Next week Martyn M1MAJ and I will be off to the south west with the main aim of activating our remaining uniques in the area, though we may also redo some previously activated summits if time and weather allow. We’ll have a few days based on the Devon/Cornwall border for the G/DCs, and then move to Somerset for some G/SCs. Will try to put up alerts when specific plans are firmer.
As usual I’ll be looking for VHF and especially UHF contacts, though I get the impression that it may not be a good area for them. Martyn will normally concentrate on HF - 60m, 40m, 20m, whatever seems to be working!
I have routes for all the summits having been looking at previous activation reports, but am not impressed with either DC-006 Carnmenellis or DC-008 Hensbarrow, so would welcome any useful recent experiences of them.
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Weather not looking good, but we will probably try to do Brown Willy G/DC-002 today, but may abandon if too wet.
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It looks like I was last to publish an activation on G/DC-006.
It was after a lot of rain so beside the gorse the ground was quite wet. I should have used boots or wellies not trainers.
I followed G4OBK’s route this time, the tracks were churned up with cattle so there was a lot of mud. I found it better to stay away from the wall where I could the ground was a bit dryer. There is a notice on the gate saying private but it is marked as Access Land on the map. The footpath to the Access Land goes through the farm and had you would have to get past the dogs, better to stick to the G4OBK route. There was cattle on the Access Land but they were bored and wet so ignored me.
I was there for a 4m QSO but had to work hard for VHF contacts this time. I didn’t Alert so I was not too surprised at there not being many people on at random near tea time.
My suggestion would be to send a direct e-mail to those who have chased the summit recently on 2m.
The Tx mast gave me trouble on 2m and I had taken a bandpass filter for 4m. On the previous trip I had failed on 4m due to the Tx mast overloading the Rx. People could hear me but I couldn’t hear them. If you have a bandpass filter for 2m don’t leave it in the car !
Some 1 point summits count for more than others, this is one that counts for a lot !
This time 0 points but I did get the one 4m QSOs so objective achieved.
73 de
Andrew (G4VFL)
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We did activate Brown Willy G/DC-002 today, though it was a struggle in a number of ways. We took the route from the north over the edge of Rough Tor. Given the forecast and the rain we had driven through to get to the parking we set off in waterproofs and with rucksack covers on. It was windy throughout, but on the outbound route it was mostly dry with only some light rain. As we approached Brown Willy the wind became much stronger, making it difficult to safely pick through the rocks. We did make it to the trig point but it was hard to stand or move safely: trying to keep 3 of feet and walking poles on the ground for stability!
We carefully made our way down onto the more sheltered eastern side, and managed to find a sheltered spot behind some rocks near the summit where I could try to get a 2m antenna over the rocks and Martyn could spread out an HF antenna.
I decided that the 2m dipole was too fragile for the wind and used the EFHW rucksack antenna raised on an extension pole. I expected to struggle on 2m, but started well with a husband and wife pair, but then nothing. When Martyn came over to see how I was doing I expected him to ask if I needed HF, but instead he asked if he could have VHF contacts as the HF antenna wasn’t matching. I persisted and over 90 minutes managed to get 10 VHF contacts. Martyn grabbed 5 of them in between trying to sort out the HF dipole, but was unsuccessful.
Light rain had started soon after we arrived at the summit and continued on and off, but by the time we were packing up was becoming more serious. Once out of the shelter of the rocks, it was a less pleasant walk back with driving 45degree rain in our faces: sometimes heavy, sometimes lighter. It was the sort of rain that proved that none of our waterproof gear is actually waterproof, though we would have been a lot wetter without it.
Back at the holiday cottage Martyn discovered a broken connection, which meant he was using half a dipole 
. Not clear if he can fix it at the holiday cottage, so it might be the spare dipole with less bands tomorrow.
Many thanks Andrew G4VFL for the information about Carnmenellis: timely as we are hoping to do it tomorrow. We will be wearing boots (provided that they and everything else have dried out from today’s soaking). We were hoping to get Carnmenellis and Watch Croft done in the same day, given the limited time we have at our current base near the Devon/Cornwall border, but the forecast for tomorrow is also looking rather damp, so not sure we will manage it.
I do have a bandpass filter for 2m: just need to make sure it gets back in the rucksack which is drying out.
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Well done for overcoming the struggles and successfully activating G/DC-002. I listened out for Martyn when I saw his spots on 40m but didn’t hear anything. Bad luck on the antenna.
Hope things go more smoothly on the next one! 
73, Matthew M0JSB
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Aiming for Carnmenellis G/DC-006 and Watch Croft G/DC-007 today. Long drive so not sure of times or it we’ll manage both of them.
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