The plan was to be active from 1300 and I was doing so well, I was at the place I’d stalked out to park with the “google little man” just as the unbelievable truth was finishing. ooh its a bit snowy and icy, can’t go forward, just reverse back. Bodged that, got the car stuck between ice and a soft verge (which fell away to a stream!!) . Wasted an hour noisily not going forward or back until a very friendly local dragged me out with his landrover. Winter here can be a pain.
Take2. Cairnie hill is an easy little walk, nothing like yesterday, and its quite unusually for round here quite a cushy little spot:
Started off on 20m which went pretty well, dropped down to 40 which didn’t as much, still don’t seem to do well there with qrp. Then it was nice that it was so mild feeling (despite being surrounded by snow) that I had time to tune the aerial on 10 and 15 for a few there. Nice to get Nova Scotia and North Carolina on 10 and Minnesota and Nebraska on 15. Sad that I started so late but with plenty of juice in the battery, the sun started making hints:
so reluctantly I called it a day for the wander down: It is a nice spot, anyone still wanting 275, I’ll be back, it’ll be nice on a warm day!
Another few days of this and Lindores loch will be able to host a curling match!
Thanks again for all the shouts, see you on the next one.
Andy
gm8oeg/p
p.s. I’m only just getting to recognize all the callsigns of the regulars, please excuse me if on air I don’t know who you are yet! As a complete newcomer, it’s seems a nice community you have here!
It’s a pleasant wee summit is Cairnie Hill. Did you not consider parking in the fishing car park at the loch?
It was proper cold today, the North wind on Black Hill was cutting. Nice when the blue sky came and the clouds left. A bit chilly now outside, -4/-5C I reckon.
Err, no, but now looking at the map I wonder why not. next time…
That;s funny because I found today quite pleasant, I was late in the afternoon. Yesterday on Kings Seat it seemed very cold, but today I was happy as Larry sitting there with my gloves off, it didn’t seem remotely chilly till 15:45 when the Sun reminded me I should probably not hang around too much longer. Cairnie is beautifully sheltered from any northerly wind component so maybe thats it.
Set to get proper cold now though by all accounts, but still +2 outside the door it says so far.
I did this one from the other side coming up from parking in the village of Collessie. I chose to do that as I lived there for about 10 years in the 50’s (yes, that long ago). It is a nice summit and the ascent from Collessie is fairly gentle and I had taken that route so many times before. This is JUST a Sota summit with a prominence of 150.3m ± 0.5m. We are fortunate in the UK to have a dedicated group of highly skilled surveyors. You can see their assessment of Cairnie hill SS-275 at Cairnie Hill - Marilyns (Part 8) - YouTube and read their report at http://www.hill-bagging.co.uk/surveys/Survey%20of%20Cairnie%20Hill%20(final).doc - I wonder how many associations can have this level of measurement. Look up the price of their Leica equipment - and the group has 3 of these at the last count - makes my Garmin look like a toy.
Jim
This is one of the Fife summits that I have been waiting to work since I Activated it in Sept 2013 and before for a new Complete. Was in the Shack all day yesterday, though interestingly you mentioned curling. Well that was what I was doing in a kind-a roundabout way, I was working on my curling club’s web site www.lanarkcurlingclub.org and was so absorbed I forgot to check who was out and about. c’est la vie!
Anyway till the next time?
73
Jack (;>J
PS: Glad you are really putting your new 817 through it’s paces. Love that little rig had mine since before I headed down to VP8 in 2000. Never let me down (fingers crossed)
Ahh sorry you didn’t catch me Jack! But don’t worry, I’ll be going up there again, probably pretty often. Once I get round the local set I’ll be going up them all again (and again…). Once the weather gets better I hope to do some of the more distant peaks, my walking buddy now has access to a camper van and we have a lot of plans! But I expect I’ll be doing a lot of the local tops again during summer evenings. I know I don’t get any extra credit for them this year but thats not the point.
Thanks for the nice comments Karl! and I hope to see you too on the next time.
Cheers
Andy
Good man! Go up them to enjoy the countryside and play radio. Points are nice but being the DX and being outside are better.
I don’t think you’ve done Norman’s Law yet. That’s the best of the three close together (Cairnie, Mount, Norman’s) in my opinion. Dumglow and Benarty are nice too. Not too far from your QTH. To the North, Strathfinella is a fine walk in the trees and it’s magic when you find the trig. You haven’t even started on the longer walks/slightly higher ones withn 50miles of you . Anyway you’ve got 1218 to pick from without leaving GM! That’s before I add in the new ones for Scotland.
Thank’s for the nice words, I think we must think similarly!
Actually there is a story here. I have done it. i didn’t manage any qsos. It was a lovely sunny day late november, I had a huge urge to walk up something and thought why not dig out the old car battery I used to take up Auchterhouse hill with my old ts700… So i did, I stuck it on charge for the day and carted my ts2000 AND a car battery up normans law. I think the battery is knackered, and so was I by the time I got there. I wasn’t even registered on the SOTA site then so didn’t know about the spots etc. Well it all worked on receive but I never managed a qso, maybe because of the battery (the ts2000 needs over 2 amps before you even do anything).
You would have thought that would put me off, seems to have had the oposite effect…
Anyway, expect to see me on Normans law again when I’m back from OE. And the rest…
Both nice summits for a casual relaxed spring through autumn activation. I would also classify Bishops Hill along with those two. When I started on the Fife summits, none had been activated so I set out to tick them all off before anyone else but Phil G4OBK put paid to that getting to Norman’s Law before me - a well the best laid plans…
Jim
I’m guessing that I was your Minnesota on 15 meters. Making your log got me to ‘gold’ status on the mountain hunter award. I had previously worked Andy MA0MFM on 12 CW last year on Belling Hill. There are many spots from G, GW, and GM where I do not hear even a ripple in the noise floor, so your equipment was doing great!
Yes indeed it was you, and I was very pleased that you heard my puny 4 watts there! You must have good ears because you weren’t that loud here, it was probably still a bit early in the day. I don’t know what it is that I’m doing right apart from being in the right place at the right time! My aerial is about 10m of wire up a pole tuned by a pi ATU with two ground radials, the 817 shows about 4 watts output on my meter.
It is a nice spot, anyone still wanting 275, I’ll be back, it’ll be nice on a warm day!
