So, day 2 of my week of activations started with the intention of doing both G/SP-015 and G/SP-013, however a conspiracy of sat-nav malfunction (operator error) and the promise of home made lemon drizzle cake from mother, meant just the one activation. Stunning views on a lovely morning on The Cloud.
9 contacts on 2m SSB, with just 3 on FM was a big contrast to yesterday on G/SP-002!
2 S2S contacts with @G4TQE on G/WB-010 and with @M6BWA on G/WB-022. Thanks to the 12 chasers in total
Usual set up of FT817, LiPo battery and MFD 2m dipole.
Day 3 - G/SP-017 Billinge Hill & G/SP-010 Winter Hill:
So today was a day of setbacks and mishaps! The journey to Billinge Hill was uneventful and the short walk to the summit was much as I remembered it. Although others have said this summit isn’t as bad as some make it out to be, and that is probably true… it is still an uninspiring lump in my opinion.
I arrived on the summit to find fellow activator G7OEM already set up and working. He mentioned that the nearby masts where causing him much difficulty. I decided to try with the Wouxun handheld on 2m FM; it had appeared to go deaf! Getting the 4 contacts was a struggle but finally managed it finishing off with a S2S with @g3cwi /p on G/SP-002.
I then set off for what should have been a short drive to the starting point for my planned cross country walk up G/SP-010. However a number of road closures and diversions made the drive a longer one and I arrived to find that the country lane I had planned to start from had parking restrictions imposed due to Covid-19! So, running late I decided to drive round to the access road to the Winter Hill TV transmitter site; only to find that road was closed too! Not to be deterred I parked as close as I could to the road closure and set off walking the long and boring route up along the tarmac road to the activation zone. Once there I set up behind a stone wall and secured 10 contacts on 2m FM and 1 on 2m SSB.
Day 4 - Kinder Scout G/SP-001
Today saw a marked change in the weather, gone were the blue skies and high temperature replaced by grey skies, drizzle and cold; (Just what we’re used to in these parts )
I set off on my favourite route up Kinder Scout from Chunal over Harry Hut and Mill Hill, up to Sandy Heys trig point which is within the AZ.
The rain held off for most of the walk, just a couple of light showers on the ascent. The summit was in cloud and very poor visibility, but I didn’t see another soul
11 contacts from here with 2 S2S with @m6bwa /p and @g3cwi /p on G/WB-015 and G/SP-005 respectively. (Finally managed a 2m SSB contact with Richard on his revisit of the SP summits quest )
I forgot to take a photo of the radio set up on this one!
