I activated Meikle Bin GM/SS-129 today. Wow the weather was slightly worse than advertised. Instead of rain and moderate winds I had high winds and driving snow from the NW. I parked up at the Meikle Bin car park and set off through the forestry road. No felling operations today in comparison to my last visit.
The rain turned into sleet and then snow as I ascended further. A few others had been up for a walk and I met them on the descent. The wind really picked up as I came around north of the hill and snow was driving in. The snow line began about 460m but was more a covering rather than having any depth.
I got to the summit and looked for somewhere to set up the sheltered east side but it was slippy so I settled down simply where I could. I used the bandspringer but didn’t get anything on 40m. I have to admit the conditions were pretty poor at this point and I really didn’t want to hang around. I kicked up to 20m and pretty much got immediate response. I had 14 QSO’s which was great, even better was a N American callsign. I will apologise to anyone I did speak to, I was likely short because the conditions were pretty poor. I know I also shut down with a few people still calling, again sorry the wind was screaming in, the snow was driving and I was shivering despite having all my thermal and insulation kit on. I was unfortunate enough to have one callsign obviously calling in blind. I replied a few times and but he never replied to my signal report continuing to call and talk over the top of a few people.
The best bit of the day, beyond my shower when I got home, was that’s me reached the dizzy heights of 100 points. A great day and a real sense of satisfaction.
If the WX was bad you wont have gone and looked at the Fairey Firefly wreckage. The 37L Rolls-Royce Griffon V12 engine has been there exposed to the elements for 74 years and there were still a fair number of bright chrome pieces visible!
I had a good look at it when I was up there last year. I wasn’t aware of it before I went up so I googled it a the time, very sad. It was mostly covered in snow today.
I used the Meikle Bin car park at the NW end of the loch. There’s not a lot of parking but there’s a usable space further up the road right at the loch end. There is the main car park at the other end of the loch but it’s a longer walk in.
I was lucky with the weather today on Miekle Bin GM/SS-129. There was some snow lying in the grass and a light Easterly breeze. I managed to find some shelter just below the summit on the Western side.
I set up the HF antenna and hung my flowerpot for 2m from the back guy, I also hung a new flowerpot for 70cm that I made this week.
First off the mark was an s2s to EA8/DL2DXA/P on EA8/GC-001 on 15m which got me a “Chased AF badge”.
A run of 2m contacts followed to the East and West, then I tried the 70cm flowerpot and got 4 QSO’s to East and West again, not bad for an old bit of RG-316 rescued from the bin !
A couple of runs on 40m and 20m followed, I tried 15m and 10m but they were both very crowded. I got no takers on 6m and one on 12m followed by a few on 17m. The phone and 4G service was on and off today so I used the SMS spotting service for the first time and it worked as advertised.
I saw Fraser’s MM0EFI spot on 2m and although I could hear him, he couldn’t hear me, that would have been another s2s. I had a few more chasers on 2m and then finished with an s2s to Esther and Ian GI0AZA/P and GI0AZB/P on GI/CA-003.
At this point the wind changed and the clouds got darker and lower so I beat a retreat, some of the hills to the North disappeared into the cloud. When I got back to the car it had been rained on but I didn’t have any on the walk back down.
I had a look at some of the aircraft wreckage, looked like a wing section but I didn’t spot the engine and the weather was getting closer so I didn’t linger too long.
A good day out though.
Andy
MM7MOX
Hi Marcel,
It took a couple of attempts but we got the s2s today, thank you for persevering.
The bands were busy today.
I hope you had a good day as well.
Andy
MM7MOX
