G4YSS: G/NP-015 Gt. Knoutberry on 2m-FM, 24-05-26

G4YSS · 26 May 2026 21:27

G4YSS: G/NP-015 Gt. Knoutberry on 2m-FM, 24-05-26
Issue-1 pse rprt errors

Activation of Gt KNOUTBERRY G/NP-015 using 2m-FM QRO on Sunday afternoon, 24th May 2026
All times: BST (UTC plus 1hr, UOS as ‘z’)

EQUIPMENT:
FT1500 2m-FM 50W mobile transceiver
J-Pole for 2m-FM and a short mast
HRB 11.1V/ 5 Ah Li-Po (No8) battery (discharged to 10.9V)
VX150 2m-FM, 5W H/H (not used)
UV-3R H/H. 2-Band, 2W-FM in top pocket (not used)
Garmin GEKO-301 GPS
Pack weight: 9.5kg (21 pounds) inc light hooded fleece (not req’d)

INTRODUCTION:
This was the first activation of a 1-week holiday at Bramaskew Farm B&B 2-miles north of Sedbergh. This place was new to us but I can readily recommend it especially if you like good home cooking and have a good appetite. It’s a sheep farm run by Janet & James and located at the end of a track off Howgill Road in very picturesque surroundings.

NP15 ROUTE:
Leave the Coal Road at SD 7796 8805 and walk via the track, turning left at the gate and sheep pens at SD 7768 8744. Thereafter, walk up beside the fence to the summit. It’s a dog-leg and boggy in places but better than the bee-line I took in the early years of SOTA.

EXECUTION:
In the morning we visited Fairfield Mill which is free entry. I set off for the Coal Road at around 1pm. It’s around 15 miles which would normally take 25 minutes but although traffic was very light, especially considering the Bank Holiday weekend, the Coal Road was being used by a long snake of cyclists. It’s a narrow road and difficult to overtake even a bike; something which had to be done carefully about 20 times. Most were accommodating and waved me past. It must have been very hard work on a warm day.

The ascent started at 13:59 but initially the GPS refused to work causing a delay. It turned out to be one of the two ‘new’ AAA batteries which was down at 0.6V for no apparent reason. Once replaced I had a further wait for the GPS to first locate and then acquire. I thought I would now be short of time so set off at a fast pace. Despite the sunny day I managed the ascent in under half an hour which historically isn’t too bad.

Instead of fighting my way through multiple gates at the sheep pens or climbing them, I walked the first 100m to the left of the fence, striding across it to follow up to its right. Short detours away from the fence were required because of several bogs. Also the are four or five false summits which you know are not real but they tease nonetheless. Otherwise this hill is a snip. There’s a path to follow but it’s ill-defined in places. I didn’t expect it but I saw nobody on this summit.

G/NP-015 GREAT KNOUTBERRY HILL, 672m, 4 pts. 14:27 to 16:37 Sunny, 17C, 5 mph cool breeze. IO84KP; WAB SD78. Trig Point TP3461. (EE phone signal)

As usual the J-Pole was set up by weaving the mast into the pig wire fence which tops the dry stone wall. Simple, quick and easy. A nice flat stone was temporarily borrowed from the wall top to put the sit mat on. Otherwise there are plenty of the same across at the derelict wall which is less than a foot high and not easily noticed.

145.400 FM - 14 QSO’s:
After a self spot I called CQ with no result, finding in the fullness of time that it works better if you connect the antenna to the rig. After that I worked G7SXR Mark in Drighlington, which proved I still had a PA! Mark reported on my signals - I was 58 with 25W and 54 with 5W – then he put me on his local alerting network.

After Mark opened proceedings, as he often does, the following ops were logged:
G8KBH Dave – nr Blackpool; M0XLT Kevin in Gargrave; 2E1GPR Graham at Bramley (Leeds) 5W to a half-wave; M0JFE John at Fleetwood on an FTM400 and G6AEK Dave – Knott End on Sea giving me 44 with 25W, 51 with 50W.

M0JIA/P was worked on 145.450 after hearing his CQ on .500. This was Ian on a hilltop near Longframlington in Northumberland. We swapped trig points; my TP-3461 for his TP-5954. Ian was on Sherlaw Pike 309m ASL and I think this was the furthest I got.

G3LZZ Andrew at Grange-over-Sands followed me back down to .400 to give me WAB square SD47 with Mike G4BLH (Clitheroe) waiting on the side. Mike and I had a lengthy chat and towards the end of it Mick M0PVA joined us from Billington with more reminiscing.

At the end of this the battery was down to 11.3V so I reduced the o/p to 10W for the final four: M7DOX Andy in Allerton (Bradford) and originally from Baildon; G4MYU Art – Briarfield at 650ft ASL operating an FT857 to an X510; G7EDD Ed near Octon on the Yorkshire Wolds rediscovering FM and G0PMJ Dave at Darlington, 23C and lots of gardening lined up for the morrow.

Power was generally 25W with a few sorties up to 50W when required except the final four with 10W as stated. According to the rig, the battery was reading 10.9 VOC by the end.

Reports were not that great mostly because of chaser locations. I sent out nine reports of 55 or less and only two stations were 59 – G7SXR and M0PVA. Incoming was a mixed bag ranging from one 59 down to a 32 from Gargrave – a bad place to hit from NP15. There were three R4’s which improved to Q5 when I went up to 50W. No QSO failed.

The Descent:
Before leaving I chose a rock to remember the place by. The walk down took from 16:37 to 17:02.

COMMENTS:
The simple 2m-FM activation was enjoyable and undemanding. Even though 50W capable it wasn’t too heavy either. We had some nice chats along the way enabled by traffic being a bit slow.

A Lapwing kept me company some of the time. Judging by the way it was behaving and keeping an eye out, I suspect it had a nest close by. It was a sunny activation throughout but not too hot just yet. A heat wave is on the way I hear but today there was a nice cooling breeze from the South. The FT1500 performed well but it soon became too hot to touch. With over 1.5 hours of air time the battery just lasted out. No8 was recently capacity checked and it’s down to 72%. It will now have to assume a secondary roll.

ASCENT & DISTANCE:
176m (577ft) ascent, 3.9 km (2.4 miles).
Times: Ascent 28 min, Descent 25 min
Summit time: 2h-10m

QSO’s:
14 on 2m-FM
SOTA Points: 4

THANKS:
To ALL STATIONS worked and the SOTA spotting service and to Mark G7SXR for the ‘Leeds community’ spot.

73, John G4YSS/P

Photos: 1-2-6-9-10-11-12-155208p-14-15-17