I’m mostly posting this because we tried an alternative route up Bardon Hill G/CE-004, which worked for us. For the first time I tried to add a route to sotamaps, but I gave up as the height data came out haywire, but it should be obvious from the description.
Bardon Hill G/CE-004: 11th April 2026
We picked Bardon Hill because the weather forecast had bands of rain crossing the country and we stood some chance of arriving after one rain band had passed and leaving before the next one arrived. The first rain band ended as we went past Leicester.
We’ve previously parked in the housing estate to the north of the hill, trying not to block driveways and then taken the obvious path south. Instead we parked at SK472137 where there’s parking for 4or 5 cars at the start of the footpath by Upper Greenhill Farm. From there a pleasant path leads gently uphill around the edge of what looks to be filled in and regenerating quarry with young trees and rough grassland. There were some nice real bluebells by the side of the path. A few steps down at the end of the path to the transmitter site track which we took past the transmitters and then on to the trig point. It took us just over half an hour to get to the top. The ascent had been sheltered with some nice sun, but the wind really hit as we approached the trig point.
Martyn struggled to get the HF dipole up, fighting wind, trees and limited space, ending up trying to operate while steadying the base of the pole in his arms. Caroline found a little shelter one side of the trig point and bungeed her antenna to the rocks. After a slow start she had a good run on 2m and 70cms, with even a bit of a pileup on 70cms, ending up with 35 contacts. Meanwhile Martyn struggled to 3 60m contacts before trying 40m where he managed an S2S and a couple of other contacts. He then called a mid-Wales summit on 15m while using the 40m antenna and worked all 3 operators! Caroline missed the S2Ses by being too busy on VHF/UHF! She did hear a faint CQ SOTA on 2m but lost it because a couple of other stations were chatting on the calling channel 
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We retraced our steps back to the car. It remained nice and dry with quite a lot of sun throughout the walk and activation, but there was a heavy shower soon after we set off - good timing.
The Cloud G/SP-015: 13th April 2026
Our return hill choice was again influenced by the weather forecast - mostly ok but possibly heavy showers. It was a lovely bright sunny day as we drove to our normal parking in the Timbersbrook car park. It was warm enough that we started off with just jackets over shirts, but the relatively light breeze and some clouds at the top provoked us into adding an extra layer. Once up the muddy steps from the road and main track, we then took the path that runs along the scarp edge to the summit.
Caroline set up by some rocks a little down from the trig point, while Martyn fought the heather try to set up HF. Caroline was just working an aeronautical mobile station on 2m when Martyn came over asking for contacts as he had a broken antenna. Martyn worked the /AM station and three more on 70cms after Caroline had moved there. With the hill qualified Martyn went back to try to repair his antenna. Caroline had a reasonably steady stream of 2m and 70cms contacts ending up with 24 contacts in total.
With her lunch eaten Caroline took Martyn’s over to him, where he was about to give up after having croc clipped a broken link and opened various others with still high SWR. He then realised the antenna wasn’t connected - summit brain! Plug it in, close appropriate links and it worked! So he managed to get a few contacts on 60m and 40m but it was past the time we should have packed up. Towards the end of her activation Caroline was called by Rod MW0JLA and Viki MW6BWA on Long Mountain GW/MW-026, who were in a hailstorm! Caroline worked them both and later Martyn managed to work Viki before she headed off the hill.
We could see some distant clouds some of which looked to be precipitating and took the more direct route down, staying dry all the way. Again there was a sharp rain shower soon after we set off - more good timing.
