I’ve decided that I shall do a Tom (no, not fall and descend Red Screes on my bum) but start activating Scald Law when I have no other summits to activate or am short of time. It’s about 40mins drive and 50 mins to the top and so can be squeezed in when time is tight. It was today’s choice because I started the day slow and the WX tomorrow is for very heavy rains and so nip up Scald Law. I need the exercise and I get to play radio.
We survived the two big storms with nothing worse than the chairs in the garden getting blown about. Then when 30cms of snow was predicted we had about 3cms which quickly melted. The WX for today was for lots of sun and blue sky and a bit of wind. What wasn’t predicted was about 2cms of snow which had melted then frozen. Took a few minutes to clear the car and my drive and road where very slippy… queue lots of orange lights on the dashboard as the wheels spun. Traffic was heavy and there was lots of salt on the roads, my car is horrific and needs a good clean now.
The WX was really good, sunglasses weather. In Scotland! When I got to the parking for Scald Law everyone had had the same idea and the parking was full. I went to the next car park and that was full but I saw some cars leave the previous parking in the mirror. me and another driver did rapid U turns but she beat me to the spaces and driving a small hatch back she picked the biggest space to park in. This meant I had to parallel park into a space that I measured as being 1.5m longer than my car. I never parallel park so I am rubbish at it and I was reversing back on a road where the speed limit is 60mph but cars are often hammering along this bit of road. I thought I was going to do a real Reginald Molehusband here but for once, I just went back in nice and central. I was shocked, shocked I tell you that I didn’t make a mess.
Anyway, out of the car, boy was it cold in the wind and on with boots etc. I forgot the big hat but threw extra Buffs in the bag and my instep crampons. If I’d have known how much snow there was here I’d have brought the proper crampons. But the path on Scald Law sees so many boots the snow gets compressed and turns to polished ice quickly.
View from the car park looking NW. Scald Law in the centre, car said it was 1.5C. You can see a path running up the front, I was operating from near the path. That slope faces SE and thus Europe and is the sweet spot for HF bands. Also it was mainly out of the NW wind!
The lower slopes had lots of run off from the rains earlier in the week and the now melting snow and with the hundreds of people were a complete muddy mess. It was very wet and gloopy in places. As I climbed the ground did improve and by the time you start the climb to the beallach, there was little to no run off. At the beallach it very icy. From there up the zig zags. I did my best to stay upright. The snow had some sun on it and was melting on the path…that will be fun later when the sun moves and it starts to freeze.
I got to the top and got out of the wind and setup, 20m first and wow there was a big contest on. I spent a few minutes hunting for somewhere clear, none found and so found the quietest spot near the QRP centre. I should have really turned off the IPO and maybe turned on the attenuator but I struggled and managed to work 8 chasers with ODX being 9A1AA before the contest madness got too much. On to 30m and some sanity returned. I just like 30m CW more and more and more. It is one of my favourite places to operate along with Gerald G4OIG, Andy G8CPZ, Victor GI4ONL and no doubt many more. I managed 19 QSO in 35mins. Signals were really good but the band faded a bit during my period on air, it had come back by the time I stopped but there were few chasers. I’d been mainly out of the wind but sat in the snow and sub zero weather for 45mins and that was enough. Pack away, some quick phots and back to the car. When I got back the driver’s side of the car had been facing the road and it was thick with stickly salt/mud, I could hardly see through windows! I called at my favourite hand car wash on the way home but they’d packed up early and gone home. I’ll take it to the drive through tomorrow.
Trying to smile for Brian at the operating position!
Here’s a repeat of a photo in Show Us Your Antenna. This a 5m pole, Inv-V dipole at 4.75m for 30/20/17m. The red / white “flutters” are at the wire/cord insulator and 20m/30 link. They make the antenna very obvious to walkers/bikers. There’s a 4.5 turn choke balun on a 125mm former at the top. All fed with RG-174. n.b. the wire and cords have been highlighted in this photo.
20m CW: 8 QSO, ODX 9A1AA
30m CW: 21 QSO, ODX LZ3SM
30m S2S EA2WX/P EA2/BI-055 and SP9MA/p SP/BZ-011
A nice little activation and some calories burnt off :-).
