Activation Report for G/NP-028 Rombalds Moor on 24-12-25
Iss-1 Pse Rprt Errors
Activation of ROMBALDS MOOR G/NP-028 - 1 point using G4YSS/P
Wednesday 24th December 2025 (my third activation of this summit)
Bands: 40m-20m-15m CW/ SSB QRO & 2m-FM QRP
Unaccompanied
All times: UTC
EQUIPMENT:
FT817ND HF/VHF/UHF 5W Transceiver
MX-P50M, 50 Watt HF Linear Amplifier
Link dipole for 40m & 20m (30m & 15m) on a 5m H/B CFC mast
HRB 11.1V/ 5 Ah Li-Po (No8) battery
Vertex (Yaesu) VX150 monoband, 5W-FM H/H & J-Pole for 2m FM
UV-3R H/H. 2-Band, 2W-FM in top pocket
Garmin GEKO-301 GPS
Pack weight:10kg (22 pounds) inc Primaloft jacket
INTRODUCTION:
Continuing in the phase of post-Achilles activating, this was an easy one to start our 2025 Christmas break. Before we left the Derwentwater Hotel just after Christmas 2024, we booked for 2025. In a routine phone call on the 22nd of December-25 (the day before travelling) to clarify meal times we were told there’d be no meals. In fact no holiday! They told us, ‘We were taken over in October and we closed for 6-months for refurbishment.’ Talk about a bombshell! They’d omitted to take down our contact details and we were one of a handful of people who’d booked but couldn’t be informed it was a no-go. Never mind there’s always next year.
With one day’s notice, what could we do? I suggested we try to find a Premier Inn or Travelodge with some space which is how we ended up at Premier Inn, Skipton North (Gargrave). I had to quickly swap G/LD maps for G/NP ones and the same for the GPS route uploads and lists. After a few years activating Lake District summits at Christmas, there followed a rapid review of what I thought I might be able to do in the Yorkshire Dales. One of them was Rombalds Moor G/NP-028-1pt; the highest point on Ilkley Moor.
I had activated NP28 back in 2005, managing to get my 90-year-old Dad very slowly to the trig point and back for a few 2m-FM greetings messages into Bradford and Leeds. On that occasion it taken some considerable time to make our way to the trig point from the road but after almost a dozen rest stops on a folding seat, we eventually made it. Our average speed was 0.85 mph which is not that bad considering his emphysema and other problems. I went back again in 2014, combining it with a family drop-off at Leeds-Bradford airport.
Unless you’re 90, this is an easy one. The route starts from the radio masts at the top of the surfaced road which runs north from West Morton. Height gain is 22m over a distance of almost a mile. It would have been within the rules to save the walking and operate beside the road but I didn’t want to do that, not least because within limits I needed more walking to aid my recovery not less.
I know this part of the world quite well since living off Carr Lane, Shipley and on Wrose Road, Bradford as a child. When my Dad got his first car – a Morris Minor in 1957 this area and the Dales beyond suddenly formed an extension of our lives. It was truly liberating. Once I had an old banger of my own I was able to explore it further. On Easter Monday the tradition was to walk right over Ilkley Moor from Dick Hudson’s pub to Ilkley and back, passing this trig point twice on the way. As a member of Bradford Wheelers from 1965, I rode my push bike with the Bradford Chain Gang from Lister Park Gates, Bradford to Skipton on Thursday evenings. In a large group like that we’d often do the 16 miles in as little was 35 minutes, then ride back. So there’s nostalgia in buckets full in this area for me.
ROUTE:
There is space for a dozen cars at the end of the road - SE 101453. Go through the gate and turn right (west) up the path with the wall on your right. You soon pass the masts and this leads all the way to the trig point. It is paved from SE 1036 4529 but this is a wet, boggy, peaty kind of summit and occasional paving slabs have sunk below water level. Several of these slabs are unstable; moving disconcertingly when you step on them and swishing filthy water in unpredictable directions. No doubt at some point, someone will come along and repair them but today, a little care was needed.
At SE 1093 4519 the path passes a group of large bounders called Thimble Stones, which is where Dave G3TQQ/P does his activating, the rocks providing an excellent wind break. This is what I’d initially planned to do too but only for HF and not before I’d put on VHF from the trig. The latter I previously GPS marked at SE 11467 45214 in 2014.
EXECUTION:
The 17-mile drive from Gargrave took about 30 minutes and there was just enough parking space left for me. Last time I was there, a line of almost fifty beaters were advancing across the purple heather in line abreast from the road as they forced terrified flocks of low flying grouse onto a gun line. That was one day past the ‘glorious twelfth.’ Today it was grey with a cold wind but I did see a few Grouse - which have a habit of suddenly startling you - along the way. After 400m I realised I’d forgotten the umbrella which was needed as a windbreak. After standing for a minute I decided I would have to do without it; a decision later regretted. On passing Thimble Stones, I made a mental note to back-off there and put on HF later. There were quite a few people about, many with dogs but none at the trig, which is on very slightly raised ground. The ascent – if you can call it by that name – took 18 minutes.
G/NP-028 ROMBALDS MOOR (Ilkley Moor), 402m, 1 pt, 10:50 to 15:20, 3 Deg.C, 10 mph easterly wind. Overcast with 5 minutes of sunshine. (LOC: IO93CV; WAB: SE14; POTA: GB-4915). Perfect EE Mobile phone coverage from the trig and all parts of the route. Self spots appeared instantly.
Without the brolly, the only windbreak was the heather and slightly falling ground immediately west of the trig but at least there was no rain forecast. I had a hat (surely nobody would venture on Ilkley Moor without one!) and a coat with a hood. This was going to be a quick FM operation with part-2 (HF) following from the shelter of Thimble Stones – or so I thought at the time. NP28 is a little 1-pointer so thinking that I’d be lucky to qualify it on VHF, I would only be there half an hour. Of course I had forgotten to factor in the proximity of major population centres plus the fact that it was Christmas Eve and many people would finish work at lunch time.
All bands and modes were preceded by self-spots which were remarkably quick and successful every time.
145.400 FM – 15 QSO’s:
My lad Phil G0UUU/P was up at Ravenscar to do some POTA. We made a sked but with only QRP and a half-wave Jim at my end it would be a real challenge. Phil was using 50W to a 5/8. ‘I can tell you’re there but that’s all.’ He had the presence of mind to move the car a foot or two and just managed to get his 52 report with me counting it up several times and even sending it on the PTT. The latter method didn’t appear to help. After a few tries I got a 22 from Phil but I was quite happy with that.
A self spot brought in the following additional stations:
G0ODS Miles at Whitwell Hill near Malton; G5WSW Wayne – Barnsley chasing SOTA and POTA with 50W from a 9700 & white stick ant; M0MDA Mick in Leeds; 2E0MKE 6mls SE of Worksop; M0ALA Andy – Barnsley.
Continuing: M7OUD/P Tony S2S on G/NP-032 Cracoe Fell (prioritised of course); M0RSF Chris in Leeds; M0XLT Kevin in nearby Gargrave; G7SXR Mark at Drighlington; M6AIA Andy at Dewsbury on an IC746 and V2000; M6HNO/P Phil - Bingley; G0WRT Paul up at Horseforth (550ft ASL with 5W to a colinear); M0TMR Mark at Wyke between Bradford & Brighouse using a 9700 with 30W and M0AAM Bob up at Queensbury, which is over 1,100 feet ASL. If Bradford is going to get snow, Queensbury is where it starts.
The session spanned over 50 minutes and reports of my 5W from the VX150 to the vertical were almost all 59 or 58. Two that weren’t: M6HNO/P low down near the 5-rise lochs on the Leeds Liverpool canal – 55 both ways and M0TMR at 55/ 47. There were interesting conversations with all ops and more than one mini pileup.
There followed a recourse to Miles G0ODS, SARS club member, who I know personally, for a 20 minute catchup. At the end of the session I found a QSL card from Wayne G5WSW on my phone. It must be the quickest QSL I’ve ever had! Beats the Buro – thanks Wayne.
The intention was to pack up and walk back along the path to the big stones but I decided I really couldn’t be bothered. Balancing this against a further few hours in wind-chill doing HF, I decided to risk the cold and stay put. The forgotten brolly would have made all the difference. I’d even put a pop rivet on the spike to aid guying it if required.
Eyeball G4DCY:
As I was erecting the HF dipole a man walked up the path from Ilkley. It was then that I noticed the ‘golf balls’ and enquired of him, ‘Is that Menwith Hill?’ After confirming it, he introduced himself unprompted as G4DCY and the name Bill. He went on to give his callsign in his own form of phonetics – the ‘D’ was for dirty and Y was for Yorkshireman but I can’t for the life of me remember what the ‘C’ stood for. If I was to align with this method I’d be 'Yesterday’s Stale Sandwiches.
‘Ah’ said I. ‘You’ll know what I’m up to then?’ ‘Yes – you’re doing SOTA.’ We had a brief chat and he went on to point out all the landmarks around, one of which was Ingleborough just peeping over a nearer hill. If Bill hadn’t pointed to it I would never had known. This is something I’m particularly poor at without the use of a map and compass. To me it’s a bit of an art being able to point out distant features. He also showed me Pendle Hill and a few more. Bill, who lives in Ilkley (lucky man) doesn’t do SOTA and he thought it was a bit cold to be sitting around, a sentiment I couldn’t disagree with – but he does do Raynet which can be just as bleak. I took a photo of him but sadly at that time and until I discovered it later, my camera was set on macro so it’s a bit blurred.
14.063 CW – 10 QSO’s:
A link dipole and 30W got me:
OK2PDT Top man Jan in Velka Bites (I love that place-name); LZ4GL Bulgaria; OH1KBX ‘72 & 73 from Finland’; DL1DVE Tom - Grossroehrsdore; EA7GV Jose in Granada; EA5JN Angel - Murcia; ON4TH Thierry in Arismont; SP6BOW Augustyn – Kozle Kedziezyn; LA5FHA Svein – Blavesstien and DL1AAH Dirk in Vechelde. The session took just 11 minutes but they were a bit fast for me which made it hard to get the callsigns first off.
Outgoing reports were all 599. Having said that, there wasn’t too much time available to read the meter. Mostly 599 came back apart from three at 559 or 579.
14.308 CW – 24 QSO’s:
Wow was this prolific if not a bit stressful? My old brain was near the limit. I had to write several callsigns or parts thereof in the log and get back to them later. For the most part it worked but a few slipped through my fingers. Another problem was sifting a prefix from the pileup, writing it down then hearing a dismembered suffix a little later when they called again. Thinking it was a new station, that produced two lines for one callsign. When it dawned that they were one and the same, one line had to be rubbed out and someone else inserted. All the time the wind was flapping the log or folding it double but at least it didn’t rain.
Nevertheless, stations logged from 13:13 to 13:40z:
EA6/ M0DLL Dave in Menorca (who I’ve worked before and who tells me that he reads my reports); EA1DHB Ricardo in Burgos; IU3GKJ Riccardo – Treviso; OE3GGS Gus - Altlengback; G7SXR Mark in Leeds; 3Z9VI Tomasz in Wadowice Polska; DL5OAH Klaus – Estorf; ON8BM Bruno – Weris.
EA3EVL Pablo - Tarragona; OE3GKQ Gerr in Bad Grosspertholz; HB9CGA Uli Sirnach; EA1GMP Alex – Cervera de Pisuerga; EA1BUL Jose - Asturias; DL8DXL Fred - Laussnitz; DK1GP Guido – Koln; ON3PDM Peter – Houmont; SQ9MDF Leszek in Zawiercie; DL2HWI Dietmar - Wittenberg; OK1SDE Borek - Liberec; OE5WHR Helmut in Linz; OH3GZ Jukka (Jack) Toivakka; EA1CCM Sixto – Chapela Redondela; SP6OJG Marian in Slotos and EA2ETB Julian – Tarazona.
Reports were variable with plenty of 59’s but ranging right down to 41 from Mark G7SXR because we were too close together with no sky wave. Apart from a 44 from Helmut everything else was between 55 and 59 and I even got a 59+10dB from Jukka who confirmed that I was pronouncing his name correctly. Power was 30W again.
21.063 CW – 5 QSO’s:
In the hope of some DX, 50W to the dipole set for 40m produced:
EA1AER Juan – Leon 599/ 439; HA6OD Jozsef in Nemti 599 both ways; EA1CCM Sixto 599/ 599; KB4LCI David – Grottoes VA, 559 both ways and WB2FUV Michael in Gardiner NY 559/ 339. At this point a station K3ETC came up calling CQ. I tried several times to work him without success, by which time any further SOTA chasers had given up.
21.308 CW – 7 QSO’s:
Continuing with 50W:
G7SXR Mark collecting another band 55/ 41; EA1GKP Justo – Valladollid 59/ 55; EA3EVL Pablo – Tarragona 59/ 57; KF9D Roger in Algonquin IL 59/ 53; CR7BVE Joao – Ponta de Lima 59/ 55; EA4CCA 57/ 55 and EA3ARP Joan – Barcelona 59/ 55.
7.147.5 SSB – 19 QSO’s:
I thought at first that I’d left 40m too late to pull in the UK stations who’d been out of range of 2m, but that turned out to be wrong. More than one of these said they’d been following me around the bands with nothing to show for it but were grateful for a final chance on 40.
One problem was that both sides of the logsheet were now full. The 40m QSO’s had to be shoehorned in down one side while writing small. I hope there are no errors in callsigns. Apologies and if so I would like the opportunity to correct them.
With the power set back at 30W, there followed another significant haul:
M3ZXX Kel - Ironbridge; MW9WJS John - Newport; G7SXR Mark but this time with maximum reports; G4FKA Geoff in Coalpit Heath near Bristol; ON3WAB Kris - Balen; GD3ZZN Martyn in Port Erin, who moved there 25 years ago today; GW0MHK Len - Holyhead; ON4AVT Willy in Kortrijk and EI5FR Declan in Co. Offaly after initial wrongful identification was EA5FR.
No rest for the wicked but without complaint further QSO’s logged:
MI0DJM Joe in Omagh; G0RQL Don in Holdsworthy – this was a long overdue highlight; M0VAZ John - Wirrall; F4VPL Dave in Glenac, S. Brittany but originally from London; M7SUK/M Darrell – good signal for a mobile; EI3HA Tony - Sligo; M0DXT Bill in Aspatria; DG0JMB Joerg in Chemnitz; M8CRV Simon in Huntingdon, York and finally S57S Alek in Kresnice.
The band was quite noisy and it was hard to find a gap. However signals were mainly strong or very strong. Mostly I sent out 59 with the exception of two 57’s including the /M and a 55 to S57S who was quite a long way away and who returned a 31. Most incoming RST were 59 with a 59 plus 20dB from Holyhead. There was a smattering of 57’s, a 55 from the Wirrall and a 44 from Darrell’s mobile, though he was coming in pretty well to me. That could have been down to engine noise but there was no evidence that he was actually underway at the time.
The return took 21 minutes but I stopped to have a close look at the Thimble Stones and to talk to various people, most of them dog walking, to wish them a Happy Christmas.
In 2014, I came upon two large engraved flat rocks at around the half-way point but with my mind firmly on my frozen bones and warming them up, I wasn’t really paying attention today. On these was engraved a rather strange poem under the word called ‘Puddle’ which I’m leaving in from the 2014 report.
The words:
Rain junk, Sky litter. Some May mornings, Atlantic storm horses clatter this way, shedding their iron shoes in potholes and ruts. Shoes that melt into steel-grey puddles then settle and set into cloudless mirrors by noon. The shy deer of the daytime moon comes to sip from the rim. But the sun likes the look of itself, stares all afternoon its hard eye lifting the sheen from the glass, turning the glaze to rust. Then we don’t see things for dust.
I think I prefer the Sighty Crag poem but there your are.
ASCENT & DISTANCE:
Ascent 22m (72ft) / Distance 2 x 1.4km (1.8 miles in total)
Start point at 380m ASL
Walking times:
Ascent: 18 min
Descent: 21 min
Summit time: 4hrs-30min
QSO’s:
15 on 2m-FM QRP
10 on 20m-CW
24 on 20m-SSB
5 on 15m-CW
7 on 15m-SSB
19 on 40m-SSB
Total: 80
COMMENTS:
Though not cold by normal winter activating standards, it took a couple of hours to warm up after this one. It felt like I’d been swimming in the cold North Sea after sitting in the that airstream for a few hours. My error was to forget my trusty windbreak – the umbrella.
With so much to do, you don’t notice the worst of the cold and I wasn’t actually at the stage of shivering as has happened in the past but with no gloves for the duration, it was getting very hard to push the pencil. Such is winter activating but if this one is to be judged, it seems I can still enjoy it. For this, along with a returned ability to walk (after a fashion), I’m truly grateful.
The walking for NP28 was little more demanding that visiting the local corner shop but I thought I’d better not launch straight into something with steep ground just yet.
I didn’t go with ideas of logging 80 QSO’s but somehow it’s what happened. After thinking 4 QSO’s on there would be good, 2m-FM got much more interest than normal and the HF bands were performing very well thank you; even delivering some DX.
I must apologize about many of the photos. It was late in the activation when I discovered that the digital camera was set to macro focus though I did take a couple with my phone.
I hope there will be some more SOTA this week. Great Whernside is tempting me provided I can get up the gullies. Just 2m-FM though.
THANKS to ALL STATIONS WORKED, to WB2FUV for a 21 MHz spot and to Phil G0UUU for a POTA spot. The remainder of the (self) spots were courtesy of a spotting app which I don’t know the name of. Thanks to Phil G0UUU/M for our successful sked and for sorting me out with the POTA ref.
73, and a Happy Christmas to all including the hard working SOTA MT who continue to support our enjoyment without complaint or payment. THANK YOU!
John G4YSS
Photos: 1-2-3-4-5-10-12-15-21-15:07P-28-29-33-34-35
Some are blurred - incorrect camera setting
Above: Approaching the car parking area at the end of the road up from West Moreton
Above: Parking place and commercial mast
Above: Pass through the gate and go East.
Above: Unlike my last visit, the paved way has now been extended to the trig and beyond
Above: G/NP-028’s Trig. TP-0704
Above: Activation part-1, 2m-FM
Above: G4DCY Bill suddenly appeared from the Ilkley path. He knew immediately what I was up to.
Above: Activation part-2, HF Bands
Above: Warming up on the path back to the car
Above: The Thimble Stones
Above: Thimble Stones Bench Mark?
Above: Nearly there
Above: Car in sight. A long day - a short walk. Get that car heater on!