Rick, I appreciated you calling in on CW whilst I was on Rombalds Moor
a little while back. I hope my CW was OK for you, I knocked the speed
Thanks for the contact. The bigger gaps were certainly a help. I can manage to read at about 8wpm without too much trouble, whether the characters are in-speed or faster, and sometimes I manage to read small bursts at faster speeds, but usually I start losing letters in the middle of words, and then whole words…
When it comes to sending, I find nervous twitches tend to strike only when the rig’s set to transmit, and make life quite difficult…
A nice handful of S2S contacts on 2m but the best got away, Neil was on Mullwarcher which is a seriously rare summit and a long way from anywhere. Not a bad haul for 14.8kms walker and 1420m of ascent done on the hottest and sunniest day of the year so far.
Hi Andy, see what you missed. 8.77km (3 hours 35 minutes) walk to Mullwharcher from the car park over some of the boggiest, rocky, tussocky, barren wilderness that is unforgiving but also has that magical essence about it. (All for 2 points as well!!)
The total walk yesterday was 20km covering several hills - 2 SOTA summits. It was very warm 19°c on SS-073 but 30 minutes later the cloud came over. By the time I was heading for the 2nd summit it poured with rain and I mean poured and did so for over 3 hours - but it never rained across the glen on the Merrick or at the car park.
But it was a great day for a stroll in the Galloway Country park.
Maybe if I go back for SS-096 you might get the chase, I don’t expect many folk are keen or daft enough to attempt these two of some of the remotest summits.
Oh man, Craignaw SS-096, don’t remind me of that! The ground was a killer getting up onto the top. I stopped about 20m vertically from the summit as I was shattered and had my lunch not realising I was so close. It was then I heard faintly a voice and found with a hop and skip I was actually at the top. I was about to give up befor. Mullwarcher was a hill too far and I skipped it and returned to the car.
Respect for doing them both, serious respect. I’d rather have had the unrelenting brutal ascent of Beinn Eunaich than walk over that ground. There a lot of hills waiting for me down there, Lamachan and the hills of the Awful Hand. They might wait for some time still
Seems a long time ago until I looked at these and all the memories came flooding back. Hardly any grey and lots of hair on top compared to today, a lot changes in 5.5years. Search: craignaw mm0fmf | Flickr
In reply to MM0FMF:
Aye Andy - but admit it is a wonderful place if you can ignore the body and mind breaking terrain and distances. I had to be different and climbed Buchan Hill first - as you do - to avoid most of the bog below. Once on the Rig of Loch Enoch it was a relatively easy climb to Mullwharcher. The walk from SS-073 to SS-096 (Craignaw) was 2 hours of hard going - but I enjoyed it. emailed the GPS to you so you can follow in my footsteps - I’ll even come with you!!
emailed the GPS to you so you can follow in my footsteps - I’ll even come with you!!
Ever thought of turning that around Neil, as in “you come with me” - I’m sure quite a few people would love to have a go at them, but lack the confidence to go it alone truly “off piste”. It was an excellent achievement on your part. I well remember the description Andy gave of the ground conditions when we met back in October 2007… and the look on his face!
In reply to G4OIG:
Indeed Gerald, I would be more than happy to give help navigating this area or even accompanying anyone that wants a go. I will admit it is a dire place to get stuck on your own. I was out for 11 hours and never saw a soul so very lonely.
I know this area quite well as it is basically on my back door and I have spent a lot of time wandering around but even I draw a line at the Silver Flowe (see the last picture of the following link John Biggar : Galloway Climbing Index)
If anyone wants the GPS route I took by all means ask.
Anyway this is went off topic - as usual, but my 20km is 12m(iles) does that count!
I think it’s gone off topic Neil as 12m has been patchy to say the least. Not only are we getting the vegetation, birds and animals doing everything a month behind, propagation seems to be affected as well. Maybe 2013 is just bizarre all round.
As for Galloway, I’d certainly be up for a joint activation in that area sometime and no doubt Paul would as well. Hopefully not when the slippery stuff is around though. Having said that, at least in winter there’s more chance of the black goo between the tumps being reasonably solid. The downside however is the distinct lack of daylight!
Indeed. Still not started with hayfever yet in 2013.
I’ve only been hit by it on a few days, but when it’s hit it’s been… intense.
My U.K. 12 metres experience is very limited. Most of my 12 metre QSOs have been from Kenya, and most of those on one day in January when, for some reason, 12 metres was working well into G from 5Z while mostly skipping I.
In reply to MM0FMF:
No I disagree Andy, more likely it was F layer propagation, especially if the SFI was up, which it ws I believe some months ago. Currently sitting at a loor 90!!
This has been the poorest sunspot cycle “peak” since I became a short wave listener in 1968.
I pass to greater experience. Agree with the poor maximum. I was less HF motivated the previous 2 maxima I was around for. You never know if you’ll be around for the next so I’m trying to avail myself of the higher bands whilst there is some propagation.
My prop widget says SFI 89, K 1, A 6 and 70MHz Es at present.
In reply to MM0FMF:
Very good Andy - OK on your widget, I had one of those but the left leg dropped off… It maybe worth turning on the 4m transverter and monitoring 70.200 MHz then while I catch up on my work…
Setting up the honour roll for the 12m challenge hasn’t come to the top of the job pile yet, in the meantime the filters in the database rolls of honour can be set to show just 12m. Doing that yesterday I found that we already have 71 activators reporting this year against 36 for the whole of last year, so the challenge is working!
