I’ve been having a good think, so please indulge me
Actually, I am a bit of an over-thinker TBH. I’ve only been involved in the SOTA programme for 11 months and some days. During this first year lots of things happened.
- I learned how to do HF radio again.
- I found a new love for the hills.
- I found new challenges.
- I got good at it and started to rack up lots of points*.
- I met amazing people on here and on the bands.
*(When I started this, I calculated that it would take me 10 years to get 1000 Activator points. After 11.5 months I’m sitting with 536 points.)
I’d started to look and see what others were doing. I marvelled at Colwyn @MM0YCJ and his 100% Unique record and thought that’s what I would do.
I started to put pressure on myself. And then I had a reality check, well two reality checks.
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Mo has been struggling with her health and can really only walk 6 miles max. and on hills with good tracks, preferably vehicle tracks. She has a spinal surgery in a couple of weeks, but is determined to keep as fit as possible, both physically and mentally. Then there will be the recovery from the surgery.
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I am lucky to live in an area surrounded by hills and mountains, some of them among the highest in the UK. These are hills that Mo and I climb every year, in all seasons - Mount Keen, Morven, Lochnagar, Ben Macdui etc.
Obviously me heading down the Unique only road would mean either re-climbing local hills without my radio or heading off for greater and greater distances every time.
This leads me to my challenges for 2022.
- Support Mo through the next few months or longer.
- Enjoy local hills and explore further afield.
- Try new things where possible.
- Aim for at least 3 or 4 epic hikes a year.
- Don’t learn CW. I have a CW trainer, but I really enjoy talking to people. CW is parked for a year or two.
With that in mind, so far this year I’ve activated these repeat summits…
2022 so far. Source sotl.as
…and had great fun on them all. I did a video on Gellaig Hill.
Simple Winter SOTA - activating smaller winter hills, with hints and tips - YouTube
If you’re still reading, thank you. Now on to the report.
Thursday 13th January
Pressendye GM/ES-047 is so close to my house that I can walk it or mountain bike it from home. However, I’m trying to get my bike fitness back after a four month hiatus, so thought it would be fun to take in an ascent as part of a cycle to work. My first cycle to work in a while! It’s 30 miles by road and I also have a 40 mile off road route too.
0800 saw me set off on my gravel bike, with the minimum SOTA kit I could get away with, the minimum hill gear that I could get away with and a pullover for work. I keep spare clothes in my office, should I get the chance to bike in. Everything I needed for for summit was in the bladder back pack, the rest in a saddle bag. The bike wouldn’t be going all the way to the top.
MkI mast rigging. Held between the top tube and seat post using velcro straps.
As soon as I set off, the mast started rubbing my leg, however it wasn’t too bad. I cycled the 4 miles to Tarland and then up past Douneside House until I had to turn right off the road and up into a lovely strip of beech trees.
Douneside House and the surrounding estate is owned by the MacRobert Trust and they are very proactive about hill access, health, fitness and supporting the local community as well as their tenant farmers. The hotel is awesome too. It’s where we were married.
into the trees. I walked this section.
On the other side, an earthy track soon narrowed to a path, however I was able to ride on this until it joined a forest track that initially descended before ascending steeply into an open area. Here I dis-mounted, turning left up a grassy track that took me into another wood and onto another forest track, which was rideable.
The earthy track
Climbing up the edge of the woods
The sunrise at 0900 turning the heather red. Morven behind with little snow left after the big thaw.
When the track steepened towards the final summit slope, it got a good bit rougher. There was also a tree across it, so it felt like a good place to ditch the bike.
I remembered to remove the mast!
I walked up the last 600m to the summit, mast in hand. Journey time was 1 hour 20 mins and I was 30 minutes ahead of schedule.
There was a fair breeze, a decent summit shelter and fence posts! Such a rarity. So, in a rare act of forward thinking I decided to arrange the W3EDP wire at 30° to the line of posts, hoping that this would increase my chances of lining one up with the mast.
Pressendye summit
It worked! Thanks to that handy post and a lot of velcro, I was up and running in no time.
Velcro does the job
The tail end of my antenna crossed a faint track, so I tied a couple of spare guy pegs to it. They swung about, clanking in the wind. That would save decapitation any hill runners.
Anti-decapitation measures in place
I had some food and a drink. I then put a spot on 40m and from 0939 to 0959 I managed to work 29 stations. I think everyone knew there was a pileup and QSO’s were efficient, almost contest style. No remarkable DX, but from GM to EA and everything in between. It felt good!
On 40m SSB
I then sent a WhatsApp message to Simon @GM4JXP which met with an instantaneous call on 2m, giving him his Complete.
Having packed up, I jogged town to the bike. When it came to stowing the mast, I went for the MKII version, which was much more satisfactory.
MKII mast stowage
I wanted to head east, towards the top of The Slack, the name of the long incline that runs east out of Tarland towards Aberdeen. I knew there would be a way through the forest, but there wasn’t an obvious one and I didn’t have time to get lost. That meant a lot of descent, to almost the bottom of The Slack, before turning left on to tar to climb the hill and complete the last 24 miles of my journey to Westhill, which lies to the west of Aberdeen, and unfortunately is on a hill! The weather was so mild that I was cycling in a single layer before too long. It felt Spring-like today.
I made it to work at 1235 and had time to freshen up, change clothing and grab food before starting my shift at 1300.
Ready to face the public
Now, the only thing is this. My commute passes very close to three other SOTA summits, so I may well have started a thing.
Back on tar, around half way. Benaquhallie GM/ES-065 in the background. Could be the next SOTA commute
Thanks for reading and thank you Chasers for making it a great activation.
73, Fraser