2S Party. If they arrive on or before the Saturday, it’s going to be hard work!
Fingers crossed!
—> my planned summit as it looks today!
Terrestrial weather forecast - an absolute soaking on Friday but no rain on Saturday and 10 degrees, so with any luck the snow will be gone - the biggest worry is if there are high winds. If so, the built in 1954 Hoernle Schwebebahn, will stop running (it was out of service for three days last week already). As it is scheduled to go out of service for maintenance and inspection on Monday the 5th. if there’s not many customers it could easily close early on Friday evening. I think I’d better have a backup summit planned!
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