The Mell Twins

[M0NOM]

Today I shamelessly played the winter-bonus card and activated both Great Mell Fell G/LD-035 and Little Mell Fell G/LD-037 on a beautiful winters day.

Great Mell Fell

WOTA ID: LDW-155	Height: 537 m (1762 ft)
SOTA ID: G/LD-035	Grid ref: NY396253
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84MO

This was my first time on Great Mell Fell. It is a summit that I have never chased from home on 2m FM. The journey over Kirkstone Pass from Windermere never gets old, past Ullswater’s western shores before turning towards Matterdale End. There is ample parking opposite Brownrigg Farm at 54° 36.809’ N, 2° 55.151’ W.

I followed @G4OBK Phil’s instructions, and avoided the direct path through the woods, instead sticking to the farmers track until I reached the next stile, for the northerly track.

Today I used the Super Antenna MP1 with lightweight tripod, a tripod guying kit, the IC-705 using the speaker mic at 10w with a LifePo4 4200 mah battery. CW was using my Palm Pico Paddles.

For 2m I’d crudely cut four radial for a ground plane and used the Super Antenna’s telescopic whip with about 5 sections showing. It seemed to work reasonably well.

I’d pre-arranged to have 2m cw contacts with Rick 2E0FRS and Andy @G8CPZ - all good practice, however I felt it was too cold to attempt a CW activation.

The Super Antenna worked brilliantly and I was surprised to get two transatlantic chasers. Some lovely summit to summits including @G4WSB Bill who was on High Street (one of my favourites) and who I was to catch later on Stony Cove Pike for two independent S2S when I was on Little Mell Fell.

Helvellyn

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR	SIG	REF
11:47	2E0FRS	2m	CW	599	429	Richard Haughton
11:52	G8CPZ	2m	CW	559	539	AJ Barth
11:56	2E0FRS	2m	CW	559	429	Richard Haughton
12:00	G0TDM	2m	FM	59	59	John Sutton
12:04	G0PMJ	2m	FM	59	54	Dave
12:07	G8CPZ	2m	FM	55	52	AJ Barth
12:08	G4ZRP	2m	FM	52	52	Brian
12:21	G7KSE/P	2m	FM	59	59	Alex Hill	SOTA	G/LD-004
12:24	SV2OXW	20m	SSB	59	33	makis boulousis
12:26	OH1MM	20m	SSB	56	59	Pasi Alanko
12:27	EA2/F5ODQ/P	20m	SSB	59	59	ALAIN DUCASSOU	SOTA	EA2/NV-093
12:28	CT2HOV/P	20m	SSB	55	55	Nuno Pereira Gomes	SOTA	CT/DL-009
12:30	G6WSB/P	2m	FM	59	59		SOTA	G/LD-011
12:35	IX1IHR	20m	SSB	55	55	CLAUDIO FREZET
12:35	EA2DT	20m	SSB	55	55	Manuel
12:35	EA1DHB	20m	SSB	59	59	Ricardo Pena
12:37	SV2RUJ/P	20m	SSB	57	55	Stavros Triadafyllo	SOTA	SV/TL-065
12:37	OH3GZ	20m	SSB	59	59	JUKKA " Jack " KOVA
12:37	M7BIA/P	20m	SSB	57	44	Martin Shakeshaft	SOTA	GW/NW-042
12:38	LZ3SM	20m	SSB	59	55	SVETOZAR GERASHEV
12:39	N2BTZ	20m	SSB	57	55	JON J TRULAND
12:40	EB1IFK	20m	SSB	59	55	Santiago Creo Batal
12:40	W1OW	20m	SSB	55	55	William R Smith
12:40	EA2EVM	20m	SSB	59	55	Cesareo Garcia Andr
12:40	EA4BQG	20m	SSB	59	57	GUILLERMO ALCALA DE
12:41	OM1AX	20m	SSB	59	59	VLADO RABEK
12:41	OE5MZL	20m	SSB	59	56	Martin
12:42	EA1GKP	20m	SSB	59	55	JUSTO HERRERO ALONS
12:42	EA2EVC	20m	SSB	59	55	Óscar López
12:43	OE6ADE/P	20m	SSB	59	59	Andy Andreas Domani	SOTA	OE/SB-168
12:56	M0DXT	40m	SSB	59	55	William Tinnion [BI
12:56	G0FEX	40m	SSB	59	56	KEN PORTER
12:56	G4IVV	40m	SSB	57	55	Jonathan Perkins
12:57	G0FVH	40m	SSB	57	44	DAVID. S. DOLLING

In between Great Mell Fell and Little Mell Fell I had lunch using the JetBoil to provide hot water for a welcome coffee and a pot of rice. The drive to Little Mell Fell takes around 10 minutes at most

Little Mell Fell

WOTA ID: LDW-173	Height: 505 m (1657 ft)
SOTA ID: G/LD-037	Grid ref: NY423240
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84NO

I parked on the road at the standard place to ascend Little Mell Fell. There were a few Wainwright Baggers making the trip including a couple of groups who’d I’d seen earlier on Great Mell Fell. The ascent of the Little’un is much shorter, a short and sharp 20 minutes to the summit.

Wonderfully the biting although light breeze on Great Mell Fell had dropped away and I appreciated an hours worth of activating in relative comfort, until the wind picked up again. I did take a tarp with me but didn’t end up setting it up. Should have left it in the car!

Mandatory Sheep Photo

Ullswater

Parking Position

Great Mell Fell from Little Mell Fell

Penrith

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR	SIG	REF
14:35	DD0VE	20m	SSB	59	59	Ralf Mantyk
14:36	HB9CGA	20m	SSB	59	59	ULRICH LENHERR
14:36	DL0KL	20m	SSB	59	59	Immo Messner
14:36	EA2IF	20m	SSB	59	59	Op. Guru .
14:38	DL/HB9EAJ/P	20m	SSB	59	57	Stephan Schmid	SOTA	DM/BW-640
14:39	EA2DT	20m	SSB	57	52	Manuel
14:39	F5JKK	20m	SSB	59	57	Éric JAUCH
14:40	EA2DDG	20m	SSB	55	55	Jose Maria Gonzalez
14:41	SV3IEG	20m	SSB	59	55	Dinos KRASSAS
14:41	OK1SDE	20m	SSB	59	59	Dalibor ( Borek ) W
14:42	EA3EVL	20m	SSB	53	52	PABLO PANISELLO
14:43	SV3IEG	20m	SSB	55	55	Dinos KRASSAS
14:44	IU1KGS	20m	SSB	55	51	Carlo G
14:44	EA2CCG	20m	SSB	59	57	Joaquín Montoya Jim
14:45	EA1AAP	20m	SSB	57	55	Fernando Manzanares
14:45	SP7MW	20m	SSB	59	55	Marek W.
14:46	SM6CNX	20m	SSB	52	52	DAN FRANZÉN
14:46	OH3GZ	20m	SSB	59	59	JUKKA " Jack " KOVA
14:47	OH6LS	20m	SSB	59	57	Lasse S
14:47	G0TDM	20m	SSB	59	59	John Sutton
14:50	G4WSB/P	20m	SSB	59	59	Bill Bowditch	SOTA	G/LD-018
14:57	G8CPZ/P	2m	CW	519	539	AJ Barth	SOTA	G/LD-058
15:01	G0TDM	2m	CW	599	599	John Sutton
15:11	G0RQL	40m	SSB	59	59	DON ROOMES
15:12	GW4VPX	40m	SSB	59	55	ALLAN JONES
15:12	M0JLA	40m	SSB	59	47	Rod M0JLA
15:13	PA5KM	40m	SSB	59	45	Coen Vermaire
15:13	M0BOB	40m	SSB	59	33	Bob Adlington
15:15	GI0AZA	40m	SSB	59	33	Esther JM Harper
15:16	2E0FEH	40m	SSB	59	33	Karl Kruger
15:28	EA5FPL	17m	SSB	59	59	FRANCISCO PEREZ LAC
15:39	M0YMC	15m	SSB	59	33	Mal

Wonderful to have an armchair copy chat with Guru @EA2IF and was lovely to wish him a Happy Birthday in person. 40m was a proper-bun fight an finding a clear frequency very difficult so apologies to chasers who were experiencing QRM. A nice ground-wave 15m contact with Mal M0YMC near Carlisle.

Thank you all for the wonderful contacts. All photos here.

[G7KSE]

Great photos as always Mark.

Skiddaw was extra chilly on the summit. Good to get another s2s and I’ll have to venture further east next time

[M1EYP]

@M0NOM

shamelessly

NO!!!

This is EXACTLY what the winter bonus was designed for. A carrot to maximise your points return by going to your local, accessible, safe, doable summits, and keeping the programme’s activity going in the winter months as a result.

Nothing shameless - in fact it is to be applauded

The photos are splendid might I add - especially P1020512, which is my favourite of them.

[M0WIV]

They are an interesting pair of hills. Like over-grown drumlins. I’ve been to the top of Great Mell Fell but it was so long ago it was probably a bit higher than it is now.

My first ever trans-Atlantic QSO was with the Superantenna MP1 but I haven’t tried it on a tripod. I’ve just checked and discovered the mounting plate for the ground spike has a 1/4" camera thread tapped in it which makes things easier.

I’m jealous of the 2m CW - I attempted it a few months ago without success. I will try again but need to pre-arrange a chaser or two as you did.

A great report and photos. Many thanks.

[G8CPZ]

Nice report as ever, Mark. Despite Stony Cove Pike amongst other summits spoiling the line of sight it was good we managed fully readable 2m CW QRP QSOs with omnidirectional vertical antennas. I enjoyed making the second one S2S.

[M0NOM]

I need to fix that in my logging. That’ll teach me not to double check - something is always wrong!
Thanks for making the effort Andy.

[G8CPZ]

@M0NOM

I followed @G4OBK Phil’s instructions, and avoided the direct path through the woods

I’ve done Great Mell Fell about three times and took the route you took except on one occasion I was daydreaming on the descent and didn’t go to the right at a fork in the path. The straight on (slightly left) path takes you through the woods. It was a bit steep and wet under foot in the woods until it joins a lower path. It took me a bit longer but it’s no problem.

I’ve taken a few wrong turns through daydreaming fortunately none leading me into trouble, just some annoying backtracking.

[VK3SQ]

Hi Mark. Great report and photos. What antennas and rig did you use?

Geoff vk3sq

[M0NOM]

My Solomon trail shoes are almost out of grip in the middle and due to be replaced next pay day so slippy paths are best avoided when known about.

[M0NOM]

Hi Geoff. Today it was the ICOM IC-705 with external battery for 10w and the Super Antenna MP1 for HF, and just the telescopic whip lowered to 49cm with four homemade horizontal radials for 2m.

[G4IPB]

Very sensible route choice - on my first ascent I went north and then tried to cut up through the woods. In Autumn this may be OK but fighting through 5ft high bracken was bit of a problem. I did make it but found the right way down! Paul