Thursday 26th November 2020 - The Cloud G/SP-015
I’ve not been flooding the Reflector with my daily activation reports for a while, instead just publishing updates periodically via my website - http;//tomread.co.uk - much to the relief of many, I’m sure. More updates on there, covering my August GW/MW activations, coming shortly BTW.
But thought I’d have a little change and post something today! Obviously, all my gigs and tours have been cancelled indefinitely, hence the non-appearance of the “SOTA on Tour” thread for a while. Fortunately, and unlike my bandmates, I had the maths teaching to fall back on. For the first half-term, I was at a school in Glossop in the High Peak. That sounds SOTA-friendly, but isn’t really. I did manage an after-school activation of Kinder Scout G/SP-001 once, but that was it - and that resulted in getting home after 9pm! I didn’t really enjoy teaching at that school, so at half-term, I bowed out, declining an extension to Christmas.
I actually ended up finishing that placement a week earlier than that as a result of catching Covid-19, which consigned me to bed for nearly two weeks. It was most unpleasant, but I have made a full recovery, as has Jimmy @M0HGY, Liam and Marianne, who all got infected too. Perhaps surprisingly, it seems I didn’t contract that illness from the school, but from the XYL, following an outbreak at her work!
I am now working up to Christmas, and perhaps beyond, at a lovely school in Leek, Staffordshire. It’s a joy to teach there and the children are fantastic. The school is also set spaciously in “country park” style grounds, and has a feel of an old rural university rather than a state-funded secondary school! I get a good 5K of my daily steps in just from moving around the campus in a day’s work!
The huge bonus of this work assignment, is that I can activate a couple of SOTA summits every day, and stay on the right side of the rules! Since the commencement of Lockdown #2, I had been restricting myself to The Cloud G/SP-015, a 20 minute drive away within my own local council area. (Shining Tor G/SP-004 would work as well).
With necessary travel to work into the Staffordshire Moorlands council area, I could justify activating Gun G/SP-013 on the way into work in a morning. This would require me to get up on a 0600 alarm every day, but I’ve now completed nearly two weeks successfully doing that! If the sole purpose of travelling into the Staffordshire Moorlands was to get some exercise and spend time outdoors on Gun, it might be questionable, but as I was required to be in the area for work every day anyway, it seems OK. In fact, more than that. The instruction is to minimise the amount of journeys taken, and I am now absorbing two periods of daily exercise into my work commute journeys - Gun on the way to work, and The Cloud G/SP-015 on the way home!
I’ve just been reading the fine detail of the Tier 2 and Tier 3 restrictions with the announcement that Staffordshire will be in Tier 3 as from December 2nd. Thankfully, it is good news, and my current routine can continue.
Except today.
I’m doing four-day weeks at the school in Leek, and today was my day off. That meant no Gun G/SP-013 - but I got up early and went to activate The Cloud G/SP-015.
I went, as usual, with ambitious and optimistic intentions to operate on lots of modes. I chose the 40m band and erected the halfwave dipole.
I spent some time trying to make contacts on JS8, but again without success. I think I still need to watch more YouTube videos on this mode to properly get my head round it!
With the time expended without success on JS8, I didn’t even bother to attempt SSTV or PSK31. I did however operate on FT8, CW, SSB, and 2m FM, making 52 QSOs:
40m FT8: 18 QSOs - DL, EA, F, I, LA, PA, SP
40m CW: 21 QSOs - DL, EA, F, G, LY, OE, OK, ON, PA, S5, SM, SP
40m SSB: 10 QSOs - DL, EA, F, G, SM
2m FM: 2 QSOs - G
70cm - 1 QSO - G
S2S: HB9AFI/P on HB/BE-101 - 40m CW, DB4LL/P on DM/BM-165 - 40m SSB, M6BWA/P on G/WB-012 - 2m FM and 70cm FM.
I was back at home by 1100, and ready to meet Marianne and Liam for a more substantial walk. We walked from home, across town to the Bollin Valley and picked up the Middlewood Way and Macclesfield Canal towards Bollington. We veered off to climb to Kerridge and then up to the White Nancy monument. We then walked the full ridgeline of Kerridge Hill to Rainow village, We then walked up the lane to rejoin the Gritstone Trail at the A537, following it over the hill to Tegg’s Nose tea room. After cake and hot chocolate, we followed the roads and tracks downhill back to Macclesfield and home - a 20km circuit that took us around 6 hours including stops for a picnic and later refreshments at the tearoom.
Over 30,000 steps recorded on my Fitbit tracker - a good day!
