I woke up at 05.10, five minutes before my alarm - how does that even work? 
I always faff about, it simply takes me ages to leave the house, no matter how much preparation I do the night before. Anyway, I left home at 6.10 after defrosting the car. I parked up at Swirls car park just a little more than an hour later. The views across Lake Windermere were quite simply breathtaking and emotional during the drive to the parking place, the hills behind illuminated in pink. I was reminiscing my early days in SOTA when I would drive up to the Lake District in my little Ford Fiesta early in the morning on weekends listening to DJ Spoony on BBC Radio 1.
The path to Helvellyn summit became icy about half to two thirds of the way up, it didn’t really warrant spikes but extreme care was needed. The wind was biting and ferocious. I made the summit a little after 0900.
Full PPE
I’d changed my alert by 15 minutes before I’d set off to 0945. I thought I might actually make it on air sooner but the wind was so strong and constantly changing direction, so putting the HF antenna up was a real challenge. I only dared to put the antenna up about 3 or 4m, so it was quite low. By the time I had won the battle with my antenna (I had forgotten my steel nails for pegs too, doh! I had to use my regular alloy pegs), I was calling CQ right on my alerted time.
I had 12 QSOs using the SW-20+ and Spanish straight key. When there was no response to a couple of CQs, I packed up as I was very cold. I couldn’t use my bothy bag as the wind was blowing it against my face at times.
Eventually I managed to defrost my drinking water tube and I got back to the car just before 1200, after very carefully negotiating the icy path. I’d passed lots of walkers making their way up. The Lake District appeared full! I ate lunch in the car before making my way up to Kirkstone Pass. I crossed my fingers in hope that I would find a parking place, thankfully I discovered a couple heading back to their car and I managed to squeeze in the space they had vacated. It was a that point that I chatted with a teacher from my son’s school! After the chat I kitted up and was just locking the car when a guy came over and said something like ‘are you doing SOTA?’. Turns out it was Martin M7BIA, he’d spotted my pole!
The walk from the Kirkstone Inn to Red Screes G/LD-017 has a high reward to effort ratio, you gain height really quickly and I simply love the views from there.
By sheer fluke I was on air within a few minutes of my alerted time of 1400. Of course I’d had to fight the antenna again, the wind had dropped a little but it was still quite strong. I used the paddle key this time, it was easier, and the rig has a keyer so why not use it? I made 18 QSOs on the SW-20+. I’d packed my ancient DJ-G5 handheld just for laughs, so I thought I’d try for a contact. I hooked up with G7CDA in Lancaster after a call on 145.500 MHz.
Getting back to the car just before 1600, I thought about going to a cafe to have a coffee and use wifi to upload my log to waste time before heading to the pub. However after doing an internet search, it seems as though cafe life stops after 4pm. I made the decision just to drive home, it seemed the most sensible option rather than hanging about for a couple of hours.
I really enjoyed the day, the views were great and got better during the afternoon. The weather was challenging but it made the success a bit sweeter.
73, Colin
cheers Nick
… The only thing I regret was to pack up the transverter before the buffoon with the drone started up flying over my head. Would have been nice to see is 13cm could confuse it.