Continuing my adventures in southern England I headed for Dundry Down, a 1 pointer near Bristol that appeared to be a doddle - a short flat walk from a car park. The approximately 40 mile trip took me 1 hour 45m - I’m having to adjust to slower road conditions here compared to back home in rural Scotland.
The summit area is accessed from the car park in Dundry village by a signed footpath via a stile over a metal gate. As the activation zone is very broad,I didn’t bother looking for the trig point, which appears to be located between quarry workings and a scrap metal business. There are also a couple of large comms masts near it. A fence runs beside the track and the fields on the “uphill” side had sheep.
I decided to set up in a nice open grassy area about mid-way along the track, noting a few cow pats around but no cows.
Activation: all SSB apart from one CW S2S
KX3, Sotabeams 20/40 dipole, 2el 10m yagi, 7m Spiderbeam mast, 6m al mast
I started on 10m as I could hear VK2WWV at 59. EC8ADS was first itl followed by RN3QN but sadly no VK. Then, looking behind me I discovered I was nearly in the middle of a herd of about 20 cows, comprised of mums with young heifers, who had evidently been out of sight at the other end of the field when I arrived.
The young ones are naturally curious and immediately set about investigating my dipole, using the mast as a scratching post and chewing the guys. When I shooed them away, one got its back leg tangled in the dipole and I watched aghast as it proceeded to pull the antenna off the mast. Another heifer then picked up my Sotabeams antenna bag and ran off with it - it was a bit like me trying to catch my dog at home when he’s grabbed a slipper. No chance. Also, I didn’t want to give chase too hard in case his Mum decided I was a threat. I wound the dipole up - thankfully it was still in one piece - laid the mast flat to discourage any more guy chewing and went back to the rig just in time to prevent another heifer walking off with my spare coax.
I went back to 10m, but every now and again had to QRX to shoo the heifers away, which wasn’t very conducive to relaxed operating. Got another 6 itl including F4WBN, K3TCU and W4GO. With the cows still munching away close by and also getting fed by Mums - amazing suckling noises!, I decided to pack up and find a cow-free zone, as I didn’t think it practical to try and put the dipole up again.
A passing dog-walker pointed me in the direction of another field over a stile, that was fully enclosed and cow-free. This was pretty close to one of the comms masts and I set up there undisturbed for the rest of the day.
40m produced a run of 14 including 6 EU but I knew from Whatsapp that Fraser MM0EFI wasn’t hearing me in Scotland.
Moving to 20m, Fraser was first itl at 59. Very nice to hear his dulcet tones. After that it was a run of 16, all EU apart from a really difficult one with 2I0WMN who was right down in the noise.
I spent the rest of the afternoon on 10m and was rewarded with some nice Stateside DX: WA7JTM, W7USA, N7AMA all Ariz, N6WT Ca and KC0HWS Co. Seeing a CW spot from K7GUD on W7A/CS-031 in Ariz and hearing him OK, I got the key out. Unfortunately, something wasn’t quite right with it, as the dot paddle was intermittent, but I managed a rather garbled exchange with Pat for an excellent S2S and the only one of the day. I then heard TI5VMJ working a pile-up and managed to get him itl as a non-chaser QSO. I also had short skip 59 QSOs with Italy and like my previous hill, some booming exchanges with S.Wales.
65 itl for the day. 73 to all.
Moo
