Conachcraig is a straightforward 4 pointer on the approach to Lochnagar GM/ES-008 from the Spittal of Glen Muick car park, which gets very busy during tourist season. I arrived at 0900 local and there were about a dozen cars already parked up. Daily fee is £5.
The Lochnagar trail is signposted and its about a 1 hour plod up a decent atv track, if rubbly in places. The section approaching the turnoff for Conachcraig has been resurfaced recently with compacted silt and gravel to superhighway standard compared to most trails up here. The turnoff point is marked by a large cairn.
The turnoff track is just a single track through the heather.
This track gets quite steep just before the summit and it took me another 35 minutes to walk up.
The summit is flattish, with some small granite tors and a decent view of Lochnagar to the West.
Wx was perfect for SOTA, sunny with no wind.
Activation
KX3, PA50+, 1/4 wave GPs for 10/12/15/17/20m and a Sotabeams linked 20/40 dipole. All SSB.
40m: starting at 1045z, just 10 itl but good sigs all round. Chris, 2M0RVZ, was first itl
20m: 26 EU, with 3 S2S
17m: Open to Asia and EU. Found JL8PZO calling CQ, and managed to get a report. Good run of EU with 2 more S2S plus EA8CCA.Then KD8TGA in Va called and gave me a great report but he was the only Stateside chaser at that time.
15m: 6 EU plus EA8CCA again
12m: First activation from Conachcraig - 5 itl, incl SV and EA8CCA again
10m: some short skip to EA and CT and then I heard the FP5KE Dx-pedition working split and itl first call, followed by KP4PR
Back on 17m: an excellent run of 23 incl N4EX and W4GO
Back to 15m: after 7 EU chasers, I was called by BA4TB, which was a nice surprise- my first chaser from China. Then Hermann YB3RPS called - my second QSO with him as we’d worked a few weeks ago on 20m when I was activating a Trig.
Final run on 10M: 18 itl with 10 from USA, including N0RX and W7USA. QRT at 1530z with 126 itl. Top chaser was Pablo, EA3EVL on 4 bands. I was very happy with the way the groundplanes seemed to perform, so will be using them going forward. 73 to all.
Views from the top and on the way back down:
