Day 3: Mini G/SC Expedition - Day 3
Last week I spent 3 days in G/SC activating 4 summits in the Minehead area. Today I drove into Dorset to activate G/SC-013, Nine Barrow Down.
I parked at the Studland View car park at SZ 006818. From here you have to walk about 200m along a busy road. I wasn’t looking forward to this but found a narrow path on the north side of the road which allows you to keep away from the worst of the traffic.
The start of the path to the summit is here. Keep left once you are through the stile. There is a substantial metal stile here as well which I went through by mistake. The wooden stile is the one you want. 
The summit is covered in paths which are firmly fenced on both sides. I have read the farmer here gets upset if you stray from the paths, so I set up as close to the summit I could - on the path. The town on the right of this photo is Swanage.
I started on 30m and had 4 QSOs before it went quiet. Not a lot numerically but 2 of them were S2S! The first was with Robert, operating as HB9/M0VFC/P from HB/BL-004. My CW must be slowly getting better as I managed, after a few false starts, to log his callsign, although it was reassuring to confirm it by checking his spot on Sotawatch afterwards. The second S2S was with Dominic HB9CZF/P on HB/AG-007, a summit which earned me a “Craig” award when I uploaded the log.
I wasn’t hopeful changing to 7m SSB as it hasn’t been a good band on my recent activations but after calling CQ a few times, and almost giving up, replies started to come in and 9 QSOs were logged with generally reasonable signal reports. A final burst on 15m SSB brought in 3 more distant QSOs at which point the heat and sun suggested it was time to close down.
A view of Poole Harbour from the path to the summit.
I was parked next to this and I think I showed great restraint by NOT buying anything from it.
A 15 minute drive took me to the Caravan Club site near Swanage. This is the view from my pitch.
The hill on the left, above the caravan, is G/SC-013. It is possible to walk to the summit from the site entirely on footpaths - but it is nearly 5km and a non-starter for me in this heat!
Map of QSOs, many thanks to all operators.
Lewesdon Hill G/SC-009 is tomorrow’s target - if I can find somewhere to park the 'van near it!
Unfortunately I was away from home, so there was no way to checking whether I could copy you.
