Yesterday myself & 2E0HJD set out to do NP-001 Cross Fell possibly followed by NP-002 Mickle Fell. My normal startpoint is in the village of Kirkland with a green bridleway all the way to the summit. After reading Tom M1EYP`s report of a previous activation, he parked at NY 716 316 almost at the summit of Gt Dun Fell. Encouraged by this I made a last minute decision to try that route & promptly threw a 2nd 12ah slab in my pack hoping to get 100+ in the log with VHFNFD & backpackers being on.
Driving out of the village of Knock it all started to go wrong. At NY 686 288 we were greeted by 2 signs stating it was a private C.A.A. road. We had to park here & walk - only 300m asl & an 10km walk each way to the summit (according to mem map) We did contemplate ignoring the signs, however 15mins into the walk we were passed by a police car descending the private road - we made the right decision. Although I`m no racer, I normally forge ahead of Mick & have the station set up for him arriving. After a grueling 2 hour walk I arrived on the summit. A listen on 2m ssb showed the band to be “flat” to say the least. After a while I could see nothing of Mick so called him on 2m FM. He said he was at Gt Dunn Fell in agony with his hip but may join me later.
Next was HF, 5 Mhz proved to be very hard work with only 10 scraping into the log. I then tried 40m, however without the benefit of being spotted I only logged 2. 20m next netted another 5 after the GW4BVE spot - tnx John. Finally I tried on 2m ssb for the last half hour of the backpackers. Rather surprisingly, not many stations were heard from my perch at 899m asl with good take off in all directions, so only 11 contesters in the log. Finally I finished on 2 & 70 FM. With regards to the M0SGB spot stating “thanks for answering” - all I can say Steve is I would have if I`d heard you. As I said the object of the day was to log as many as possible & as it happened I had to work my butt off to log a lowly 40 contacts in 2 hours.
Another shout to Mick revealed he was so bad that he was already on the way down. I then packed up & joined Mick half a mile from the car. So poor old Mick got no activator points for his trouble although I gather he netted a few chaser points from Gt Dun Fell. Bet he`s sore today. Apologies for no NP-002 as we were too late back to the car. We will do Mickle Fell shortly - the idea is to have Mick in NY82 Durham & me in NY82 Cumbria for the WAB enthusiasts.
I was going to do a video but all I have is the start point & the summit due to the key grip / deputy cameraman going awol. I may use what I have in a later production. Finally on the way back I drove through massive storms starting in Oldham & finishing in a flooded Glossop. 12 miles away in Buxton we had nothing. Talk about localised weather. Batteries are already charged for the next one - probably not next w/end as I have my parents stopping over (too old to drag them up a summit)
73s Steve G1INK.