Of the 88 summits in GM/ES-land, Waughton Hill (GM/ES-087) is the smallest at just 234m, but that doesn’t mean it lacks interest. Only Lamberton Hill (GM/SS-286) is farther east on the Scottish mainland.
On a fine day of early-Spring weather such as today (despite an Arctic windchill of just 1C), Waughton Hill offers excellent views inland across the Aberdeenshire countryside and towards two of Europe’s busiest fishing ports on the coast below: Peterhead for white fish and Fraserburgh for shellfish.
The village of Strichen is the starting point for the ascent, offering plenty of free parking in its tidy High Street. However, those with Land Rovers or similar, or those who are less concerned than us about their vehicle’s tyres and/or suspension, can shorten the walk considerably by taking the heavily potholed farm road to its end and starting from there. We like walking, though, so the route from the village up the farm road on foot was our choice.
I had decided to make this an experimental QRP activation for me; three radios, three antennas and three modes, all with 5w max output. I would try 2m FM with my FT-4xe and a Slim-G antenna; SSB with my (tr)uSDX and a commercial SuperAntenna vertical, and finally CW with my QCX mini and my Elecraft AX-1. Fingers were crossed more in hope than expectation.
The longer walk from the village, as usual in the company of XYL Ann and SOTAdog Sula, was very pleasant and the “Beware of the Bull” sign on a field gate thankfully redundant at this still relatively early time of the year.
The distinctive feature of the hill’s southwestern flank is a 126ft-tall horse made from quartz stones and visible from many miles distant.
History says the horse was created by Captain Alexander Fraser in the late 18th century, in memory of a sergeant who gave up his horse when Fraser’s was shot from under him at a battle in Holland in 1794. It has been restored in recent years and the hill path passes directly past the horse’s nose!
The well-worn path continues through gorse bushes traversing gently uphill.
It emerges on the track leading to the ruin of Hunter’s Lodge, also built by Captain Fraser, in 1779.
The inscription above the Lodge’s door is interesting….
However, a quick walk down a dip then a short ascent up again across the tussocky grass leads to the smallest GM/ES summit - and probably its smallest cairn. Be careful you don’t trip over it……!
Despite the bitter and strong wind, I set up my Carbon 6 pole with the Slim-G on it and alerted our ever vigilant GM0ESS SOTA group that I was QRV on 2m - a wise move given the often blank response to 2m CQs in this part of the world.
Alex @GM5ALX/P was first in the log having legged it up the second smallest summit in the area, Brimmond Hill (GM/ES-086), some 31 miles south, to make contact. Next came Fraser @MM0EFI/P on a hill but not a SOTA summit who came booming in despite being some 50 miles away with some lumpy hills between us. Third was Alistair @2M0WTN/M who was mobile near Wick, 68 miles to the north-west of me. Sadly, repeated CQ calls didn’t generate any more responses but I was pleased with the three I had when distance and terrain was taken into account.
Next up was my (tr)uSDX, still relatively new to me, and an attempt to work anyone on 40m SSB. I managed to get a SWR reading of 1.3:1 using the SuperAntenna vertical with four variable-length radials but all was not well. It seemed my signal wasn’t getting out at all (it indicated 5.5w on the display). I was using the in-built microphone and PTT which appeared to be working ok but there was not much happening on RX either. My spot and CQ didn’t yield any replies and Simon @GM4JXP, kindly monitoring things in Aboyne, told me by WhatsApp that there were others on what sounded like a quiet frequency to me, so my set-up was clearly a bit deaf and dumb. It was the same story on 20m. Nothing heard by anyone. More work and analysis required methinks…….
And so to 20m CW with the QCX-mini and the SuperAntenna - I was now too cold to set up the AX-1 as planned. I used my tiny Kanga QRP pocket transmatch to tune up and sent my frequency to the WhatsApp group hoping for some gentle QRS replies.
Whatamistakeatomakea…! In a true amateur error, I had forgotten that RBN hole would spot me on SOTAwatch automatically, having alerted the summit earlier, and so I was immediately faced with a mini pile-up. Well and truly flustered, I can only thank the generous patience of the 5 chasers who I managed to work. I could almost hear the frustration of one G0 station as the response to my fumbling got slower and slower and more deliberate. Sorry, but thank you!
However, I managed to log good CW contacts with Italy, France, a S2S with Switzerland, England and then finally with Denis @MW0CBC in Chepstow who had gamely been following my SSB tribulations earlier then persevered to work me for what became my final contact of the day.
Sadly, although 20m CW was going well, I was by now just too cold with frozen fingers to continue so apologies to chasers for me going QRT so quickly.
As I was packing up, I had a few moments to admire the view down to Fraserburgh…
I also had a look across to the adjacent Mormond Hill radio station which was built in 1960 as Station 44 in the North Atlantic Radio System - the penultimate link in a chain of radio sites stretching from Iceland to Fylingdales in Yorkshire. Similar to the DEW line, its function was to provide early-warning of hostile missile launches back to the Cheyenne Mountain complex in the USA. It was connected to the RAF radar site at Buchan, just a few miles away, and down to Fylingdales. It’s no longer in use for that purpose.
Sadly, I was now losing my own Cold War, despite the sunshine, and was glad to get back into the car for the hour-long drive home.
Waughton might be small but it was good fun while it lasted. After all, size - and power - aren’t everything……
73 Mike 
