G/SE-002 Leith Hill - 6/6/09

An errand down in Surrey meant that I could contemplate a quick trip over to Leith Hill if the weather improved. As it was, by the time I was leaving my errand just South of Guildford, it was really starting to brighten up so I made for the parking spot at Leith Hill.

Once again the G3CWI TomTom file led me through “Chocolate Box” villages in the Surrey Hills to the parking place for the short (1 km) walk up to the summit.

I was on a limited time schedule so I quickly put on my boots, slung the rucksack on my back and pounded off up the hill passing passing walkers, walkers with dogs, walkers with dogs with bags of poo and walkers with dogs with bags waiting for the dogs to poo… all good Saturday afternoon stuff.

I soon reached the summit tower and had a quick walk around admiring the view but avoiding the food servery as it was overrun by mountain bikers… more good Saturday afternoon stuff.

I walked away to a nearby hillock with a fantastic view and set up the 17m long wire with the PFR-3. I had not alerted or self-spotted so it took a while calling on 7.033 to get a response but things were soon rolling with a call from F2LG and were helped along by a call and spot from Jeff G4ELZ.

A nice run of callers followed including some good signals from G land. I must apologise to ON5KL who I had to ask for a repeat on his call. It wasn’t because he was weak or was too fast etc. It’s just that my PFR-3 hasn’t got AGC and he was so LOUD that I had to knock my headphones off for fear of being deafened as I couldn’t get to the volume control quickly enough. It was a SUPER FB signal.

Things were going fine until I had to spend a couple of difficult minutes working S2S with HA2VR/P. I was getting some static crashes so it took a couple of repeats. In the meantime I think a station thought the frequency was clear (with two weak stations working) and jumped onto a QRG nearby. I resumed my run but all hell had broken loose with QRM and people asking stations to QSY etc. It seemed OK for me with the narrow filter in the PFR-3 and my brain rejecting the QRM but I guess it was all to be expected on a field day. Anyway I managed to complete a few more QSO’s with some hardy souls like Frtiz DL4FDM and Roger MW0IDX… thanks for the perseverance chaps.

Having worked down the small pile I thought about going to 10.118 but realised time was getting on so I had to QRT, pack up and jog down the track to the car and get back to Guildford in good time.

So thanks to all 18 callers on 40m CW and special thanks to Jeff G4ELZ for the spot. It was lovely afternoon out on a new summit for me.

73 Marc G0AZS

We enjoyed Leith Hill when we did it, also on a summer Saturday afternoon. Very busy - but the cakes were worth queueing up for! We would have liked to have climbed the tower, but it was just closing when we arrived. I should imagine that a VHF handheld activation from the top of there would be easy. I understand that while Leith Hill’s summit is 2nd only to Walbury Hill in terms of height, the top of Leith Hill’s tower is higher than Walbury, so making it the highest point a member of the public can walk to in Southern England.

Tom M1EYP

In reply to G0AZS:

Hi Marc,
tnx for the fb qso. Your sigs were excellent even with -/./…/- qrm.
Have a nice Sunday and cu soon for some s2s.
Vy73 Fritz DL4FDM,HB9CSA

In reply to DL4FDM:
Hi Fritz

Thanks for the QSO in difficult condx. Yes maybe it was too much to work /P on a field day and expect to avoid QRM on 40m… hi. Hope to see you soon on the air and a S2S would be great.

73 Marc G0AZS

In reply to G0AZS:

Hi -Marc,
After you was spotted I was listerning on the 7Mc, but very weak copy only in short segments. Hope to work you on higher bands.

In reply to Z35M:
Hi Vlado

Yes, normally I would also try to work on 30m and then 20m but I ran out of time… sorry.

CU next time… 73 Marc G0AZS