It’s funny how my life has entirely changed since 23rd January 2021. It’s not just changed, it’s been enhanced. Enhanced by a niche part of a niche hobby.
SOTA
The Background
I’ve got a new boss and she decided she wanted to have a teambuild. Crieff Hydro (hotel) would be the venue and the dates were set for 30th & 31st January. I know the hotel well and I also know how to get there in an entertaining way, namely taking the Polo GTi over Glenshee and then to Dunkeld, before taking the Amulree road and Sma’ Glen to the edge of the town.
What I didn’t realise was just how close The Knock of Crieff GM/SS-264 was to the hotel. It’s spitting distance.
sotl.as I’m the blue dot bottom left
There was a three hour window between the end of the agenda at 4pm and dinner at 7pm. We were free to go for a swim, gym, sleep or visit the bar. There was more than enough time for an activation of the hill, so I laid my plans and kept an eye on the weather in the days leading up to the event.
Tuesday 30th January 2024
The teambuild dragged on. My poor colleague Andy started the last (graveyard) session after the due finishing time of 1600h. I’d alerted for 1700h. That wasn’t going to happen. We had a breakout. It was a fairly quick one. Everyone was done. 1650 and we were summing up. I flicked my phone to SotaWatch3 and changed my alert time to 1730. I’d hoped to have a run on 10m but it now looked like I’d be too late.
Finally free, and most of my colleagues went to check in. I’d saved some minutes by doing this at 1500 during a break, so sprinted up to my room and dumped my bag. I then headed to the car park and quickly changed into my boots, slinging my 15l pack onto one shoulder and headed back up the steep drive, cursing the tree surgeons who’d closed the main hotel drive that morning, meaning I had an extra 500m to walk!
There are a myriad of paths up the Knock. In the heavy dusk, I chose the one which looked to be going up the most and headed off into tree cover. Soon, a slight clearance and a wee path up to the left. I took this for 50m and it took me onto the summit of The Knock, as most hotel visitors would see it. Nice benches, summit indicator and a clear view all round.
Knock of Crieff viewpoint at dusk
Except, that wasn’t GM/SS-264., nice as it was. The true summit lay almost 1km to the north east. There isn’t a direct path marked on the OS map, however a well made trail led that way, so I took to it. I passed a few junctions and benches, log piles and way markers. I lay a mental trail of bread crumbs as I trotted along the trail, hoping to later find my way back without incident.
Crieff
Eventually I spotted a gate. Beyond this, the terrain changed. Maybe I was leaving the hotel grounds? It looked like the way up, so I entered the tall broom bushes and followed the narrow path across a flat and then up steepening stony slopes which led to a flattish summit, was adorned with short scrub and bleached stumps. Well that’s all I could make out in the blackness.
into the broom
I popped on my headtorch and it immediately picked out a small cairn. I made a bee-line for it, emptied my kit out alongside and got to work. It was almost 1730.
A couple of minutes later and I had successfully jammed the mast in the cairn and strung my EFHW from west to east. The KX2 was fired up and I even turned on the radio backlight. What had I to lose?
40m first. I wasn’t really sure what to expect. It was that time of night that the band was just a wall of noise and I had to spin up to the upper frequencies to find a slot. I wasn’t confident after no one answered my first CQ. @GI0AZA Esther answered my second and reassured my that the WAB chasers had been patiently waiting my arrival. I asked if she could put Ian @GI0AZB straight on, still unsure if I could hold the frequency. Ian was waiting. It turned out, so was everyone else! The pile up may have only lasted 10 minutes, but I put nineteen stations in the log, including the very delightful surprise of @G5OLD Tim, who was on G/SC-010 at this late hour.
having fun on The Knock of Crieff
I really wanted to try for 10m, even just one contact, so as soon as the pile up ceased, I called QSY and headed on up to the heady heights of 28MHz. It was approaching 1800 and I was in complete darkness.
Calling CQ on a KX2 at 28MHz is a strange experience. The first call registers around 1 watt on the radio power meter. Subsequent calls incease in indicated power and eventually the radio shows almost 10 watts and stays there. I was well aware of the inefficiency of RG-174 coax on this band, as well as the less than ideal radiation pattern of my 20m long EFHW, connected to my lossy 49:1. Not much of my 8-9 watts would be getting out. And the band had probably closed.
But someone heard me. The faintest of audio, and I really mean the faintest of faintest. If there had been even a breath of wind, I would not have heard it. I thought I heard it right first time but asked him to repeat it. Yes, @WB8BHN Sewim. I’d heard it correctly. I gave an encouraging 4/1 and got a 5/5 back! West Dundee, Illinois, USA. Against all odds. I was absolutely delighted to pull that off.
Not much more on 10m and a speculative call on 15m yielded no results. Nor did a spot and shout on 2m FM. It was now 1810 and time to head down. I retraced my outward route pretty successfully and made it back to the hotel in 20 minutes. Time for a quick shower, change of clothes and a pint before the 7pm dinner.
No one asked where I’d been.
back at Crieff Hydro
73, Fraser
MM0EFI
, but thats the motivation right there!