I don’t usually report on my activations, mostly because I don’t do many.
A job change has left me with lots of leave to use up and plenty of time to do those jobs around the house I should’ve done already. With high pressure dominating and a cracking forecast I was going hill walking, the jobs can wait for the snow/rain.
I parked up in a farmhouse yard below Corryhabbie Hill in Glen Rinnes at 0910; the friendly farmer allowed me to keep the car off the road. We had a chat and commented on the superb conditions before I set off up to ES-031, Corryhabbie. I made good time with the going easy thanks to the frozen heather and any snow giving good grip.
I reached the summit at 1050 and set about getting MM0GYX/P up and running. Warm and comfortable in my 2 man bothy bag (indispensable) I quickly made 46 qsos on 40, 30 & 20 metres with the kx1 at about 3 watts. Thanks for the calls, it was great fun.
With the kit packed away I headed towards my next interest, ES-033, Cook’s Cairn. There is a path but it was a few foot deep in snow but not steep and easy going again. Half way down there was an alarming looking cornice with a 15 foot drop, which I avoided. I reached the col and the slog up the other side began. 250 metres of uneventful ascent later I arrived at the summit of ES-033, rosy cheeked but feeling good.
Lunchtime came, I enjoyed the views whilst chomping away, the visibility was wonderful, gin clear. To the south I could clearly see Lochnagar and Ben Avon, to the north I think I caught a glimpse of Ben Klibreck.
Just as I was setting up the station the silence was broken by an airborne visitor, I think it was an Auster spotter plane, it was green and wearing D-Day markings. It sounded great and the friendly occupants waved as they floated over the summit low enough to be very clearly seen. It then descended with the contour of the hill and turned north.
Once again in the bothy bag I got through 55 qsos, I wasn’t going to visit 40 metres this time as I wanted to get back to the car before dark, but as there hadn’t been many inter-G qsos I had a re-think. The station was packed away quickly when the calls dried up and I set off on the final sortie back to the farmhouse at 1430.
Unusually I had some 270 metres of ascent to make before finally descending towards the farm. This was hard going as the powerful sunshine had thawed the earlier crusty snow surface. Luckily the heather was still frozen so this helped progress.
I made the return trip in exactly 2 hours and was on the road home by 1645.
I had a great day, thanks for the many contacts, 101 between the 2 summits, strangely the same amount achieved on Friday in the Convals.
73,
Ian MM0GYX