Three in the Scottish Borders.

I had to make a booking and stay in a hotel before the end of Jan 2025 or my rewards level status would drop down on Hotels.com and I also had a big sack of “rewards cash” to spend. At the same time the price of alcohol is subject to minium pricing in Scotland which makes it substantially cheaper in England. So the plan emerged of drive down to the nearest UK supermarkets selling booze near some summits that I could do in the Winter and stay in a hotel to use the reward money.

The saving on buying sufficient booze (and it’s not all going to be drunk over Christmas) would pay for the fuel, the rewards covered all but £1.93 of the hotel costs. All that was left was the cost of evening meals and some beer and at £5.50/pint I didn’t drink too much (Estrella Damm which is very nice so not drinking it to oblivion is hard!)

One bugbear, the wind. It was to be windy on Sunday and damn windy (aka gales) on Monday but no rain. I took the extra strong pole with me.

Ros Hill G/SB-009

I was staying in Rothbury and this is on the way. Oh boy it’s a severely challenging being a massive 530m walk and an ascent of 64m! It took about 10mins to get to the top. In fact it took longer to swap trousers to some I could get muddy and put on some boots. Up to the top and of course the strong pole was in the car so I used the less strong one which worked fine. I used the bench to support the pole and out with the 40/30/20 trapped EFHW, 49:1 and a counterpoise and off I went. I managed to slip on a wet and slimy rock and landed on my back and elbow. Oh did I swear and it hurt like a real “illegitimate person”. I was fine the next day, no bruises.

I was hoping to work lots of contest stations in the ARRL 10m contest but it was hard work. Many stations were 59+++ but they couldn’t hear me. Last time I used my delta loop and it works much better than the inverted 7 strung EFHW. I managed 12 on 10m at the start and end of the activation. I haven’t done much SSB so I had a bash on 20m and 40m and then CW on 30m. The wind was roaring and it looked like it was going to rain any moment but I stayed dry. The bench is behind the wall which saved me from the wind.

Station down, back to the car, boots off, pants swapped and off to the hotel. Easy.

Shillhope Law G/SB-006

I did this in Nov 2021 and the WX was rubbish with lots of wind driven rain that soaked me then the wind dried me. The route was rubbish as the stream to cross was in spate and the bracken was armpit height. So this time I did it up the track from Shillmoor. The road to Shillmoor is really bad, lots of potholes with repairs and potholes in the repairs. Also the roads were covered in mud and it was drizzling. My car looks like it has been buried in the mud and dug out now with all the road dirt.

I was hoping to park at Shillmoor Farm but there is nowhere suitable without asking but there is a good piece of hard standing about 500m back across the bridge to park. This is easy, up the track and you cannot get lost. Well I followed an animal track not the real track and had to make a detour to meet up with it. Idiot. It’s 3.2km and 310m ascent, so about 1 Scald Law’s worth of climbing. The wind was howling and it was showering for 5mins on 15mins off. I got damp then the wind blew me dry. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s good walking with a few small boggy bits easily avoided. Finally at the top I collapsed into the shelter around the trig to escape the wind.

Pole (strong one still in the car) was wedged into the shelter stones and the 40/30/20m EFHW run out. I started on 10m CW and worked 4 quite easily and then it was quiet. So still in the SSB mood I tried 40m. Good signals from most people and good reports which was nice. Of course 40m SSB meant there was an idiot who ignored directed calls. His operating is often poor, calling when he can’t hear me or ignoring directed calls. Anyway I told him he wasn’t going in the log and got a sarcastic reply but I managed to work the station whose partial call I had. Now I am not identifying this station and hopefully he wont be stupid enough to out himself. But you never know with fools. After a massive 30mins on the air and after 40 had dried up I considered another band or back to the car. It was so horrible in the wind it was back to the car and I had another hill to activate.

Tosson Hill G/SB-007

This is about 25mins drive from Shillmoor. It wasn’t meant to rain but it did. Then stopped when I got to the car park. I wanted to check out the new path because the old one was like some kind of medieval torture it was so boggy and uneven. I’ve done this before and come back using a head-torch. I checked I had the torch and it worked. I checked I had a wind-up backup torch.

Then I was off. Everywhere looked different and I realised a lot of the forest had suffered from Storm Arwen so there’s lots of cleared areas. Any way the path was the footpath through woods and there are plenty of uprooted and fallen trees. Then along the good forest tracks so I made good time. Finally at where I thought there was a new path there was just the old path. I’d seen the new path in pictures so I checked the GPS… yes in the right place. So along the torture track in now even stronger winds. There’s a wee bit of climbing, then the gate and the sign saying the new path needs our feet on it. I continued on the torture path till suddenly there was the new path. Yes it’s much better but was squishy in places, poor drainage. Then it stops for about 100m back to the old path then the new path continues up right to the trig and wind shelter. It is a significant improvement and there is a lot more path work about to take place, lots of stone paving slabs have been lifted in for deployment.

Pole wedged in the shelter stones again and the 40/30/20m EFHW strung out. I tried a change and didn’t deploy a counterpoise, just the 4m RG58 feeder. The KX2 end has a split ferrite clamp with about 3 turns of feeder in it. The KX2 tuned it up on 10m without issue and I managed to work 6 US stations on 10m CW. It started being quite wet, a few minutes of heavy wind blown drizzle then just wild wind. It took just 1hr10 to get to the trig, 10mins to setup 20mins on air. I had 6 QSOs. At one point the wind pulled the radiator out of the 49:1 and I could hear Roger KF9D on the unun and the bit of RG58 running up the pole. 10m seemed quite good. :slight_smile: The WX looked like it would not only be windy but wet. And dark. So I pulled down the station, adjusted my clothes, forgot to take any photos and struck out for home. It drizzled continuously for 3/4 of the return trip.

It’s 4.3km and 238m ascent. It took 1hr10 up and still took 1hr to get back to the car. Though I stopped for 2 comfort breaks and Toffee Crisp on the way back. Gordon Bennett it was wild at times. I needed the head torch for the last 20mins of the walk

No uniques as I have done these boys before. But 1, 2+3 and 1 points, 3 challenge multipliers and 15 unique challenge calls. I must be mad to have been up hills in the wind though.

Today, I hit the supermarkets and stocked up. We had a small disaster, loading the car I managed to drop a bottle of red Vermouth. It fell to the floor in slow motion and smashed. “Oh dear” I said. I had to buy another and then carefully clear up all the glass. I’d have cleared the glass anyway but it was essential as I had to reverse out of my parking space over where the glass was.

On the way back North the A1 was closed Southbound. I drove past the remains of a crash that had closed the road. There was a Golf with no tailgate that looked like it had bounced of the Armco, a big (BIG) tractor with animal trailer parked up and a Transit Van with most of the driver’s cab crushed to about 30-40% of the normal size. The news sources say no deaths and the accident was reported at 7.50am, I drove past at 12.15pm and there were no fire engines or ambulances just the police measuring up and the Transit being recovered. I got home and the A1 was still closed at 4.50pm. A major England/Scotland road closed for 9 hours says how bad this was. Somebody is not going to have a good Christmas, I hope everyone is OK but I felt quite a shiver as I drove past. So can we all take a little more care on the roads please.

Pictures to follow.

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Ros Hill from the car park. Yes it is this easy!

M0FMF/P operating position.

Our intrepid activator able to stand at the summit in the wind. (Almost smiling)

Shillhope Law feels like one of the most remote and isolated English summits as the following pictures show. There really is nothing to see but remote moorland.



Trig point in good condition. The top is sealed so it cannot be used easily to support a pole.

Our intrepid activator grimaces and tries to stand steady in the howling winds.

The view down the ridge. You can see the obvious track/path. The car is about 700m around the hill at the very bottom.

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Where we used to stay in Northumberland in the 1990s and 2000s we could see the top of Tosson across the valley. I have been up there several times from different directions, but only carried out one activation. As for the route that you took, I remember around 5cm of water standing on the final section of path and oh that track up… hmm, torture track is a good name for it, especially when wet.

I recall being stabbed in the face by ice particles on the way up Shillhope. I did find the track easily enough and apart from the weather inflicting pain, I enjoyed the summit. I walked part of the way back towards our accommodation and met the XYL around seven miles from the summit. It was easy for her to drop me off at Shillmoor - she then used the time well at the Metro Centre at Gateshead, so relieving me of retail therapy duties. A definite win-win. :joy:

As for the A1, it should really be dualled all the way from Newcastle to Edinburgh. Proposals to do so have been continuously set aside which is a pity as it would significantly improve safety. There are just too many junctions, many not much better than those found on minor roads. As you say, seeing the results of collisions is rather sobering. :hushed:

Psst… if you head south again, I need Houseden and Sighty for Completes, but somehow I don’t think you’ll be keen on the latter. :wink:

73, Gerald

The A1 up at the Northumberland/East Lothian end is scary for the reason there are all these very minor roads that join with no grading. Typically there’s slow farm machinery trying to cross a relatively high speed road. Or just Joe Average drivers suddenly braking to slow to turn off on a 90deg junction.

It’s nice when it’s quiet, dial up 60 on the cruise and chug along. It’s when it’s busy with big lorries and awful surface conditions it’s a nightmare. You can’t see well enough to overtake and too many drivers never leave a gap between vehicles so even if you could see to overtake you can’t pull in. In that case you chug at 45/50 and take longer to arrive. But you should arrive alive!

I cannot put my finger on why I like Northumberland so much but I do. Really don’t know why but I like being there.

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Forests, lakes, beaches, castles, dark night skies, mountains……

England’s lesser known jewel. Don’t tell anyone.:wink:

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I have a strange compulsion feeling that I need to activate good old Sighty Crag to complete all of G/SB region. Hopefully in 2025 along with some other plans.

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My wife and I fell in love with the county on our first visit back in 1991. Back then you could walk the beaches alone in spring, autumn and winter and occasionally some of the more remote locations in summer. Then Robson Green happened and the best kept secret was out. :frowning_face:

Let me know about your plans for Sighty… if I’m up there, I might even accompany you. :smiley:

Now there’s a surprise. When I was driving to and from Shillmoor for Shillhope Law there were all kinds of “Thunderbirds” tracked vehicles in the fields at one point and careful observation showed they were doing something with wooden poles to support electric power distribution cables. This made me ponder because there were only a few houses/farms etc. in the part of Upper Coquetdale and I hadn’t seen any other power lines. I didn’t think anything else until coming down from Shillhope Law to the back of Shillmoor Farm where I could hear a diesel engine running and to me it sounded like a generator under constant load. (I’ve heard enough generators on contests.) “I wonder what that is powering?” went the thoughts in my mind and I remembered hearing a wonderful Lister powered generator when I did Maiden Pap GM/NS-116 which is also in a remote place.

Well today on the BBC News website there is this article about the fact that Upper Coquetdale is finally being connected to the electricity grid. Or most of it is being connected.

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Thanks for that Andy. I read that BBC article, there are lots of areas in rural Australia like that. In my qth area and district this is the norm; we are only 340k from Melbourne at 500m asl!

Have a merry Xmas and HNY :santa: :christmas_tree:
and thanks for the work you do as a member of the MT.

Geoff vk3sq

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A belated thanks, Andy, for the qso with you on Shilhope Law the other week. I was operating as G3NWR, which as you surmised is Wirral ARS, now based at the Hooton Park Heritage Museum.
I did Shilhope exactly the way as you 3 years ago & then Tosson Hill via the forest paths.
Great views over the Coquet valley, from Tosson, but I don’t think I’ll bother again.
73 John (& all the best for Christmas etc)

Three of my favouite summits, since home is Newcastle and not too far to get to these. Unlikely I will get to any of them again because of age and health. So I am envious of Andy.

On the subject of the A1, the DCO was signed by the previous government but upon getting into power revoked by RR. I would love to take her on a trip of about 63 miles between Newcastle & Berwick in Summer(a trip I take many times a year) when average speed is around 38mph or sometimes even less…

Merry Christmas to all reading this.
73 Jim

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That’s because it is nowhere near London (or if you live North of the Border - read Central Belt) :sob:

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