I’ll be in the near of GM/NS summits for the last week of August.
Targets include:
Morven GM/NS-067
Smean GM/NS-113
Scaraben GM/NS-083
Ben Horn GM/NS-107
Beinn Dhorain GM/NS-082
Beinn Lunndaidh GM/NS-125
Creag am Amalaidh GM/NS-155
Hill of Nigg GM/NS-152
Struie GM/NS-138
There’s more there than I can do in the time available but it’s wise to have plan A, plan B and plan C when travelling some distance. My only real target is Morven GM/NS-067. This will be 3rd or 4th time of trying to activate it. If anyone has any specific requests from those or any others in the area then I’ll be happy to consider your request.
Slowly but surely I’m working my way through these very different summits to the ones that are more local to me, especially in the far North East of the region. Still plenty more to do. If there is a WX window and I can find accommodation I want to finish the 2 remaining summits Quinag (bonus points if you can pronounce that) and some other classics in the near of Inchnadamph before the WX turns Wintery.
So many summits to bag, so little time to do them.
Hi Andy, we stayed at the Inchnadamph explorers lodge a few weeks ago when I did GM/NS-153, but I did book it in March.
Some of those hills would be completes for me so I will look for alerts. Hill of Nigg was almost as easy as Cairnpapple hill, I didn’t even change out of my leathers when I did that one. GM/NS-082 is quite steep but plenty of room on top for antennas and I did see a Golden Plover on it. I parked on the Glen Loth road and ascended from there, about half a mile south of the cattle grid, the road is quite rough so I would go from the North end at Kildonan. Struie hill, GM/NS-138 is only half an hour walk from the road and the view from the top is spectacular.
Andy
MM7MOX
I once read that there is no standard Gaelic pronunciation. So I’ll take that as close-enough-for-farming I was told Koon-yak.
Anyway Quinag’s Sail Gorm and Sail Garbh are on that list and depending how long I’m up there and the WX, Cul Mor, Canisp and Glas Bhein. Before you ask about Suilven, Mrs. FMF has me on pain of death if I do that without her That has become a 2025 target with her goodself, inshallah.
I just checked and apparently its an Anglicised spelling of Cooneag, meaning milking pail, referring to its appearance from one angle. Damn, if my legs and lungs were up to it I would be acting on my envy, that area has a flavour all of its own and it gets under your skin. Take plenty of photos for us (what am I saying, of course you will!)
Ah, it’s been a while since I travelled the A9 in holiday season. SBJ the driving from tourists is abysmal. No lane discipline, unable to maintain a constant speed, no signals and definitely no use of mirrors. And it’s alternately heavy rain or sunny with strong gusts of wind. I may not be able to snaffle a summit on the way up
Looks like the WX is going to get a wee bit better by tomorrow. No doubt the ground will be sodden, but I doubt you’ll need to deploy the SOTA canoe and anvil anchor. Just wear your widest boots so you don’t sink into the mire.
Actually Barry this was in the average speed section. I’m happy to plod along at 60 it’s the people who do 40-50-60-40-50 and cannot keep a constant speed that most annoy. Managed 52.7 mpg, not bad for a 3ltr car!
So I have learnt that poles are optional. Worked all kinds of QSOs from Meal Dola and only when packing up I noticed most of the antenna was laying on the ground… oops! 40m wasn’t so good but 15/20/30 all worked OK.
Ben Horn was a quick activation before the rains came. They were a few hours behind the prediction, Noah’s Ark type rain at present. Rushing I managed to pull a connector off the counterpoise for the multiband EFHW. But I followed the late Brian G4ZRP’s advice and bought a 12v soldering iron many years back. Best £2 spent. It’s horrible and slow to heat up but it melts solder. It travels with me in the SOTA box (all my hats, gloves, socks, antennas , first aid stuff and chocolate lives in there). And of course, there is some solder wrapped around the handle ready. The cable is now fixed even if the soldering looks like Stevie Wonder did it with help from Ray Charles
Good work Andy.
I noticed that your wildcard spots were only showing the correct summit when you did 30m. Is that a propogation/band conditions thing ?
Andy
MM7MOX
No. Someone has to do do a real spot to get the actual ref. I did a few self-spots and that’s why you can see the ref.
I do have my Iridium spotter with me but it’s playing hooky. I can see it on the phone’s wifi but the web server wont respond. Of course I checked it as I haven’t used it for a while before I left and it worked then. It’s looking a rather damp day tomorrow … I may do some debugging
Every summit so far so far has end-stop 4G coverage from EE. All on band20 of course (800MHz). But Morven may not so I want to get the beast working.
The tower a few miles SE of Forsinard has lots of phone stuff on it and was providing good coverage when I did the Benny Graems this year. It even has an aprs gate on it by the looks of things. It looks like it has a clear line of sight to Morven, although you may be in the lee of the hill depending on your approach.
Andy
MM7MOX
A slight pause in activating today as it is a bit wet. Should be dry later and tomorrow. Also I’m letting my ribs recover after the dog dragged me I to some railings on Monday.
I can recommend the Clynelish distillery tour. Pricey but you get 4drams and they understand driving so you get to take them away in wee bottles.
