In the hunt for a few more activator points I headed out to GW/NW-049 today. The weather was a little damp when I left home but did clear up on the way.
Parked at the church by the phone box and go my gear together. In hindsight, I should have put my waterproof trousers on at the car…
The walk up was muddy and field from the bridleway up to the main track was muddy and the rain re-appeared. 
My trousers soon got muddy and waterproofs at the car would have been a good idea.
Once I had climbed the last hill section before being in seeing distance of the trig I stopped to put on the waterproof trousers and used the wall as a wind block.
Once at the trig point, by heck the wind had got up and was quite strong. I sheltered behind the trig to get some shelter from the wind.
Mast up and 2m antenna attached and hand held fired up. A quick spot on Sotawatch which got me 4 contacts but by this time the wind had increased and rain had turned sideways along with what felt hail. This was an indication it was time to pack up before the weather got worse.
The initial plan was go HF as well and I was going to use the KX2 but the weather said otherwise.
From here I mooched on to GW/NW-060
I got to the layby/parking area and sat in the car for a bit having a brew and a bit to eat.
The rain had eased off and decided to crack on and get up the hill.
Once I got to the top of the hill the good old rain had returned but not as heavy as before.
I decided to use the KX2 for its first SOTA activation. I deployed the 20m EFHW, and my the time I had finished deploying, I felt like I had walked to another postcode.
A spot on 14mhz got me 3 contacts and then a POTA station turned up.
I moved over to 7mhz and bagged another 3
3 on 14mhz - Europe
3 on 7mhz - UK
The rain and wind got a bit stronger and decided to call it a day and depart back to the car to dry out.
KX2 worked ok but here is a lot to learn.
Cheers
John
M0VAZ
.