Good to catch you s2s today.
It was a bit soggy on the walk in to GM/SS-094 Blackhope Scar today but some good Qso’s and a fair few s2s, sadly none of the team up in the North East.
Andy
MM7MOX
Sorry to have missed you today Fraser, from GM/SS-094 Blackhope Scar. I too managed a Qso with Jim MM0GLM, but from the South.
You definitely had more snow than we did but it wasn’t a day for hanging about too long on summits anywhere in Scotland.
Still planning to listen out for you on Friday.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Hi, never heard anyone further north than Jim and due to forgetting my big jacket, was getting a bit cold in the murk, no snow, just cloud.
Good to get a complete to Blackhope Scar from Andy and Chris, then a nice call and qso with Lee from Cruach Ardrain which he described as “full winter” hope you got down okay Lee.
4m was attempted and 1 qso but then a failed connection brought the day to a close.
No herdwicks around here but this fine beast asked what I had been doing.
Happy birthday Alex, sorry I never reached you.
Alan
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GW/MW-002 was just as misty when I was up there today 
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I heard you working Jim. Briefly. Looking forward to Friday!
Awful when I bought it. Things that have made it much better, bearing in mind this is a 37 year old vehicle:
Replacing the semi-dissolved foam seal that helps seal the engine bay mounted heater unit to the bulkhead.
Replacing the fan slider switch. Most of the current was going into heating up the knackered switch contacts and it was blowing 30 amp fuses. I guess the fan motor was only seeing half voltage.
Fitting an upholstered bulkhead 1m behind the seats, reducing the area to be heated by half.
Between them, I now have only warm air entering the much reduced cabin space cabin, and the blower is now receiving full volts, so shifting much more volume.
In addition to this, I fitted a diesel cab heater, mainly for when were sitting all day at rallies. On full blast it defrosts the vehicle in no time from any temperature. On a low setting, it uses about 500ml of diesel a day.
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Sorry I missed you all today, I never heard anyone?
I was on a double POTA activity and only managed to chase Uwe DM5RE/P ON DM/BW-019 ON 20m,
It looks like you still had fun despite the snow. Love the proper vehicles for the terrain and weather up there!!
Tony
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I was inspired by this topic to go up Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales to try for an S2S or two to Scotland. I don’t think I’ve ever worked Fraser @MM0EFI but I do follow his YouTube videos etc. I know Fraser doesn’t do CW, so I’d have to step out of my comfort zone and try the more difficult mode of SSB. I’m not much of a talker and it doesn’t take much for me to mess up when on the mic!
The alerts were for around 11am, so I left home just after 9am having packed a Radio Kits Explorer SSB rig, which was built for 40m. I was on air for around 1040am, which I thought should be just about right for time. I set the SOTAwatch filters to 40m only and waited for a Scottish station to show up! I’d taken a Morse paddle so I worked DM5RE/P on DM/BW-019 using CW for a bit of entertainment.
Switching back to SSB, I found a Bunkers On The Air station calling CQ, who also happens to be a Sotari - Richard @2E0XGO.
I finally saw a SOTA spot in the form of Rod M0JLA/P on Sugar Loaf, GW/SW-011. I managed to work Rod, who was overloading my receiver despite having the attenuator switched on!
M0JLA/P GW/SW-011
It got to around 1115am and there was no show from the Scottish stations, although I had received a HamAlert notification for Fraser on 2FM. I decided to call CQ myself and I had quite a number of callers, including an S2S with MW0PDV/P on GW/NW-043.
I was thinking about packing up but I saw a spot on SOTAwatch for Andy MM7MOX/P on GM/SS-094. I managed to score an S2S with Andy on 40m SSB.
MM7MOX/P GM/SS-094
I told myself that I’d wait around until midday and I did a few loops around the summit to keep warm whilst checking SOTAwatch on my phone. Upon returning to my rig, I heard a QSO in progress, one of the stations being Ben Nock, G4BXD, in the Military Wireless Museum using the call sign GB0MWM. I knew about Ben and his collection of radios from Practical Wireless magazine, I used to be an avid reader when Dr Mannion was the editor. I waited for the QSO to finish before calling Ben. It was great to achieve a QSO to the Military Wireless Museum.
I was starting to feel cold and as it was so near to 1pm, I adjusted my final pack up ambition to then.
What did I see on SOTAwatch, just as I had all but given up? Yup! A spot for @GM5ALX /P on 40m SSB! I tuned to Alex’s frequency and managed to get an S2S with him and wish him happy birthday! Result! I heard Alex work one more station after me and then declare his station QRT due to the adverse WX.
Cold!
All in all, a successful trip out. Disappointed not to get Fraser, but awesome to get Alex GM5ALX.
I laughed at Phil, @G4OBK when I overheard him expressing the rarity of an SSB QSO with me!
73
Colin
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I was around the radio but no HF activity from you guys. Maybe next time 
Nice defenders.
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Extreme NE Scotland to the Lakes on 2m FM would have required special conditions, however thanks for making the effort. I toyed with taking the ft-857d for 2m SSB, but due to -10°C windchill, decided against it.
Glad you had a good day out Colin. 
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We were both carrying HF radios, however didn’t have the appetite for it after 30 mins in the freezing wind.
Next time 
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It sounds like my mate’s Series III was. What you really notice is how slow diesels heat up in the cold WX. Both diesel cars I have had have creature-comfort optimised heaters so you get warm air quite quickly and hot air after 10mins. Now that is less of a problem when you have heated seats and heated steering wheel. You really only need the seat heater on its lowest setting for less than 5 mins to take the bone-numbing chill out of the leather. The climate control faffs about blowing the air up the screen or around the footwells so I leave it on auto but the best bit is the four dash air vents have the usual open/close controls but there is a temperature mix control that is fully manual and lets you decide how hot or cold or warm you want the air blowing onto your face etc. It is inspired because you can have the heater set to blowhard and hotter-than-the sun yet still get icy fresh air blown on your face.
The old 2.5L HiLux was a real low revving banger of a diesel even though it was a high pressure direct injection engine. It took forever to warm up such that there was a 250W electric heater element in parallel with the engine water powered heater. You hit the button and it pulled 25A and the revs went up from 700 to 1250 to ensure there was enough drive to the alternator to charge the batteries (2x12V in parallel) and drive the heater+blower and probably the HRW. Though mine always had a top cover on the pickup so the back window was always blocked. The only reason to put it on was to melt snow/ice that squeaked and rattled between the top box and the glass !
Those little diesel space heaters are really quite impressive.
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Toyotas used to have some pretty cool stuff, like the 12v Land Cruisers with 24v start. All stuff that has been value engineered out over the years. They don’t even have beam axles on the Hi-Lux now.
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Hi Colin,
Thank you for Qso today, I knew you were mostly CW but I didn’t realise how rarely you did SSB.
It was a cold day wherever folk were up hills today but a great turnout for a Winter midweek activity.
Andy
MM7MOX
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You could see that value engineering on my 2007 model. The engine, gearbox, axles, transfer box would go forever but mine blew a hole in the radiator, bearings went on the alternator, water pump was on the way out. There was all of sudden tin-worm everywhere. The propshaft centre bearing hanger corroded to nothing a new one was welded up. The brake pipes all needed replacing as I had two separate failures when out driving. The exhaust heat shield under the cab corroded at the mounting holes and fell off. The fuel tank (plastic) mounting brackets corroded and snapped and the tank ended up sat on the propshaft UJ. More welding. There was ominous looking areas in the rear chassis and the rear leaf spring hangers looked well passed their best-before date.
This was all on a 14 year old 91000 mile vehicle. OK they do salt the roads up here and it was a commercial vehicle used for work before I bought it but towards the end I was strongly of the opinion it had been clocked and 91000 was probably 191000 from the way it was rotting. And the frame by the wind shield mounting rubber was corroding from inside out.
In the end some itinerant types came round asking the residents of my road if we need gardening jobs doing etc. and one of them asked if it was for sale. I sold it for cash on the spot which was produced from a roll of £20s that you could “choke a dozen donkeys on”. It had 11 weeks MOT left and I didn’t want to try to sell it with no MOT and lots of rot or pay for the next set of MOT failures My neighbour has a Toyota RAV4 short wheelbase that is 21 years old and has only had a tiny amount of cosmetic metal repairs done. So they did used to make good vehicles.
It was so much fun to drive. Being RWD when it was damp and it was unloaded you could hang the back end out on bends and roundabouts like a complete loon. And driving a few German sporty cars you soon learn nobody lets you in or lets you turn right against the traffic. But nobody, and I mean nobody, messed with me when I approached in a dirty white 10 year old pickup being driven in a spirited manner. Payback for never being allowed to turn right
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A friend had Land Cruiser 80 series with a 4.0 litre straight six turbo diesel (no intercooler) engine. That engine was good for 1,000,000km easy. Very well built and massively understressed.
We were on a desert trip together in Algeria. I was in a 300tdi Discovery. I took a shot of driving the 'Cruiser one day. It was a tank, like driving an armoured vehicle. The only drawback was that it kept sinking in soft sand. The Discovery would just float over.
The LC’s were favourite with the locals though. Sometimes they’d rip past us, looking strange with their skinny sand tyres, with similar shape and tread to an aircraft tyre.
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Same class as the Mercedes OM617 5cylinder 3L diesel. That was good for 100000km when maintained. Even Mercedes haven’t made quality like that for a long time.
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Thanks to all the birthday wishes on air and on here from everyone! It’s been an exciting day getting up GM/ES-040…
As Fraser shared last night, the snow gates were shut due to the snow. When the sun came up this morning, it was a glorious sunny, crisp, cold day with amazing views of the hills. At 8:30am when I was about to leave the gates were still shut…I was going with a work friend up the hill and he felt confident the gates would be opened by 10. After passing endless signs telling me the road was closed, and finally at 10:15 am when I arrived at Cock Bridge…they were still shut. My friend was about 15 minutes behind me, and so I waited for him by Corgarff Castle.
I’d looked at an alternative route to the summit from here, in case the gates were closed. It is possible but it’s twice as far, at around 18.5 km each way.
This was too far for my friend and if I was going to do it, he’d maybe only come part way. I was also trying to calculate how long we’d be and if I’d get back home in time for birthday tea with the family! As we were chatting we heard a loud rumbling of a gritter coming along the road. We watched him go up past the trees to where the gate is…road noise stops…engine quietens…CLANG! of metal against metal… that would be the gates being opened! So we headed back and got to the snow gates and sure enough he’d opened them and was heading up. He gave us the thumbs up and we followed.
Once he opened the gates at the ski centre we were off to Tomintoul. We parked in the village opposite the hotel, rather than the parking on the route, mostly to be certain we could drive in and out again, and got ready to roll.
At 9.9 km each way, this was a much more reasonable distance, and on a good day (i.e. not today) would probably only take about an hour to 1:15hrs to ride.
The track down to the bridge (around 5 km) was absolutely treacherous with ice and in some places was just sheet ice across the whole track. I only fell off once and somehow managed to do a magic trick of falling onto my feet in a standing position as the bike slid out from under me and away down the road. We dropped our seats, put out our feet as stablisers and skated down some parts of it. The track is also quite undulating and several ups and downs to make you groan.
I just happened to check my phone and saw Fraser had spotted. We were down in the valley by the river and I didn’t expect much luck (although I was getting phone signal of course), and put out a call to him. He was in a QSO with GM0HLV but then we made contact. Chris was setting up but we kept going and when I checked later I’d missed him.
The bridge across the river wasn’t much better, probably made worse by the fact cold air can get under as well as above it, but we made it over okay. We met some coos at the remote Wester Gaulrig Cottage, and at this point had probably been going for about 50 minutes.
We were past half way but still plenty to go, and now the steeper parts of the route were upon us. We could see the summit in the distance, and partially doubted that it was correct as “it seemed so far away”. We were correct, it was the summit!
I dumped my bike at the base of the final ascent, but my friend Mike, on his ebike, gave it a shot to get to the top. The snow had drifted much more here and snow pattern told tales of strong winds. The cloud was coming in now and the good views across to Ben Avon and surroundings had gone, with only huge clouds looming over the distant high summits.
We made it at 12:30, 1.5 hours after leaving Tomintoul, and much later than my alert. Fraser and Chris were just back at their landys for my first two QSOs on Cnap Chaochan Aitinn. I called a few more times on 2m but didn’t have any luck. I wasn’t that patient with it though and chose not to setup the slim g but just go straight to 40m … I’d come all this way, I couldn’t leave without the 40 on 40 on 40! The wind was brutal and oh so cold. We did have some equipment that we could hide behind, and took some shelter there whilst I tried to setup on 40m.
I’m sure I could’ve used the small towers there to my benefit, but I was also wary of the wind turbine and getting wire caught in it, so I setup my mast down wind of it, trying to keep it close enough so I could operate from the shelter. Typically, as soon as I spotted and called CQ once the mast moved, then fell. It was tricky finding ground to get the pegs in for the guys…so I recuited another guy to hold the mast whilst he ate his super noodles!
I managed 6 on 40m, including a very nice summit to summit with Colin, @M1BUU, as above, before I had to call QRT on the pile up. It was just too cold in the wind, even in the “shelter”. Quickly packed up and whilst admiring the views I realised the wind turbine noise had stopped and there was, in fact, no wind whatsoever! I got the HT back out and messaged Dave, MM7HMA, a local who’s just past his test and was keen to get some QSOs, and we had a nice chat. The stillness didn’t last and the return of the wind reminded us it was time to head back.
Back to the bike - still there 
- and back to the car. It’s mostly downhill, but still a few steep climbs as the path goes up and down. The temperature had come up a little, and a fair amount of ice had melted so the journey was less hazardous. I was back home in plenty of time.
Not quite the S2S action hoped for, but still a successful trip and good day out! 
Plus one more complete for Fraser
I think no-one comes here as there are other summits in the area you’d do first, but the fact you can cycle right to the top does make it quite a unique one, plus with plenty of refreshment options in Tomintoul for afterwards!
This made me smile 
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Excellent effort Alex and friend. I wonder though, will he ever go back out with you after that introduction to SOTA?
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Mike’s quite the outdoors type…so there’s hope. I’ve given him the foundation manual and nag him constantly to get his licence. He says he will…eventually He was in the RAF in the 80s working on Radar so is definetly interested in the topic/knows things already.