Haha, unfortunately now on “grandparent duty” until tomorrow morning sometime… even less chance of getting into the shack. 
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The weather forecast wasn’t promising with heavy rain forecast for lunchtime, but we decided to try to get an activation of Mendick Hill in before the rain. We had two possible routes, but chose the route from the south as there was parking near Kippit cottages. It was windy as we took the path past the old sand quarries. The wind increased as we left the gently rising track to start ascending the hill proper. Having chased Andy MM7MOX on White Meldon we headed up buffeted by the increasing wind. It was worth the climb for the views from the trig point but we needed to find what shelter we could to operate. There is even a bench at the summit, which I set up by with Martyn setting up HF a little lower. I couldn’t get the dipole up so operated the rucksack antenna on a short extension pole for VHF and an RH770 on the handie for UHF. starting with an S2S with Andy it took half an hour to get 4 qualifying contacts on a mixture of VHF & UHF. Martyn struggled on 60m but qualified easily on 40m, after which I tried 20m which turned out to be an S2S fest with 5 out of 11 contacts, 4 of which Martyn also got. Just asking for S2S contacts only doesn’t thin them out much when 5 are calling at once!
We had had a short shower just after we arrived at the summit, and a slightly longer one with added hail which caused us to pause activity for a while. It started raining as we packed up, and was more persistent as we walked out. It had been too windy to eat lunch at the summit so we ended up eating it in the shelter of the car.
Possibly more on our second activation on Broomy Law later.
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Aiming for East Cairn Hill SS-282 today. Expecting more high winds and showers so uncertain of timings and bands.
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Very sorry to hear about the weather you are getting (not much better at home in Hereford, but it seems to have stopped raining which is a novelty, but it is still too windy to ride a bike. What a shame that our visits don’t coincide as we should reach North of Perth on 1 May and are up in Aberdeenshire/Speyside until 18 May and I would have welcomed 2m/70cm contacts with you - both to get some much wanted completes and for actual contacts as they can be difficult to find - as you have discovered. Hope things improve for the rest of your stay. With luck you will have gained a few more chasers and they will look out for you later in the week. Safe activating and safe descents.
73 Viki
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Glad to catch you again today.
I can’t usually chase sota stations from home but got a good 2m signal today, shame my 70cm signal was too weak to get to you though.
I’ll keep an eye out for spots tomorrow and see if I can catch you from work.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Many thanks for trying 70cms; in the end I got 7 70cms contacts and 14 on 2m so pleased with that.
Weather not promising but looks less bad further north in Edinburgh so going for Arthur’s Seat today. Still expecting to get wet at some point!
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Sorry to have missed qso today from Arthur’s seat. We could see the hill but 70cm transmission was very broken up when we listened at 2pm. Didn’t get any replies on 2m either, hope you got enough qso’s.
I plan to be on GM/WS-336 tomorrow afternoon so might catch you s2s on HF.
Andy
MM7MOX
Hi Viki,
I’m planning to be up in Sutherland from the 2nd to 7th of May activating a few GM/NS summits which will coincide with your Speyside visit again this year. Hopefully we will be able to have some more s2s activity.
I have made up a flowerpot for 70cm this year and it has worked ok in the central belt over the last few weeks so hopefully will do the job when I head up North. I’ll also have a 2m flowerpot as before and link dipole for HF as well.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Thanks for trying Andy. We were a bit down from the summit on the south side to both try to be out of the way of people and to get some relief from the wind. It was extremely windy at the top and was in danger of being blown over. I got 5 2 m contacts and 4 on 70cms. Martyn got the vertical up and managed to qualify on both 40m and 20m having already worked my first 4 2m contacts.
Not sure what doing tomorrow as will depend on forecast.
I was in danger of being blown over walking the dog today. And someone ordered some Arctic wind as it was damn cold too.
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Hi Caroline, that might explain why we struggled to hear you, we were to the North of Arthur’s seat and I guess that rock has a lot of iron in it.
Hopefully better weather tomorrow.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Probably aiming for Windlestraw and/or Cademuir today.
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Hi Caroline, great to catch you and Martyn for the “double complete” s2s from GM/WS-336 to GM/SS-087 today.
It was glorious sunshine until about 10minutes after our s2s when a nasty squally shower chased me off the top.
Andy
MM7MOX
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Thanks for the S2S. It was cold and windy on Windlestraw, but not as windy as yesterday. The sunny intervals were most welcome. Surprisingly I got more 70cms contacts than 2m (4 vs 3) supplemented by 9 on 40 plus 8 on 20.
The only rain we got was driving between summits. Cademuir is a nice summit but tight on HF dipole in the trees. I got a single contact on 2m but we also struggled on 40m sharing 4 contacts each before Martyn added one more on 40m with 20 being worse with just 1 contact. But we got it qualified!
No photos as I don’t seem to be able to add them from the phone. Will add some when back at proper computer.
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Aiming for Blackhope Scar today. Long walk in so timing uncertain.
Good to catch you again today for s2s from GM/WS-346 to GM/SS-094 today.
Another sunny day on the hill but no nasty squalls to chase me off the top this time.
The bands were a bit funny today, I was getting some poorer reports on 20m and also 40m, I could hear @MM0XPZ but he couldn’t seem to hear me on 40m. Whereas 17m was better out to Europe than 20m, I could also hear US stations but unfortunately they couldn’t hear me.
Hope you get decent weather for the rest of your trip.
Andy
MM7MOX
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I’m well behind on reports as I haven’t done Broomy Law from Saturday or yesterday’s pair of Windlestraw Law and Cademuir Hill as got back too late! But I will skip them and do today on Blackhope Scar.
We headed for parking south of the Gladhouse Reservoir, but when we turned into the riad there were notices about no parking on verges or grass, and I was expecting a grassy parking area, but we continued and found a little car park. A notice said Private Car Park but underneath was a note saying parking for hikers only and not reservoir visitors. So we found a spot between the muddy pedals.
The walk goes down to the road and, through the farm and then along an estate track following the river South Esk. The morning had been forecast as better than a showery afternoon but it was generally cloudy. There were glimpses of sun as the track climbed out of the valley to The Kipps. We left the track to make our way over boggy heathery ground to a fence which we followed all the way to the summit. It was generally boggy with some drier sections, and some ATV tracks to ease through the heather.
Eventually the trig point appeared near a fence junction. We made our base near the trig which wasn’t too wet, but was surrounding by wet sections. We had some light hail on the ascent and a more significant shower soon after arrival, and there was cold wind but not as strong as on some previous hills. I was able to set up the VHF dipole supported by one of the fence posts, while Martyn set up a bit further way the other side of a boggy bit. Contacts were initially slow but I ended up with 12 on 2m, and 4 on 70cms. Martyn got just 4 60m contacts before moving to 40m where his run of 32 contacts included 3 S2S contacts which I grabbed between the VHF and UHF contacts. We finished off the activation with a run of 18 contacts on 20m for me.
Following other brief showers the weather improved and we had lovely blue skies on the descent. We stopped to have a look at a couple of sheepfolds and the remains of the ruins of Hirendean castle.
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Hi Andy
Thanks for the info on your northern trip. Sorry to say we won’t coincide so well as we travel up to Forfar on 1 May and are around there until 4 May. Then we go to Aboyne 4 - 11 May, then Speyside 11 - 18, and on our way back NW of Glasgow 18 -21 May before starting the long drive back. Hope we have some chances of a S2S before you are back at work again. Someone mentioned that 11 May is another ‘145 alive’ day so will try to get up a suitable hill as we move to Speyside. For the 2 main weeks we shall be staying in the same accommodation as last time so will have to look at the slightly more distant (and possibly more challenging) little hills that we ignored last time. We also have a list of Pictish stones and castles that need to be visited - and perhaps the weather won’t be so kind this time!! I willl always remember our s2s-fest from Tap o’Noth GM/ES-054 with MM0EFI on Oxen Crag Bennachie GM/ES-061 when we awakened the local 2m and 70cm airwaves. We will have to see what we can do this time.
Good luck with your Sutherland tripl. 73 Viki
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Ah, you sensible people took the longer route from the reservour side. I used the shorter peat hag route from the B road on the other side and it was fairly dire in places. Now I understand why Martyn described the route as “not too bad, a few boggy bits”. 
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There was only one particularly tricky peat hag on our route. We are getting used to bog hopping!
Weather not looking good today. We’re going to aim for Wether Hill SS-177, but may not do it if it rain looks too bad.
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