Yes definitely a biting cold wind.
On the subject of Lora trackers, my newly programmed tracker (courtesy of Mark) didn’t seem to be picked up at all on the hike up Pike of Blisco from 3 Shires Stone. I switched it off at the summit, but it was on for the ascent and descent. I forgot to turn it off for the drive back and it seemed to get picked up just west of Ambleside and then tracked me all the way to Windermere despite being shut in the boot.
I spent Friday night on Seatallan G/LD-025. I made lots of 2m contacts but found HF to be a little quiet.
Friday night was quite windy, so I camped on the western edge of the activation zone to get some shelter from the wind. This meant I was also sheltered from much of the Lake District by the summit area, so 2m to the east was poor.
It was a lovely night though, with fantastic views.
I was amazed by the change in the weather. I spent three Fridays in March camped on summits (not all SOTA) with temperatures dipping to minus 6 Celsius. The walk up to Seatallan was shirt sleeves weather, and even the 30mph wind on the summit didn’t really feel cold
Camping on Caw Fell at the end of March, tent covered in ice
Busy Lake District on Saturday
Only took a couple of photos during the day.
Had a great time on Old Man of Coniston despite the chilly, strong breeze. The views were fantastic. I managed 27 QSOs in all, quite a number were S2S within the Lake District. I set up my HF dipole for 15m and despite calling for some time on CW and FT8, I only managed 1 FT8 contact, HF conditions were truly dire. A good job I had VHF gear!
Enjoyed meeting up in the pub and also saying hello to SOTA VIDs (Very Important Dogs) Woody and Jet. 
73, Colin
There are still some black spots with LoRa APRS coverage in G/LD, particularly in and around Keswick, but people are actively working on it. It’s only when you get above a certain height that the iGates around the edges, or the digirepeaters on G/LD-025 and GDF start to pick up pings. I spent some time this week wandering around the south Lake District and was extremely impressed by how extensive the coverage was. It’s come a long way in the last 12 months, this was the coverage (iGates and digis) May 2024 :
This is it now:
Dave
G6PJZ-7 6 2025-04-05 10:51:57 2025-04-05 15:20:28 IO84KK > IO84OF 19.4 miles 318° 2025-04-05 15:20:28
Did you increase the track tail length on aprs.fi? It defaults to 1 hour so to see your walk earlier in the day you need to increase that. Also, I’ve found aprs.fi can be quite slow to load tracks but if you zoom in it works better.
Friday
G/LD-035 Great Mell Fell
Quick activation on the way up. Only 5 contacts on 2m, 3 S2S.
Wasn’t too windy to start with but had started to pick up by the end.
G/LD-033 Lord’s Seat
Looked like a nice easy stroll next to the B&B - it wasn’t. Well it was OK but wasn’t expecting the scramble, and tried to avoid it by following an ambiguous “path” sign and got stuck in a bog.
Sunny but very windy on the top.
Breakthrough from somewhere on the FT-3D, Sotabeams filter sorted it.
Didn’t manage the Lord’s Seat to Lord’s Seat summit to summit.
Saturday
G/LD-004 Skiddaw
Got the bus to Keswick (heaving) but didn’t see as many people as expected on the mountain.
Very very windy on the summit.
All sorts of radio shenanigans - 2m FM, SSB, DV, FT8 and that 70cm S2S with Simon in GW/NW. Used the FT817 from the start so no VHF breakthrough issues.
One of the biggest walks I’ve done in a long time, back nearly went twice on the way down. Got back to the B&B and lay down then couldn’t get up again so gave the Elleray a miss - sorry folks.
Sunday
G/LD-015 Grizedale Pike
Parked part way up Whinlatter Pass to save a bit of climbing (route on SMP). The lower car park was full by 9:30 but the others had spaces.
Struggled up the near scramble at the top so decided to go back down via the forest visitor centre and also get some food.
Missed all the early S2S but managed to catch M5OTA on his. Breakthrough again on the FT-3D making it useless so swapped to the FT817.
G/LD-037 Little Mell Fell
On the way home, a nice short walk to the summit. A tractor run went past as I was getting my boots on at the car - mostly antique Massey Ferguson types with a shiny new New Holland about 3x the size of the others joining in.
As the wind had dropped I took the 2m beam with me which resulted in my FT8 signal being heard in Skye and Orkney. Also got S2S with Tom and Jimmy in Scotland, and M7OPK nearby.
I’d also taken the AliExpress HF whip, but had left the radials in the car so had to make do with the 6m of coax as a counterpoise. Scraped 2 contacts on 40m SSB despite QRM from a French station and others. 17m seemed popular on Sotawatch so retuned for that and got another 3 - interrupted by an Italian station shouting “DX DX 17m” periodically.
What a fabulous weekend!
Friday Blencathra
Saturday High Street and Stony Cove Pike
Sunday Red Screes
The common theme Blue Sky and dusty boots.
Apologies, ran out of time to visit Windermere.
New experience was activating HF with KX2. Amazing to have QSO’s with 5W and a short GP.
Thanks Mark for organising.
David G0EVV
Roy M0TKF
It’s not natural (for Cumbria) - they should be muddy. The fields and gardens - not to mention my recently-planted wildflower seeds - will need rain soon. Normal (weather) service resumes from Sunday.
Amazing weekend!
Got a lot more Lake District under blue skies pictures for the thread!
Thursday
Drive up. The Old Man of Coniston G/LD-013 from Walnar Scar Park. Delighted to start off with an ice cream. Beautifully sunny, dry under foot, but chilly breeze on top - set the scene for the rest of the weekend. Quick run on 20M CW got me my contacts.
Then drove on to the National Trust campsite at Wasdale Head. Not cheap, but would recommend - lush showers with underfloor heating, and a great location!
Friday
Nice to start walking straight from the campsite without a drive. First up Great Gable G/LD-005. Arrived on the summit to find Ian @M0JIA already there operating on 2M. Was a pleasure to both meet him and pinch his radio and pile-up to get my contacts! Got Mark @M0NOM in the log S2S and thanked him for organising the splendid weather for us all! As I’d got 4 in the log and a long day ahead, didn’t bother setting up HF, thanked Ian for his SOTA Sherpa services and headed off. Route selection on the steep scree-y bit on the way down was sub optimal, but I made it!
Then onto Kirk Fell G/LD-014. Strong, chilly wind on top, but the smaller of the two shelters was perfectly placed to shelter me from the wind, but leave me in the sun, so it was very pleasant. 20M CW on the KH1 got me my contacts no problem.
Route selection again felt sub-optimal on the way down. I’d turned back at what looked to me to be a chest height vertical step down, followed by more steepness. Was going to have to find an easier route, or turn round and head back down the way I’d come up. Then a fell runner trotted past, stopped above the bit I didn’t like the look of, took a quick glance at presumably the route on their watch, did a small nonchalant shrug to themselves and then proceeded to skip effortlessly down it like some sort of mountain goat, apparently without even using hands! I figured if they could do it that elegantly I could manage some sort of beached walrus holding-on-very-firmly with hands bum-slide down it. And at least if it went wrong there was someone to hear the scream and the thud! Thankfully made it all OK.
Then up to Pillar G/LD-006. Legs starting to feel tired by now, but nothing too taxing. Summit cairn on top to stay out of the wind again, although not as strong now. Felt like it took a while to scrape 4 contacts on CW, but maybe just that tiredness kicking in. Then a pleasant stroll back down to Wasdale, a big tea and those lovely showers!
Saturday
Scafell Pike G/LD-001. Again, walking straight from the campsite - albeit I did have to drive 100M to the car park as I had to vacate my pitch. Was, as you’d expect on a lovely Saturday, very busy. Including with some sort of fell race, full of runners ascending and descending at highly impressive speed! 2M from the handheld on the summit got me my contacts, no problem.
Next the drive to Windermere to meet up with everyone in the Elleray. Nice to be able to exchange stories of the weekend so far and talk Sota with so many people. I owe Paul an apology - turns out whilst I’d posted plans on the forum for Helvellyn round to St Sunday Crag on Sunday, I’d mistakenly alerted this lot on Saturday, hence the confusion! (As well as for Scafell Pike, which would have been keen even for me!). Post pub food and chat, it was off to the Gillside campsite near Patterdale.
Sunday
No way the ambitiously planned Helvellyn, Seat Sandall, Fairfield, St Sunday Crag combo was happening. Definitely didn’t have the enthusiasm / legs left! So just did a straight up and down of St Sunday Crag. Which was nevertheless lovely. Easily qualified on 2M with just the handheld and whip. Then ate a leisurely lunch out of the wind. Debated whether I could be bothered with HF, such a chore to pull the whip up on the KH1! Glad I did as I got what IIRC was my only DX of the weekend @WX1S. Slightly regretted it when I lost what limited ability to morse I do have and it took me about 472 goes to get @M6GYU 's callsign for an S2S on G/NP-008. Even more mortifying when I then vaguely recalled the call sign from posts on here associated with past professional morse activity, and my morse got even worse. Sorry about that David and thanks for your patience! Anyway, I was clearly done and it was time for the stroll down and drive home, satisfyingly SOTA’d out after an amazing weekend!
Thanks for the S2S and great report, and well done for all the summits!
I’ll just add my quick report. I did Dale Head G/LD-020 and Robinson G/LD-021 on the Friday. Blue skies with a varying Easterly wind. We all moaned about the cold wind but truth was if you were in the sun you were fine.
I had to do the summit dance to get a spot on for HF with my position East of the summit on Robinson.
When I tuned on 40m I heard Dave @M0JKS on G/NP-027 - then later he was coming through 59 on 2m as well!
Great to meet some of you in the pub on Friday evening, and that everyone had a great day on Saturday/Sunday.
Cheers, Mark. M0NOM
Tony.
Lovely write up with some stunning photography.
Don’t worry about about the Sunday experience (QTH Great Whernside, G/NP-008) I’ve been in a similar position myself more than once since I became a ham… 
as I’d had a gap of over 50 since last using morse in the RN…
I’d been listening to you work through your callers and I thought you were doing fine, so when I called you I just assumed you were having a bit of key trouble. I also did wonder that I might have got into the (bad) habit of not making by last dash in my ‘Y’ not quite long enough causing you to misread it as a C . 
Anyway it was absolutely stunning weather - I did Buckden Pike earlier in the day and you were the only Lake District s2s I got all day from a total of 45 QSOs.
Normally, my sending is completely subconscious: I think of a word, phrase or callsign and I hear the correct characters being sent via my hand, key / paddles and rig. The same with receiving, I hear the incoming Morse and the characters appear on the page (albeit in my crappish handwriting).
But occasionally, I notice I’m mis-sending a particular character (like the Z in my callsign so it comes out like M-I) and the more I notice it the more it happens – embarrassing! In the end I have to give the offending character my full conscious attention so it comes out correctly.
Is this just a left-handed brain / age thing or do others have this problem?
Thanks for organising Mark… it was a great event. Roll on 2026.
Cheers Gerald
When I sat my morse test (many years ago) I made a hash of sending “L” and “F” in the middle of words. The examiner asked me to send a string of “L” and then a string of “F” - he assumed it was nerves.
I passed, though you would never believe it if you heard me sending CW now!!!
Thanks David. I’ve corrected the write-up to be G/NP-008 for the summit you were on. G/LD-015 that I did have in there was the other S2S I was thinking of for the report which was Mark back on the first summit of the weekend.
I don’t think it was your sending. My morse ‘stamina’ isn’t that great and I sometimes get to the point where bits of it stop working / get mixed up and a C - Y - Q confusion is a common symptom.
The fix is of course simple - more practice!
I don’t think its anything to do with age or ‘left -handed brain’. - so no worries there 
I think its just a fault some people get into - as you say most folk’s morse becomes subconscious and as you know what you are meant to be sending you don’t hear your own morse in the same way as the recipient does so you should notice the extra dit here and there, but not wether you are sending, say a Y, as in my example with a shortened last dash. It just doesn’t register to the sender.
I check my morse from time to time by recording my own morse and playing it back. Its probably best to send some foreign text or random letters - something you will not remember!!! Then play it back and see if what you copy matches what you were meant to send… It works best if you do not use English as you may anticipate/guess what word or letters are coming next and you may not notice that the odd dash, normally the final dash in say the letter O for example has a shortened dash. Running words/letters together and mainly only paddles is extra dits on I, S, & H,
