Hi all,
Thanks to everyone who worked the group of us from the Cambridge University Wireless Society over the weekend.
Seven of us (Dom M0BLF, Mike M0IKY, Jenny M0JKN, David M0TNR, Rob M0VFC, Dan M0WUT and William M0ZXA) headed up to the Peak District for a couple of summits. We stayed at the Royal Oak Inn campsite, which was entirely pleasant and had the added bonus of the pub on site!
Weather on Friday night and Saturday morning was decidedly wet, so we went for a cooked breakfast in the pub instead of trying to cook bacon in the rain, then set of for Kinder Scout.
Parking in Edale, we walked along the Pennine Way, up Jacob’s Ladder, and to the trig point at Kinder Low before backtracking to activate out of the “tourist zone”. 2m FM with a SOTABeam worked well; HF was harder (KX3 to 40m dipole and IC-706 to 15m dipole, both also with ATUs to give us less efficient access to other bands), but we all qualified the summit.
The weather having improved, we decided to make it a circular route, and headed up to Kinder Downfall before turning east. Unfortunately the path marked on the map wasn’t great in reality, and at some point we went wrong, making very slow progress through the bog.
At this point, having a good set of maps, compasses, and GPS receivers was very reassuring, and we did find our way back on to the path eventually, before making our way down Grindsbrook Clough and back to the Nags Head pub for a well-earned dinner.
Sunday morning brought much better weather, and a quick trip to Shining Tor, for an altogether much easier walk. 40m was also in much better shape, allowing M0BLF, M0WUT and myself to activate it on CW. We also managed to work Martin G3ZAY operating as GB3RS at Bletchley Park on 2m SSB, which was a bonus.
A quick stop at the tea room at the bottom, and we headed back to Cambridge.
73 and thanks all,
Rob, M0VFC