In reply to MM0GYX:
Well the plan was 1 on Wednesday, 2 or 3 on Thursday and 1 or 2 on Friday. The WX affected the plans on Thursday and Friday. Heavy snow Thursday morning delayed the start. A heavy frost on Friday made me change the plans.
Ord Ban ES-074
Park at NH897085 and pay the man £1.50. There is a path that starts behind the deer fence. It’s an obvious and gentle zig zag that leads through mature woodland. The sun was shining, not much wind but cold with frequent snow flurries. There’d been 5cms of snow earlier in the Edinburgh area. After 25 mins of climbing you leave the woodland and 5 mins more takes to you the trig point and the heather clad summit. I dropped down to shelter from the wind and set up 17m. 30mins of operating gave 16 QSOs with USA, Ukraine, Bosnia&Herzogvinia, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia & Bulgaria. Frequent heavy snow showers made it fun. It took about 20mins to get back to the car. View were good. The climb through woods in the sun was lovely, well worth the £1.50 charge.
Mount Eagle NS-151
This was made hard as I forgot the map. This meant I didn’t know where the hill was or the route through the forest. Well I knew I’d remember the driving route if I saw some names on the signs. Also the 250m tall lattice tower that is home to DAB and FM broadcast antennas for this part of Scotland would give the rough location. So I found the parking space at NH638579 where you can get 4 cars. Follow the lane up to NH649580, turn left and keep on to NH647587 then right to NH649587 then left to NH649588. Go past the 3 PMR towers and past the equipment buildings. I set up on the path as this is in the AZ. You can go further into the clearing and try and find the trig if you want. I didn’t want! Walk took 25mins and the height is about 42m from the start. What a joke!
Ord Ban was 17m CW so I did 40m SSB on this one. 20 QSOs in 15mins of operating to England, Wales, Germany, Austria and Spain. Walk out was 25mins. This was a bit of a smash and grab but it was too good a chance to pass by.
Breac Beinn NS-123
The plan was for an early start and for at least this and Meall Dheirgidh NS-114. Very heavy snow which lay on the main road to Bonar Bridge made me abort and visit the Glenmorangie Disillery until the WX improved. It did so I set off 2hrs later. Park at NH506929. This is a wide mouthed forest track. Space for 4 or 5 cars here. There is “official” parking at NH503928 but there was another car there. Amazing when you consider this is the middle of nowhere! Turn right, along the road to the old gate in the deer fence. Through or over this and follow the very wet track to the abandoned Whale Cottage. From here the track runs further then stops. Keep going up to where the sheep and deer fences meet. Step over the sheep fence and follow the track to the obvious stream crossing. Follow the ATV track the other side as it climbs. Somewhere near NH502937 I left the track and went straight for the highest point on the horizon. The ground was awful. Mixture of short tussock grass and knee length heather. Some was frozen, some was boggy. The snow line was around 350m. Once at the 422m spot height you can see the trig. Go to the trig. Job done. Well the trig is at 462m, there is a cairn at 464m about 300m away. But the trig is in the AZ and there was a wind shelter. The trig won as the wind was biting cold. The sun was bright, lots of blue sky. Amazing views to the West and East coasts of Scotland. This should take 1hr15 but took just under 2hrs. With the late start I decided a long activation here rather than rushing and trying for 2 summits. I do this for fun and rushing isn’t fun. 1hr30 of operating brought 36 QSOS. 13 on 60m SSB/CW, 21 on 40m CW and 2 on 17m CW. Conditions on the HF bands seemed poor with 17m being quiet compared to Ord Ban the day before. Nobody was worked on 15m. I had an LF antenna problem despite checking all equipment before leaving. I found the broken wire after 30mins of pigging about. Another reason for only doing one summit. Walk out was the reverse route into steadily improving sunshine. It didn’t get any warmer.
Cnoc Mor NS-150
This was my 300th activation. I blame Brian G4ZRP for starting me on this madness! I considered Struie NS-138 for the drive home. However, there was a big frost overnight and a reccy of the road after NS-123 showed the start was steep and covered in trees. It was wet after several hours of sun so I thought it was just too naff to bother with. I drove to just past Dingwall on the way home and parked at NH505585 where there is room for 3 cars. There is another car park along a rough track at NH510586. Too many potholes for me on that track! I got my times wrong here. I thought it was 20mins to the summit but the computer suggests 56mins. I did it about 35mins which explained why I was knackered! Set up in the clearing took forever due to wire catching on the odd branch. 45mins of operating produced 21 QSOS, 9 on 60m SSB and 12 on 40m SSB. I could have used my crampons at times, the path was steep and the snow was frozen to give some nasty ice. With a 200+ mile drive to follow I was packed up and away sharpish. It was snowing (again) when I got back to the car.
I spent £70 on a B&B for 2 nights, £45 on meals, beer, beer, beer and whisky in hotels and £80 on diesel. Was it worth it for 4 points? Yes. The view from Breac Beinn NS-123 was worth the total cost alone.
4 uniques, a splendid set of views, a new part of Scotland explored (very beautiful), a free dram from Glenmorangie, 50.9mpg on my 1st long run in my new (to me) car. Oh, and activation #300.
Thank you to everyone who made the effort to chase. Pictures on Flickr.
Andy
MM0FMF
but as long as there no new snow hihi.