I asked Richard @G4TGJ if he was up for a joint activation and he said he was. I’d not done Fountains Fell yet this year so when Richard told me he was planning to do Fountains Fell G/NP-017 and Pen Y Ghent, I jumped at the chance to join him to do Fountains Fell.
Richard decided to park in Horton, whereas I parked on the road up from Stainforth which goes between Pen Y Ghent and Fountains Fell. I wasn’t joining Richard on Pen Y Ghent, so our end points were different. I managed to pick up a bit of EE phone signal at the honesty box and I managed to load up APRS.FI to see that Richard’s LoRa tracker was tracking him about half way between Horton and my location. Great, it meant I’d timed it about right. I continued on the road a bit further, parking my car near the cattle grid at the start of the walk for Fountains Fell.
Leaving my backpack in my car, I set off walking back along the road and down the farm track towards Pen Y Ghent, where I found Richard walking towards me. I’d not met Richard in person until that point.
We walked along the road back to my car where I collected my pack and then we set off up Fountains Fell. The view of Pen Y Ghent from the road was beautiful!
Richard had decided to do his usual 30m CW, so I opted for 40m CW so as not to ‘steal’ his chasers! I set up my dipole and MTR about 100m away from where Richard was.
I thought 40m worked rather well and I was especially pleased when Ignacio @EA2BD called in for a S2S from EA2/NV-095 - I thought that was quite a good QSO for 40m. I was so happy that Ignacio had called in, it was probably the QSO of the day for me - thanks Ignacio! Also great was working Pete, @G4ISJ. Pete was the guy who introduced me to my beloved MTRs, way back in 2012. Paul @M0CQE was my 4th QSO, so qualified the summit for me - thanks Paul!
I wasn’t sure on Richard’s time scale as he was doing another summit afterwards so after my 22 QSOs and the replies had reduced to nil, I packed up.
I walked over to Richard and found him patiently trying to work David G0EVV/P on The Cheviot, G/SB-001, on 30m, which he eventually did. Richard set up for 2m FM and he found a QSO with Phil, G4OBK/P, who was on Great Whernside, G/NP-008. I’d secretly hoped that Phil would call in whilst I was operating on 40m CW, I didn’t realise he was out enjoying the sunshine! Richard kindly let me borrow his handheld and I was able to work Phil @G4OBK for a bonus S2S. It was so great to be able to share my day with friends from far and near.
Fountains Fell G/NP-017
I gave Richard a lift up the road so that he could go on to do Pen Y Ghent whilst I headed for home.
It was a super day and it was awesome to spend some of it with a fellow SOTA activator and home brewer - thanks Richard!
73, Colin
