Hi
After the balmy day out on Black Hill earlier in the month, Culter Fell GM/SS-049 redressed the balance…
I approached from the Coulter village side, having discarded the idea of combining Culter Fell and the superbly named “Gathersnow Hill” GM/SS-077 , which is nearby due to the weather forecast of possible snow…
There was a possibility of getting out of the cloud ie above it, but that didn’t happen and the wind was “cool”, so the tarp was deployed to hide under.
Fired up the tablet and radio and listened around. Plenty going on on 40m so a quick call had @MW0PDV on GW/NW-039 and @2W0LWF on GW/NW-003 in the log - a nice start. Karl @2E0FEH was next then Ester and Ian booming in with a big signal @GI0AZA@GI0AZB .
Many thanks to all chasers and apologies for taking a few “goes” to catch call signs and get them recorded. I got very cold fingers when out on DunRig a few weeks ago (think next stop is frostbite) so have now to wear gloves even when using the android tablet with VKPortalog. That can lead to some missed characters as well as just plain wrong ones and so requires some reworks. That’s my excuse anyway - the XYL has a different view - something to do with getting old…
2m FM yielded only Peter @GM0VEK - probably as I was lying in the tarp (ie a few metres below the summit) and I sure wasn’t standing up in the snow that had decided to set in!
Only one response (that I heard) on 10m Stavros @SV2RUJ
Anyway, here are a couple of pictures of the activation site and the view on the way down, there was only mist and whiteness on the way up - some of the whiteness being the chap in shorts(!) who scampered up the hill a few minutes ahead of me… Each to their own!
Looks mighty chilly Alan. I well remember when Paul G4MD and I activated that summit followed by Gathersnow Hill. We had static snow on Gathersnow which curtailed our activation and we descended “on instruments” in a white out. The summits are quite a pair and the walk back to the car was quite a long way, but overall the day was enjoyable.
Well done on the activation. Hopefully catch you on a summit soon.
Thanks for the S2S Alan, it was nice to get you ITL. Your conditions look similar to mine, no tarp needed on my end though, as there were some nice big rocks to hid behind!
I cannot recall a properly warm day there. It’s a big boy of a hill for the area so it does tend to catch the crud like Tinto White Coombe and Broad Law do. But White Coombe has the edge for outright cold activations. I was keener (and much younger) in those days.
Last time I was there I thought I was going to do a “cheese wire” with the fence wires near the Trig trying to amputate my lower leg.
5w into an @HB9EAJ style end fed. I think the take off favoured your direction, more by luck than design.
Certainly had good audio from the west and perhaps less good from the east of the country. Conditions were very variable though.
