Day 4: Mini G/SC Expedition - Day 4
On my return from the Swanage area today I took a detour to activate Lewesdon Hill, G/SC-009.
Reading earlier activation reports it seemed the biggest challenge wasn’t the summit but finding somewhere to park!
The ruined Stoke Knapp Farm has been a popular choice but on arriving there I saw that a building company had beaten me to it and the farm is now being renovated. I did ask if I could park but was firmly refused.
Fortunately, I had a Plan B, so leaving the grumpy builders behind I drove to the village of Broadwindsor and the little group of houses at Orchard Mead at ST 4388 0239.
There is a bit of parking along this road and also a few places outside the village post office in the centre of the village.
A walk of about 100m along the road, back towards Stoke Knapp, leads to the start of a footpath to the summit. There are no signposts on the path but with the online OS map it was easy to find the route - if you don’t have a map just keep walking uphill in typical SOTA fashion. 
This is looking back towards Broadwindsor.
If you haven’t strayed off the path you should be rewarded by arriving here.
Next to this is another notice board.
The wreath is from the local RAF Association.
In summary, a 25 year old Belgian pilot of a Spitfire crashed here in March 1942 while flying to an airfield in South Devon. Eight other pilots also died that tragic day, crashing in the fog around the airfield.
It was difficult to photograph because of the angle of the Sun and reflections but hopefully these might just be readable.
The notice describes how to reach the crash site, there is supposed to be a gap in the trees and possibly a wooden cross but I couldn’t find them - some local knowledge required I think.
The path through the beech wood is easy to follow. This is looking back down it.
The summit is a grassy plateau.
Finding a spot I could sit in shade with the antenna stretched across the grass I started on 30m CW. Fernando, EA1AAP was first in the log quickly followed by operators from Denmark to Switzerland.
A change to 40m SSB found Robert, M0RWX quickly followed by Ben GW4BML who let slip he is coming to G/SC soon.
Conditions were different to yesterday, I was 59 with some but only 52 with Esther GI0AZA who gave me a 57 yesterday from G/SC-013. Conversely Karl, 2E0FEH gave me a 55 today but only 33 yesterday. But I guess if it was all predictable it wouldn’t be fun.
20m and 15m SSB drew blanks but 17m brought 2 QSOs from DL and OE.
Looking on Sotawatch I saw Richard 2E0XGO/P on G/LD-043 had just spotted on 40m SSB and a quick band change resulted in a S2S.
A final turn on 2m FM found Graham 2W0YSW/M a few miles north of Cardiff. Graham had been following me on Sotawatch and as I hadn’t posted an alert for 2m wasn’t expecting a QSO. It was nice to get him in the log.
Lewesdon Hill is a nice summit. I was expecting a boring, wooded hill with no views but I was wrong. A summit with a sad history but now a pleasant place to visit.
Map of QSOs.
