Shining Tor SP-004 - 2010

Old Reflector
1

Unfinished Business

An opportunity arose and I was quick to seize it. Shining Tor beckoned but this time my route would be from Lamaload Reservoir - completing one of my failed attempts in the recent snow.

The visibility was poor on the drive up into the hills and even now the snow drifts at the side of the road were around 4ft high in places. The car park at Lamaload was empty (most unusual).

It seemed strange to walk back along the road where last time I had used snow shoes. The route up was straightforward - and quite wet. The mist gave a lovely melancholy feeling of loneliness and isolation. On the ascent I only saw one other person (and his dog).

At the summit I was soon set up on 2m SSB, this time with the amplifier correctly connectorised (unlike yesterday). Contacts were easy to come by. An unexpected S2S with Geoff 2W0BTR/p on Great Rhos was a bonus.

A QSY to 70cm immediately resulted in a contact with Frank G3RMD despite me forgetting one element of the beam. Several other contacts followed. The final QSO being a welcome chat with Phil G4OBK. I had tried to encourage Geoff to try 70cm from his summit but although he had a beam he didn’t bite (this time). By this stage I was getting cold so I packed up.

I saw no-one at all on the descent. Visibility was now even worse giving rise to two comedy moments. The first being along the road where three cyclists nearly ran me over and the second was in the car park where the visibility was so poor that I actually got lost and had to get out of the car to locate the exit. Anyone visiting the (very small) car park in good visibility will find this hard to believe - but it’s true! I was still alone in the car park when I left.

Leves a nap, Bouillabaisse (Spinnaker Seafood): very nice.

73

Richard
G3CWI

2

In reply to G3CWI:

Nice report Richard - for that you’ll get your name up in lights again this month in the Summitsbase 70cms report.

Thanks for giving 70cms a plug!

73, Gerald

3

New Year, new bonus points and a new band - for me.

Sean M0GIA (considerably) helped me build a 30m dipole last weekend, and I couldn’t wait to try it out on a summit. In fact I couldn’t wait to get out on a summit at all after all the cancellations and abandonments that have characterised the winter SOTA season for me thus far!

To Sunday 24th January 2010, and Marianne due in from a night-shift and deserving (and needing) of an empty bed and a quiet house. Cue me, Jimmy and Liam going summit walking, just like the old days.

Well, not quite. Marianne made us a picnic the night before, so I never bothered preparing any soup. This later proved to be a mistake - Liam was two-thirds of the way through the butties before Jimmy spotted his clandestine greed and salvaged one each for me and him!

Jimmy invited his 6th form mates Hunter and Craig out for the walk, so the first job was to pick them up from Bollington. Up the A537 at the Cat & Fiddle, and it was very wintry - sharply cold, and sleet coming down. This quickly turned to snow as we set off on the walk alonside the road then onto the track.

The track was much better going than last time. The deep drifts and deep sections of snow were still in place, but now it was all well consolidated, and you could just walk along on top of it. In places, the snow was over two feet deep on top of the path, but the boots barely sank one inch into it. What a difference from the end of December!

The snow began to fall more heavily as we made the final ascent to the summit. After a few deliberations, we elected to pitch the small tent alongside the wall close to the summit, although none of the walls provided effective shelter due to the angle of the wind. Jimmy set up the 2m SOTA Beam, while I erected the new 30m half-wave dipole on the pole.

My CW operating was very “unslick”. Concentration was difficult due to the boys asking me questions, wanting things etc, the voices booming out from the tent to the side of me! Hence there were several gaps and QRX requests in my operation, that was really struggling to get any sort of rhythm. This was exacerbated by my noticeable lack of recent practice on the paddle, worsened further by the discomfort in my hands from the deathly cold!

Eventually I made 18 QSOs, including a couple into Russia, so the antenna definitely works - many thanks to Sean for helping me get it together. Jimmy did 11 QSOs on 2m FM. I know I had many more in the pile-up waiting to work me, and it is not my usual style to abandon a busy frequency, but one of Jimmy’s mates was getting too cold, and it was the only sensible thing to do to pack up, descend and avail of the hospitality of the Cat & Fiddle. But apologies to all who were waiting before I abruptly went QRT.

The snow continued to fall all the way back to the pub, and the low visibility in the fog, and the streaks of deeply drifted snow made for a pleasant walking with unusual vistas. At the Cat & Fiddle, it was hot chocolates for the four lads, and hot mulled wine for me. And a bottle of Old Tom Chocolate flavour! Oh yes, and some pork scratchings.

Many thanks to all chasers who called us.

Tom M1EYP

4

In reply to M1EYP:

This later proved to be a mistake - Liam was two-thirds of the way through
the butties before Jimmy spotted his clandestine greed and salvaged one
each for me and him!

Never, ever, ever let someone else carry your drinks and nosh. I always insist on carrying my own even when accompanied by the boss (for bonus glamour points) or anyone else. I’m happy for additional rations and luxuries to be carried by others but I make damn sure I have my lunch and water in my bag.

I hope you found a suitable punishment for such gluttony like making the corpulent criminal carry all the SLABs and batteries back to the car!

:wink:

Andy
MM0FMF

5

Couldn’t really do it Andy. Although Liam likes to state that both SOTA and football are in his “Bottom 20”, he has endured a full weekend of just that - Port Vale v Macc yesterday, and SP-004 today. He has been delightful company throughout the weekend, and so his opportunistic theft of two butties is cheerfully forgiven. Now if we had been on a more serious expedition, and it was the soup that he had more than his fair share of, he could well have been in much more serious trouble!

On the bright side, I knew that I had a decent feed to look forward to upon getting home this evening, and my extra appetite probably made me enjoy that doubly! Some good comes of everything…

Tom M1EYP

6

In reply to M1EYP:
I envy your day out Tom. Very nice.

I am surprised about the food incident though. Maybe Liam was confused. I thought that standard “day out” food north of here (in lieu of soup) was “The Pie”… and that they should be consumed regularly and in quantity (especially at weekend events).

Indeed I have occasionally been accused (in a musical fashion) of having “eaten all of them” (with comments on my parentage too) but alas I have not had the pleasure. :slight_smile:

73 Marc G0AZS

7

I love pies, but pies do not love me. The rate of approach towards middle age has been proportional with the rate of increase of heartburn incidence 15 minutes after eating a pie! So I increasingly avoid them!

Having said that, they are usually perfectly “safe” to take on an expedition, where the exercise tends to help your digestive system perform better generally. And I did weaken yesterday morning, succumbing to the delights of a Wright’s meat & potato pie en route to the match. Fortunately, it is quite a long uphill walk from Longport station to Vale Park, so it was the rare pleasure of “pain-free pastry”!

Coincidentally, some of my fellow Macclesfield supporters derived the same theories that you described, about Northampton’s amply built centre-forward on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, he proved them wrong by doing most of the damage in a 0-2 defeat :frowning:

One thing I will definitely conclude after today’s experiment of sandwiches in Liam’s rucksack - is that we will be immediately reverting to the policy of soup - and in my rucksack.

Eeh, I don’t know. I make a new aerial and dabble in 30m SOTA properly for the first time, and all you guys want to talk about is my eating arrangements! I hope I haven’t brought this dreadful state of affairs upon myself by making too much of that aspect in the past…

Tom M1EYP :wink:

8

In reply to M1EYP:

“all you guys want to talk about is my eating arrangements! I hope I haven’t brought this dreadful state of affairs upon myself by making too much of that aspect in the past…”

You have become a legend of your own lunch times.

73

Richard
G3CWI

9

In reply to M1EYP:

“Coincidentally, some of my fellow Macclesfield supporters derived the same theories that you described, about Northampton’s amply built centre-forward on Wednesday night. Unfortunately, he proved them wrong by doing most of the damage in a 0-2 defeat :(”

Commiserations Tom on the defeat… must admit I did laugh when I caught the news, but the result was of little interest as the ball in that game is the wrong shape as far as I am concerned.

At least you got the band right - 30m is a super band and one which deserves ample attention from SOTA activators, which it indeed seems to have been doing in recent days.

73, Gerald
Northampton

10

In reply to M1EYP:
Thank Goodness the soup filter on the reflector is out of action! Quite a few mentions for Baxters lately. I understand the food parts even if I struggle with the radio theory sections.
Best regards
David 2E0DAI

11

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom and Jimmy.I went up Pinner(not a sota summit but trig point on Pennine way)to work Jimmy on 2 m FM.Nothing heard up untill 11.00 .So due to it snowing went home.Atb to you both Geoff G6MZX

12

Sorry Geoff, we were a bit lade on parade. Jimmy was QRV from about 1145z to just after noon. I was on 30m a bit before that until shortly after. But way behind the alert of 1000z in any case - sorry about that!

“Pinner”? I take it this is the local dialect for Pinhaw Beacon? That’s the only trig point I remember on the Pennine Way around there anyway.

http://tomread.co.uk/ponden_to_thornton.htm

Drop me an email, and I’ll let you know our mobile numbers in case you intend walking out somewhere to “sked” us again.

73, Tom M1EYP

13

In reply to M1EYP:
Hi Tom You are correct it is Pinhaw Beacon.I should not have used the local slang for it.Its a pity that it is not a Sota summit its only 10 mins from my house.Unless you have changed your mobile number I still have it from Ailsa Craig.Atb 73 Geoff.

14

Yes, it has changed, but Jimmy’s is the same. I’m glad you used the slang, because I didn’t know how to pronounce it properly before this morning. It’s one of those like Hawick, Leominster and Tintwistle!

Tom M1EYP

15

In reply to M1EYP:

You forgot Cholmondley from that list Tom.

I suppose at this point you can summarise the quirkiness of English pronunciation by quoting the Raymond Luxury-Yacht sketch! :wink:

Andy
MM0FMF

16

In reply to MM0FMF:

Before getting too deeply immersed into the intricacies of English pronounciation, spare a thought for such gems as Buachaille Etive Beag (Boo-a-hail-ya Etiv-ya Bake), Beinne Eighe (Pin Ay-ya), Liathach (nearly ready to give up but try Lee-a-haach!) and a horde of other delightful sounding but eye-deceiving Gaelic names! Then there is Welsh, only the other day I heard an activator refusing to try to pronounce Llewedd - and as Welsh names go that one is relatively easy…hleweth!

Having puzzled over some of the Eastern European hill names, I think that we could really do with a universal dictionary of SOTA summit names!

…but I’m not volunteering!

73

Brian G8ADD

17

In reply to G8ADD:

Then there is Welsh, only the other day I heard an activator refusing to try to pronounce Llewedd - and as Welsh names go that one is relatively easy…hleweth!

Careful, I’ll sue! BTW it’s Lliwedd… :slight_smile:

73, Gerald

Approx 3km N of Cogenhoe - Cucknoe to those not in the know.
Ask Sue G1OHH about Quernmore near Lancaster

18

In reply to G4OIG:

OOPS! :slight_smile:

73

Brian G8ADD

19

In reply to M1EYP:
hi Tom You must have passed through Sough between kelbrook and Earby.It is pronounced Suff. cheers Geoff.

20

In reply to G6MZX:

Sough between kelbrook and Earby.It is pronounced Suff. cheers Geoff.

And of course Geoff is pronounced “Jow” in those parts! :slight_smile:

Andy
MM0FMF