The Background
Gerald @G4OIG and I have been in conversation on and off for a couple of years via email and SMS. You see, Gerald likes his Uniques and has been planning and executing trips further and further north to feed his habit. His next trip was planned for 22/23/24th February 2024. “Could we manage a joint activation?”. Sure. I booked Friday 23rd off work. After a bit of back and forth chat, we decided to climb Morrone GM/CS-060, which rises from the highland village of Braemar, with tree clad (and nearby) Meall Alvie GM/ES-055 as a back up in case of poor weather.
The Call to Arms
I Whatsapped our group. That got immediate positive responses from Mike @2M0WNA, Chris @MM7RVC and Simon @GM4JXP. No firm plans were set, as we were still a couple of weeks out. Three days before D-Day and more WhatsApps. Simon had (wisely as it turned out) decided to sit it out and do an activation on the Saturday, withe a better forecast and still a chance of a S2S with Gerald. Chris and Mike were up for it and had chosen a couple of hills, so all good. Oh, and after our activations, we’d all meet for tea and medals at the Bothy cafe in Braemar, with Simon coming along for tea and no medal!
Thursday 22nd February 2024 - Disaster
I messaged Gerald. “I can tell you are on your way north. The temperature has dropped 5C and there’s fresh snow on the hills”. Later that day I heard from him. He’d been up a hill in the Central Highlands and had pulled a nasty groin strain on the hill. He was in a lot of pain and wasn’t going to attempt to drive up to Braemar. Damm! Last year he was stopped by snowdrifts and closed roads. Now this! Well, we’d all taken time off work (except Mike, who says he works but is really a gentleman of leisure) so we decided to go ahead anyway. The forecast was for sunny spells but a bit breezy, so -10C windchill on the summits.
Friday 23rd February 2024
This is my story, I’m sure the others will be along to add theirs.
I had a nice early morning drive up Deeside under blue skies, with frost on the ground. As I approached Braemar, the skies darkened, the temperature dropped and a glance up at Morrone showed cloud melting into the summit.
I set off from the duck pond car park at the top of Chapel Brae around 0910. The track is signposted and needs no further description except to say it’s a vehicle track that becomes single path, soon turning into an eroded mountain track, Despite the cool temperatures, I set off with just a base layer and thin hooded top, knowing I’d soon warm up on the climb. My bulky Buffalo mountain shirt was in my bag. Light snow fell. That wasn’t in the plan! I pressed on, hoping it was a passing shower, which thankfully it was.
ascending Morrone and a brief glimpse of sun
An hour later I could see the summit radio tower appear on the horizon. For the next ten minutes it didn’t seem to get any closer. It was pretty cold now, with an icy wind blowing across the summit. There was little snow, the recent thaw and wind scouring having seen to that.
Eventually I tapped the trig and then immediately retreated back 100m, aiming for hopeful shelter beneath a rocky outcrop I’d spotted on the way up.
quick summit selfie from Morrone GM/CS-060
Earlier in the week I’d made a new eight metre length of RG-58 type coax with waterproof BNC connectors at each end, the idea being it would allow me to get further from my antenna and into shelter, as well as reduce losses compared to my RG-174 on 28MHz. This allowed me to set up the 1/4 wave 10m band vertical above the rocky outcrop. I dropped down a couple of metres and gained partial shelter.
First things first though. A spot and a Whatsapp got Mike and Chris in the log from their nearby summits on 2m FM, followed by Hibby @MM0RFN who was at work at Westhill that day, some 50 miles east. Barely workeable with my VX7-r and Diamond whip and his Quansheng and rubber whip, but a satisfying QSO. I then settled down to do 10m SSB. Fresh snowfall blew across the summit and into my not-so-sheltered stance.
Mikes hill in the middle, with sunlight just kissing the summit
Mid-morning 10m can be a bit of a gamble, but I pulled in nine chasers in a rough arc from Romania through Greece to southern Spain and the Canaries. When that dried up, I thought that I’d better try at least another band or two. Lunch wasn’t until 1330 and I needed to kill time, despite the weather.
activating GM/CS-060
The problem here was I was using a monoband antenna and had only brought one mast. The 10m vertical uses its sloping radials as guys and I couldn’t be bothered re-guying the mast. In the end, I collapsed the Spiderbeams pole, keeping the 10m vertical in place. I hooked a carabiner into the top of the mast, threaded the EFHW through it and hoisted it back up. About six metres of the EFHW was roughly vertical, with the remaining 14m sloping gently down to crossed walking poles.
40m was a struggle with weak signals and fading, however, in addition to the usual inter-G contacts, I added a few Spanish for the first time in a while. No too bad for a low sloping wire with another antenna underneath it.
I was getting a bit cold by now, having been up there for almost an hour and a half. A glance at WhatsApp showed I wasn’t the only one. Everyone else was packing up and heading back for an earlier than planned lunch. I quickly packed up and headed back, the return journey taking as long, thanks to clearing weather allowing for photos and also stopping to watch RAF jets executing low flying exercises beneath me.
snowscape, with my rocky “shelter” in the middle
patchwork grouse moors, with Loch Callater in the distance
descending down to Braemar and the River Dee
The Lunch
By some miracle (given that getting all of us in the same room at the same time is akin to herding cats) we were all assembled outside the Bothy within a minute of each other. In Braemar it felt like a mild spring day, with warming sunshine. We spend the next wee while enjoying hot soup, sandwiches and cake and having a good old blether. We had one empty seat at the table for you Gerald. Hope you’re better and look forward to your next trip north!
clockwise - Fraser, Ann (Mikes wife), Mike, Simon, Chris
Addendum
When we parted, I headed to nearby Meall Alvie GM/ES-055, hoping for some late afternoon 10m DX. I did ask the others if they wanted to come, but they were all “busy”! It’s a well documented hill on here, so I’ll spare the detail of the short steep walk, however the tree lined summit offered perfect protection from the wind.
late afternoon walk to Meall Alvie
The 10m vertical and KX2 brought me a decent haul on 10m and 15m, reaching California for the first time (for me) on these bands. I was delighted to have summit to summit contacts with @WA7JTM Pete and @N6AN David.
10m, 15m DX. Also 17m to EU
Meall Alvie sheltered summit, complete with frozen bog
73,
Fraser MM0EFI
