"I wandered lonely as a cloud"

Dunkery Beacon seemed quiet when I went…

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Good heavens! I first did it as a circuit with Little Galver in 1974, in the days when you could camp at Rosemergy Farm. Some of us had hangovers after going to the Folk Club at the Gurnards Head and wanted a walk to Blow the cobwebs away. I did it again a few years later because I wanted to examine the tin mine, but when I tried to repeat it with my kids about 20 years ago some B____ had put a barbed wire fence across the faint footpath! Since then I have “activated” it three times (the first time on 2m with no contacts!) so in six visits I saw nobody outside my party. I hope to go again before I hang my boots up, its remote feel has an attraction for me. Incidentally, the first time I took a radio up there I duct taped the mast to a rather phallic standing stone just west of the summit clitter! :smiley:

Whichever one(s) we can S2S from here in the states!

Good luck with your planning! Beginning my own plans at the moment as well.

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That would probably be illegal now - damage to an ancient monument. Although, in mitigation, perhaps you might claim to fall into that category too?

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Ask me again after a hundred years!

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Ancient monument, or phallic standing stone?

I have a choice?

I thought The Cloud G/SP-015 might be lonely if I planned an activation for 2100 UTC - 10pm local last night. It wasn’t. I squeezed into the one remaining space at the Cloudside parking area, and counted eleven other people on the hill. While setting up, a young couple approached me asking if they were going to be in my way. I’m not sure what they were up to, but by the attire I’d guess at bouldering. “Just so long as you do the two metres social distancing from me, do what you like” was my reply. They then disappeared to the ledge below the cliffs.

Anyway, the activation was a bit rubbish, especially compared to the previous day’s bonanza.

11 QSOs:

30m FT8: 2
30m FT4: 7
30m CW: 1
2m FM: 1

Time was marching on, and I was getting very cold. I hurriedly packed away and hurriedly descended to the hill. I started to hurriedly drive to Gun G/SP-013, anxious to record an activation before the current day morphed into tomorrow. Then I remembered that we were in British Summer Time, and in fact I had all the time in the world - well, an extra hour to what I thought, anyway!

I completed the drive and walk to Gun summit in a much more unhurried fashion. A single QSO with Troy G7LHK was made on 2m FM, but like on The Cloud earlier, VHF was uncharacteristically quiet.

Earlier on, Liam and I had set up a bit of gear on our driveway, and entertained the street with a couple of songs immediately following the Clap for the NHS. That seemed to go down well!

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This evening’s totals:

12 other people on The Cloud
2 other people on Gun

Plenty of space for standing aside and letting people pass. Plenty of respect shown by all parties, so rapid evasive action was never required (unlike a typical trip to the supermarket).

Set off from home at 8.15pm BST. Returned home 100 minutes later at 9.55pm. In between, I activated the two summits with four 2m FM QSOs on each.

Great to get Steve 2W0JYN and Steph MW6SHJ in both activation logs - they are very supportive and regular chasers in my log. In contrast, I’ve not heard anything of Pete 2E0LKC and Anne 2E0LMD since the end of Lockdown; I would have expected them to appear in my logs for every activation - hope they’re OK.