G4YSS:G/NP-004 & G4LWW/SK, 08-09-23

[G4YSS]

Activation of G/NP-004 & G4LWW Funeral on 08 September 2023
Issue-2 (corrected name error)

**Part 1: G/NP-004; WHERNSIDE on 2m-FM QRP

G4YSS - unaccompanied
All times BST (UTC plus 1 hour)

Equipment:
Two Icom IC-E90 (Nos 2&3) 4-Band, 5W V-UHF H/H with IC-BP217 (1.3 Ah Li-Po) batteries
(Both the above rigs were on trial today)
J-Pole vertical antenna on short 2-section mast
Pack Weight: 7.3kg (16 pounds) inc. 500ml water

INTRODUCTION:
The SOTA came first chronologically but the real purpose of this journey was to attend the memorial service of an old friend in Sedbergh, Cumbria. That place is at the other side of the Pennines from Scarborough and a 200 mile round trip. If I set off very early I could activate something on the way and still get to the service for 2pm. It would also guarantee the frustration of driving in traffic but which summit?

Wild Boar Fell is just a short distance from my route and I hadn’t been up there since 2017. With 432m of ascent from Mallerstang, NP7 is not the quickest or easiest SOTA, especially in hot conditions but climbing early would counter that to a degree. However, as I later found, circumstances would put NP7 off the menu and I was to end up on Whernside NP4.

EXECUTION:
Setting off at 05:15, I chose the direct route from Scarborough via the A170, Thirsk and the A684. The first 30 miles was fog affected but I ran out of that well before it began to get light. The next problem was Appersett just past Hawes where the weak Ure bridge was coned off for 6-weeks. After consulting the atlas, plans were amended from NP7 to NP15; Great Knoutberry Hill from the Coal Road but after arriving at the parking spot for NP15 I changed my mind again in favour of the bigger mountain NP4, arriving at White Shaw Moss on the Ingleton/ Dent road at around 08:15.

ROUTE (again):
The Whernside path starts from SD 7219 8184 on the gated Ingleton to Dent Road, which runs to the west of NP4. Cross the stream and climb over the first hill after which a boggy low point has to be crossed. Then it’s uphill all the way. Only 2km of walking (one way) with a height gain of 280m is required. Waypoints are as follows: SD 7244 8173, dog-leg right at SD 7310 8163 then SD 7316 8150 or alternatively follow a more direct path to a steep section at SD 7354 8143. After that the summit trig point is quickly attained. This is a much quicker and easier way of conquering Whernside than the approach from Ribblehead.

After walking a few metres down the road to the gate (where I see a stile has now been added) the ascent took 35 minutes from 08:36. The route was deserted but at the summit there was quite a crowd presumably of ‘Three Peakers?’ The scenery over Ribblehead and Ingleborough was unfortunately obscured by haze today so after a quick photo, I set up a short distance west of the wall and north of the trig.

G/NP-004 WHERNSIDE, 736m (2,415ft) 09:11 to 10:59. 21 Deg C rising. Wind zero to 2 mph. Hazy Sunshine. WAB: SD78. IO84TF. Trig: TP-0702. Vodafone coverage 4G.

145.400 FM - 11 QSO’s:
Starting with IC-E90 No2, 5-Watts to the J-Pole and a self-spot, the following stations were logged:

G7SXR Mark in Leeds, who I’d heard briefly at 06:40 while driving between Masham and Leyburn; GW3YQP/P Chris at Colwyn Bay; G6LKB Dave followed by Dave’s Grandson Clifford M6LKB both in Ulverston. These QSO’s ensured qualification which is always the first priority.

Next: M7JHB/M Andrew using an FTM4000, ‘Static mobile at home on the edge of Scales Moor at just under 1,200 feet ASL.’ M5XYZ (ex 2E1XYZ & 2E0XYZ) reminded me of the M5 ‘AB’ licencing system; Chris in Morecambe SD46; 2E0VOE Simeon in Eccleshill, Bradford (IO93DT) ex Heaton & Idle but now in WAB SE13; G0PMJ Dave in Darlington; M0CQE Paul QTH Oldham and M0ALA Andy 5 miles N. of Barnsley in IO93GO.

Mark G7SXR; Simeon 2E0VOE; Dave G0PMJ and Andy M0ALA had apparently formed their own SOTA alerting system which is how they knew to come up and work me.

The last station worked was 2E0VCK/M Kevin ‘44 miles from away’ static mobile on Saddleworth Moor. All outgoing reports were 59 with 53 to 59 coming back. After starting from home so early and despite the delays caused by the A684 closure, this was a leisurely and enjoyable activation spanning one hour.

Curious Visitors:
Near the end of the activation I heard a shout from the main path at other side of the wall. Two young ladies were asking me what I was doing. ‘Is it radio?’ ‘Are you broadcasting?’ The latter terminology evoked a sharp intake of breath, I explaining that my licence didn’t cover that. Amateur radio and SOTA was explained in brief much to their delight when I mentioned how far you could get with the right equipment; none of which I had with me today. I was apparently not the first summit radio station they’d spotted.

These bubbly sisters were from Bournemouth, adding that there’d been too many tourists there this summer. ‘I understand, ‘I’m from Scarborough.’ Unusually they had become interested in the WW2 relics scattered around their town and ‘HUFF-DUFF’ was mentioned. Ah, ‘HF direction finding,’ said I. You won’t come across too many people who know what that is but there are apparently three of us here. They asked if I knew of any WW2 ‘leftovers’ around the Whernside area. The only thing I could think of was the Wellington Bomber wreck just 500 metres ENE of where we were standing but after looking at the steepness of the 500 foot drop-off, they perhaps thought better of it.

70.450 FM - NIL:
Using an IC-E90 with extended 2m rubber duck, I tried calling CQ SOTA several times throughout the activation and despite a self spot, nothing was heard on 4m. Where was John MW1FGQ, I wondered?

Descent:
The descent took 26 minutes until 11:25 which left ample time at the car to change and get to the funeral. Traffic on this road is infrequent, not least because of up to four gates which need to be opened and closed behind you but a runner arrived at the car parked just behind mine. ‘Who would be crazy enough to be running up hill and down dale in this heat?’ The man, who lived in nearby Austwick, described his two-hour Sunday morning run starting up the route I’d just come down and then descending right into Dentdale. The return was via some of the other surrounding peaks. Despite my having drastically changed appearance for the forthcoming event, he asked, ‘Were you the one on top of Whernside with the aerial?’ I saw him glance at my 5/8 VHF whip on the car roof as he spoke.

This was my second cue to promote amateur radio while for his part he described some of the many runs he’d been on, the hardest by far being the Bob Graham Challenge. 66 miles, 42 Lake District summits and 27,000 feet of climbing apparently in 24 hours! It sounds impossible but it’s true. Having left his fluids at home his destination was Ingleton to buy some more. I handed him a spare half-litre bottle of shandy which had been next to the ice bottle in my car and he seem very grateful.

While driving down Deepdale I stopped to check a battered car that had obviously left the road on a corner and rolled down the steep slope. It was empty and looked like it had been there for some time.

Ascent: 281m (922ft)
Distance: 4.2km (2.6 miles)
6 SOTA points
11 QSO’s on 2m-FM. Nil on 4m-FM

In Conclusion (NP4):
Apart it from being very warm the weather is hardly worth a mention. Starting at over 1,500 feet ASL makes for a quick and fairly easy climb which nevertheless took its wages in sweat. I tried my best not to stop and apart from two texts which needed a reply, that’s mostly how it was.

I was grateful to the ops who took the trouble to call in but there were a few regulars missing such as Walt G6XBF, Sue G1OHH and a few others. However this was an easy going operation, good signals, one caller at a time more or less and no rushing from anybody not least myself.

Both IC-E90’s were tried out with reasonable success though 2E0VOE reported a sudden drop in my signal from Rig-2 until Rig-3 was substituted. What caused that I don’t yet know. Rig-3 seemed to work just as well but it seemed to run a little hotter at first. Full confidence is still some way off but things look promising. Future 2m-FM activations can be covered by one of the IC-E90’s plus my VX150. The latter has recently been upgraded to a 2.2Ah Li-Ion battery and charger at significant cost but greater convenience.

Thanks to ALL STATIONS WORKED and to the spotting app which is still working perfectly so long as you type in the frequency in while wearing spectacles. No, I wasn’t actually attempting to transmit FM on 14.400 MHz!
73, John G4YSS

Part 2: Memorial Service for Edward Wood G4LWW:

I’m including G4LWW Edward in this report in case anyone who knew him might see it?

I was introduced to Edward in 1985, by the late John Raw of Killington Hall, a place which became our favourite B&B destination for many years after that. John introduced us after realising that we both had callsigns. Edward was born in Halifax in 1937 before moving to Bradford, eventually Settling at Kiln Haw in Garsdale where he kept chickens.

We were very much contemporaries. Edward was licenced with G4LWW in 1981 and G4YSS was issued to me three years after that. He had a well creosoted lean-to shack equipped with a Kenwood TS530 and a KW E-ZEE Match feeding a doublet via ladder line. For a few years there were regular skeds between Garsdale and Scarborough on 160m CW.

One rainy day in September Edward and I climbed up Hugh Seat to activate rare WAB area SD89 Cumbria with our son’s in tow. We used my CIR Astro 200A HF rig, a dipole and a lead-acid battery. The five of us got thoroughly wet but Edward seemed to enjoy his first ever contact with the WAB net.

Later on when I started SOTA, Edward encouraged me to take short-cuts up his fields to activate G/NP-023, Aye Gill Pike or Rise Hill as it is known locally, usually returning in a dark winter’s evening for a cuppa and some of Mary’s drop scones.

When our holiday coincided with ‘Hay Time’ my young sons would be invited to drive the David Brown tractor pulling the hay cart along the fields, while the adults loaded the bales. What a thrill for them. Edward was a member of the Eden Valley Radio Club when Bill Capstick was in charge and I remember driving up the M6 with them one club night, to the police centre in Penrith for a demonstration of police vehicles.

Edward had a severe stroke twenty years ago where unfortunately he wasn’t found for several hours. It removed his ability to speak or send Morse anymore and his amateur licence was surrendered. Nevertheless he was always cheerful and never bitter. Recent ill health took its toll but he was improving after covid, pneumonia then flu before suddenly passing away aged 86. What a character he was!

The Service at St. Andrew’s Parish Church in Sedbergh was not strictly a funeral; the latter having taken place earlier in the day. Over seventy people attended; not bad for an older person especially in a somewhat scattered community and Edward’s son Peter read the eulogy. It was very dignified and traditional memorial service was followed by a wake which was good for me. After Whernside in the heat even three large mugs of tea didn’t satisfy but later I was invited back to an old friend’s house for a fourth. It was a chance to meet Edward’s Grandchildren and some people I haven’t seen for a few years. Although I didn’t see him much of late due to geography, I will certainly miss Edward.

CHRONOLOGY:
05:15 Left Scarborough in fog. (A648 closed at Appersett until end Sept)
08:15 Arr. White Shaw Moss via A684 & Dentdale (inc brief detour to Coal Rd)
08:36 Walking from White Shaw Moss
09:11 to 10:59 WHERNSIDE G/NP-004
11:25 Return to White Shaw Moss, Kingsdale
12:50 Parked on Back Lane, Sedbergh
14:00 to 16:00: Memorial Service & Wake at St Andrew’s, Sedbergh
16:15 to 18:00: At friends in Sedbergh & Garsdale
20:20 Arr. home via A684, detour at Appersett bridge via Redmire, Thirsk and A170.
Miles Driven: 203

G/NP-004 Photos: 4-6-7-11-13-15-19-21-37p-39p-28-30-31-33-40 Below

Above: The ‘new’ stile from the road. Cross the stream

Above: The boggy low-point after the first minor hill

Above: Arrival at G/NP-004 and a crowd of ‘Three Peakers.’

Above: Summit notice

Above: Building materials have been there for a good number of years

Above: Two IC-E90 Handhelds and the log amended from Wild Boar Fell to Whernside

Above: Activation of NP3 on 2m-FM. J-Pole

Above: The two enthusiastic and curious sisters from Bournemouth

Above: Ingleborough G/NP-005 through the heat haze

Above: The ‘standard view’ of Ribblehead viaduct marred by haze today

Above: On the way down. Car just visible

Above: A thorn between two roses. The parking place for Whernside

Above: The runner after his 2-hour session up hill and down dale enjoying a cool shandy from my cardboard ‘fridge.’ ‘Cheers’

Above: The remains of a mishap in Deepdale

Part 2: Memorial Service for Edward Wood G4LWW Below:

Above: On the way to Sedbergh. Winder & Crook are the hills

Above: Sedbergh

Above: St Andrews Parish Church, Sedbergh

Above: G4LWW Order of Service & Edward tending sheep on the slopes of Aye Gell Pike (Rise Hill) G/NP-023 1958

Above: Edward’s son Peter at Kiln Haw, Garsdale

G4LWW Historic Photos Below:

Above: Edward’s doublet with G/NP-023 Aye Gill Pike in the background 1986

Above: Edward in his shack with my son Phil now G0UUU (2E0ABI at the time) in August 1992

Above: In Mallerstang before WAB Sq. SD89 Cumbria activation in 1988. Edward G4LWW with L-R: My family Andrew, Denise, Phil and Edward’s two sons Stephen & Peter.

Above: Edward G4LWW/P in Worked-all-Britain area SD89 Cumbria

Above: Haytime at Pinfold, Garsdale in 1991. G4LWW driving. Peter and Stephen with NP23 Aye Gill Pike behind.

Above: Edward G4LWW at Kiln Haw 2014. RIP

[G8CPZ]

@G4YSS

This is a much quicker and easier way of conquering Whernside than the approach from Ribblehead

I always go via this route. Sometimes at the summit, tourists (who usually come from the mass parking at Ribblehead Viaduct) ask me what’s the best way ‘back’. Back! Back where?, I’m thinking, as if there’s only one way of getting to Whernside summit.

@G4YSS

‘Is it radio?’ ‘Are you broadcasting?’

‘Are you monitoring the low-flying jets?’ is the most common suggestion I get nowadays from walkers. On another G/NP summit recently a bloke told me his group of four were debating what I was doing, spying or maybe measuring the weather. I said, they were right the first time but my cover story was pretending to be a radio amateur sending & receiving Morse messages with other hill-top hams.

[MM0FMF]

@G8CPZ

spying or maybe measuring the weather.

You need to perfect a comedy fake “Russian” accent to reply. I’ve written this before but I had stopped and was admiring and photographing Her Majesty’s fine antenna array at Inskip. I was on the way home from Blackpool and diverted to Inskip for a better view. Standing in the back of my SUV with the tail gate open so I could take photos over the hedge. A bloke who was mowing his lawn wandered over and asked if he could help. Well d’uh… no! In my best Borat style accent I said “Pleeez, ambazzadoooor says me speak no peepullzz. Bye Byes” and I got down and drove off. I could see in the mirror him standing there with his mouth wide open. Well it made me smile, YMMV

Nice pictures John. I haven’t seen a Vauxhall “shove-it” Chevette on the road for a long time now. Howmanyleft says 303 of all types are currently “taxed” out of 415000 sold in the UK. The Chevette most like to be seen now is the hot 2300HS variant. These are being restored and placed back into use whereas the others are becoming rarer. I bet that tractor would be collectible too as well.

I didn’t realise you’d been faffing about doing portable radio for so long

[G4YSS]

Responses to both above:

Thanks for writing.

Andy G8CPZ:
Yes, unless you’re doing the Three Peaks of Yorkshire (2003) and merely want an efficient way of putting the required equipment at the top, this is the way. 29 minutes comes to mind one winter’s evening but that’s 20 years ago when NP hills looked strangely reduced in stature. Now they increase in size a bit more as each year passes! This one’s a ‘snip’ going up that way and it’s good and high too, overlooking lots of fertile chaser ground where VHFM activity actually still exists (unlike where I live sadly).

I too have had a few odd queries including the standard ones of ‘fishing?’ (‘Yes - for signals’) and ‘monitoring the weather?’ In fact there was a popular and amusing reflector thread on this very subject a number of years ago. I’ve never had spying mentioned but in certain countries that accusation might not fill me with the mirth that would result here.

Andy MM0FMF:
‘I got down and drove off.’ I bet you did – before the police arrived HI. I see that ‘No Photographs’ notices have appeared up at GCHQ. Things have got a lot less relaxed than when SSEG ran two special event stations from inside their grounds in the noughties.

2300HS sounds very dangerous! – all mine were 1256CC as I remember. I had a succession of ‘Shove-its.’ In fact three totaling £725 and 66,500 miles from 1990 to 2000. They were all scrapped totaling £0. My XYL had one too. Their engines would start to give out after about 75k. I remember swapping the engines from the red one to the white one using a crab apple tree, beam and hand winch – see photo. Only 303 left you say. That’s sad. I know they were not the best of cars and they’d readily rot and/ or smoke but for an old heap lover like myself they were ideal for keeping the image going.

As for the tractor a 1968 David Brown Selectamatic 770; I served an apprenticeship at a tractor company 1966-69. Not DB but International Harvester GB Ltd. at Idle, Bradford. (It was the Jowett works before that). IH’s would be cheaper than DB’s I would say (especially DB6’s!).

And ref /P faffing. It was portable from the start for me. I started with 10FM and a dipole up a tree in Langdale Forest. My first venture onto the WAB net was /P from OV00 in 1987 and I was doing 2m from summits before that. I tried HF DX but it didn’t satisfy. I just craved fresh air!

73, John

[ZL4NVW]

@G4YSS “Their engines would start to give out after about 75k. I remember swapping the engines from the red one to the white one using a crab apple tree, bea…”

Yep. Flippin mate’s shoveit and swapping engines. 30 years of back issues later …

The best bit of that shoveit was sitting on the M1/A616 sliproad whilst the mate called RAC breakdown service from the roadside emergency phone (do they still exist?) - big ends on that occasion, hence the later engine swap. “Oh, Mr Sauders? Yes, I recognise you from last week!”

[MM0FMF]

ISTR the Chevette 1300 used the notoriously weak 1256cc OHV Vauxhall Viva engine which only had a 3 bearing crank. That engine was used (and abused by its owners) in the Viva HC, Chevette, Chevanne & MK 1 Astras. By 1980 Vauxhall and Opels became the same cars differing in badges and trim options and the 1256 was killed off and replaced by an Opel designed 1300 OHC. Chevettes were light cars and the small engine was enough to make them acceptably nippy. But that lightweight body rotted quickly in the UK

Chevettes used to be everywhere but I never knew anyone who owned one. Me and my friends were all becoming car (and home owners) having left university by 1983 and second hand Chevettes would be obvious choice cars though we all wanted sport cars! I do recall a university colleague who had a Vauxhall Firenza ( a posh 1.8L Vauxhall Viva HC) that failed an MOT. The tester said “Son, this car is so badly rusted it is structurally unsound and I cannot let you drive it away”. He replaced it with a MK1 Astra 1600.

So Chevettes then Astras were very common. Astras are still made but I cannot recall when I last saw any Astra on the road. You forget time marches and what was a top selling car in 2010 is now nearly 14 years ago. It’s hard to buy an estate car (stationwagon) now, it’s all sub-compact, compact of full size SUVs.

Anyway, thank you John for those Chevette pictures, especially the white Mk 2 W-reg with the RoStyle wheels, I’ve had a nice wander down memory lane of the last 45 years of UK cars