Well it seemed the ducks all lined up and not only was I not needed for any taxi service, but the weather was brilliant. With only 7 LD summits left it was too good an opportunity to get another one done. Initially I planned Kirkby Moor, but in view of the good weather and no requirement to be back early I decided on Illgill Head. In the past (pre-SOTA) I have climbed it from Wasdale Head - but it was one of those ascents that seemed like a long slog up with slow roads and potentially harder parking - so this time I started from just past Santon Bridge walking over Irton Fell and Whin Rigg to the summit which took me 2 hours in stunning weather. (Which was about 15 mins less than the drive!). The west of the lakes seems much quieter than the central bit, I know it was midweek but I only saw a handful of other people all day.
I had intended to use APRS - but somehow the device had been knocked and had been busy reporting its location inside the rucksack for the previous 24 hours and was now as flat as a pancake…
I activated on 2m using my FT-270 attached to a J-Pone about 5m up the mast, best DX was Don GW0PLP at 272 Km - not bad for 5w with Feeble Mode….
40m was more problematic. I have discovered a disadvantage with the 42ft “random” wire arrangement - RFI that gets picked up by my microphone - but weirdly only on 40m. A bit of re-juggling of the counterpoise and it recovered. I had been using a couple of turns around a clip on torrid on the co-ax feeder, but it obviously wasn’t working so it is now replaced with a (heavy) torroid (which rather negates having a lighter antenna). I am using a KX2 with a lightweight microphone and would be interested to hear if it was a common problem.
Woody was once again in fine form… He doesn’t really bark that much unless I’m on a summit with a radio, so apologies for my local QRM.
For the weekend - if it stays the same conditions an the fell were perfect. The ground is quite dry and today the visibility was brilliant. The Isle of Man was really obvious off the coast.
EE coverage was very good - a strong 5G signal for almost the whole walk. The is a mast (possibly a new one) somewhere just down from Irton Fell so no problem with spotting.
Thanks again to all the chasers…
And finally I suppose the important question - would I use this route again - yes it was a really nice walk, easy navigation but probably quite exposed to wind as the approach is along the ridge. (Hopefully the track will get uploaded to Sota Maps once I try and recover it from my watch…)
A gentle walk up trough the woods
The summit with Great gable behind
Just to prove I was there - and it is only a couple of weeks since I was dealing with snow on the summit of Wildboar Fell