After a day on the Lake District Fells yesterday taking in Crinkle Crags and Bowfell we decided on the easier summit of Lord’s Seat G/LD-056 for a walk and some SOTA. I was somewhat surprised that I didn’t activate this summit in 2019, so it was well overdue a return trip.
Lord’s Seat (Whitbarrow Scar)
Equipment
RIG: Yaesu FT-857D
HF ANT: SOTABeams Quadband Dipole
VHF ANT: Spectrum Communications Slim-G
MAST: SOTABeams compact light-weight 10m mast
PWR: 100w via 2 x Zippy Compact 4S2P 30C Flightmax LifePo4 4200 mAh batteries
Strava Tracking
Our starting location was on the lane just to the South of Witherslack Hall Equestrian Centre. This is the quickest, but sharpest route up, but with a total ascent of around 200 metres it is all over very quickly!
Parking location, on the road at the junction
Ponies pretending to be cows
The approach to the Scar
Ascending through the woods
Native mushrooms
Breaking out of the woods
Obvious, prevailing wind
Clearly a hot day!
FT-857D at the ready
HF and 2m antenna deployed
The FT-857D really does make activating a pleasure with great signal reports and being heard practically first time, every time. There was deep QSB on all of the bands, so sometimes I had to wait for the propagation to come back up again. This rig really comes into its’ own when chasing S2S contacts as can be seen below - with a little patience I was able to complete 12 S2S contacts in a little under two hours!
The air temperature was perfect and Whitbarrow Scar, which is a nature reserve, was really quite stunning. I noted the amazing variety of wild flowers around me as I activated. The views to the rugged fells of the Lake District to the North, the Howgills to the East, and the coastline to the South, are wonderful.
We had a great time on the Scar, and should visit there again soon!
Mark.
All QSOs
2m Activation
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|13:11|2E0MIX|2m|145.525|FM|IO84fn|England|Derek Edge|
|13:12|G10HH|2m|145.525|FM||England||
|13:12|G7CDA|2m|145.525|FM|IO83qt|England|Douggie G7CDA|
|13:15|GM4WHA|2m|145.525|FM|JJ00aa|Scotland|GEOFF HARPER|
|13:16|G1JPV|2m|145.525|FM|IO83pg|England|Tony T C.|OP: Tony, QTH: Frodsham|
40m Activation
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|13:23|PA0B|40m|7.140|SSB|JO22hh|Netherlands|Rob Bennink|
|13:24|DG1NPM|40m|7.140|SSB|JO31tc|Germany|Norbert R Patent ( Nobbi )|OP: Nobbie|
|13:25|2E0FEH|40m|7.140|SSB|IO70VJ|England|Karl Kruger|
|13:27|EA2CKX|40m|7.140|SSB|IN83ta|Spain|PEDRO CHINCHURRETA JAUREGUIALZO|
|13:27|EA2DT|40m|7.140|SSB|IN92et|Spain|Manuel|
20m Activation
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|13:36|SP7DRF|20m|14.315|SSB||Poland|OP: Ern|
|13:36|DL2HWI|20m|14.315|SSB|JO61hu|Germany|Dietmar Falkenberg|
|13:37|OH3GZ|20m|14.315|SSB|KP11oq|Finland|JUKKA " Jack " KOVANEN|
|13:37|OE6END|20m|14.315|SSB|JN77pc|Austria|Andreas (endi) Gruebler|
|13:39|AC1Z|20m|14.315|SSB|FN43jj|United States|ROBERT W DANIELS|
|13:40|EA7GV|20m|14.315|SSB|IM87ec|Spain|JOSE L. MENJIBAR|
|13:41|DL1RAC|20m|14.315|SSB|JN58sc|Germany|Rainer Caspari|QTH: Munich|
|13:48|YO3CZW|20m|14.290|SSB|KN34bk|Romania|MITRUT MARIUS|REF: YOFF260|
Special mention here for my longest QSO of the day with Bob @AC1Z who has managed to chase me on several occasions trans-atlantic!
2m SSB Activation
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|13:52|2E0XYL|2m|144.300|SSB|IO83lg|England|Karen Richardson|
80m Activation
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|14:02|M1TES|80m|3.680|SSB|JO02RK|England|James Crawford|
|14:03|G0RQL|80m|3.680|SSB|IO70uv|England|DON ROOMES|
|14:05|GI0AZA|80m|3.680|SSB|IO64MW|Northern Ireland|Esther JM Harper|
|14:10|GW4VPX|80m|3.680|SSB|IO72va|Wales|ALLAN JONES|
|14:11|G4WSB|80m|3.680|SSB|JJ00aa|England|Bill Bowditch|OP: Bill|
|14:11|G4IPB|80m|3.680|SSB|IO84xp|England|PJ HODGKINSON|
|14:12|MM0XPZ|80m|3.680|SSB|JJ00aa|Scotland|SW Groves|OP: Steve|
|14:13|2E0ESY|80m|3.680|SSB|JO02IQ|England|MIKE Clitheroe|QTH: Norfolk|
|14:14|2E0FEH|80m|3.680|SSB|IO70VJ|England|Karl Kruger|
|14:15|GM4WHA|80m|3.680|SSB|JJ00aa|Scotland|GEOFF HARPER|
|14:15|G3TQQ|80m|3.680|SSB|IO94pf|England|J . DAVID ( DAVE ) BOTTOMLEY|
|14:16|M7TPE|80m|3.680|SSB|IO81pv|England|Chris Taylor|OP: Chris, QTH: Ross-on-Wye, PWR: 10w|
S2S List
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Summit|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|------------|-------|
|13:06|G4ZOI/P|2m|145.525|FM||England|G/LD-030|
|13:19|MW1BZJ/P|2m|145.525|FM||Wales|GW/NW-071|
|13:31|DL/OE7RDI|40m|7.130|SSB||Germany|DM/BW-853|
|13:38|SP9BIJ/P|20m|14.315|SSB||Poland|SP/BZ-033|
|13:42|EA4IS/P|20m|14.261|SSB||Spain|EA4/MD-007|
|13:46|YO6TJJ/P|20m|14.326|SSB||Romania|YO/MC-149|
|14:21|OK/DB7MM|20m|14.313|SSB||Czech Republic|OK/PL-034|
|14:24|S57MS/P|20m|14.290|SSB||Slovenia|S5/CP-019|
|14:28|GM4JXP/P|40m|7.150|SSB||Scotland|GM/ES-065|
|14:30|OE/OM1WS|20m|14.275|SSB||Austria|OE/NO-104|
|14:40|F/HB9EAJ|20m|14.305|SSB||France|FL/VO-005|
|14:45|EA4HFO/P|20m|14.237|SSB||Spain|EA4/MD-056|
S2S QSOs
Other Hunt-and-Strike QSOs
|Time|Call|Band|Freq|Mode|Grid|Country|Operator Name|
|----|----|----|----|----|----|-------|-------------|--------|
|14:51|DL5SH|20m|14.202|SSB|JN69cf|Germany|Hubert Suess|OP: Huburt, QTH: 150km N of Munich, RIG: ICOM-7000, PWR: 280w, WX: 32 degC, QSL|
We took a circular route this time (ignore the ‘spike’ in the Strava GPS log, I followed the wrong track for a while) which was a lovely walk but the path on the descent was decidedly nasty in places, maybe not one to try in wet or icy conditions! However, once down at the base of the scar the walk through the woods back to the starting point was lovely and peaceful.
Amazing Flora
Variety of Species
Views to the North
Views to the South
Boulder fields on the descent
The path down not easy footing at all in places!
Don’t overlook this modest summit when you visit the Lakes!
Thank you to all the chasers, and the S2S opportunities fulfilled!
