Tomorrow is the shortest day in the Northern Hemisphere. Here in the Lake District that means sunrise at 08:31 and sunset at 15:48. WX was rain showers all day with SW winds up to 35 knots. Setting of the temperature was 3 degC.
Top O’Selside is a 1 point summit on the South East end of Coniston Water.
Top o’Selside
Gloomy start
My ascent today to Top o’Selside G/LD-048 from High Nibthwaite was via a permitted right of way for vehicles. Today I saw 6 off road landrovers from a local company Kankku who are based out of my home town Windermere. There is a lot of opposition to 4x4 use in the Lake District. Personally I don’t have a problem with this kind of activity, as long as the companies are sympathetic to their access. I was lucky enough to have a chat with a local from High Nibthwaite on the way up and he said Kankku has made a number of repairs to the track, and since last time I was here a couple of years ago the path had definitely been improved in a number of places.
Plenty of water coming off the fells at the moment!
The walk in is around 30 minutes. For Wainwright baggers this is a good spot with four up for grabs including Top o’Selside but having got local advice I decided to stick to the path today. The fellside was absolutely water logged, and the path down from Top o’Selside to the other Wainwrights would have been difficult, to say the least. Views were good to the West, taking in the Coniston Fells with Harter Fell poking up proudly to the left.
Path that skirts Top o’Selside to the west
Junction leading to the summit
Modest cairnstone pile
Summit Selfie!
I setup for HF on the leeward side of the small pile of summit Cairnstones. With the wind around 20 knots it was a struggle getting the 10m compact travel mast to stay upright. At times I looked up and it was really bending some. I’m amazed this pole has survived all the action it has seen.
HF Equipment, FT-817 barefoot
Challenging conditions for the SOTABeams 10m compact travel pole
Good phone signal here so no phone dance required. My initial spot on 80m was met with an enthusiastic response and solid 59s showing both the setup and band conditions were in good shape.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:32 | G4OBK | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:36 | G0FEX | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:37 | GI0AZA | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Esther |
| 10:38 | G0LWU | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Andrew |
| 10:41 | GM7NZI | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:42 | ON4CB | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:42 | G4WSB | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Bill |
| 10:43 | GM4WHA | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:43 | MM0XPZ | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Steve QTH: Greenock |
| 10:44 | GI0AZB | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Ian |
| 10:44 | 2E0FEH | 3.5MHz | SSB | QTH: Cornwall |
| 10:45 | G8MIA | 3.5MHz | SSB | |
| 10:46 | MM0KCS | 3.5MHz | SSB | OP: Mike QTH: Edinburgh |
Reclipping for 40m brought in another healthy list of chasers:
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:50 | F5JKK | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:51 | ON2LVC | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:51 | 2E0FEH | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:51 | ON4CB | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:52 | SQ2RBY/P | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:53 | HB9DHA | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:54 | ON4FI/P | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:54 | F4WBN | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:55 | EA2CKX | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:55 | EA1DFP | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:56 | F5IET | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:56 | PH20XMAS | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:57 | EA1DHB | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:57 | F5LKW | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:58 | DL1GKC | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:58 | SA4BLM | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:59 | DL2EF | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:59 | F6FTB | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 10:59 | G0VWP | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 11:00 | ON2OY | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 11:00 | PA2DRE | 7MHz | SSB | |
| 11:01 | G0RQL | 7MHz | SSB |
20m was a little less manic and it was great to get two S2S contacts with @SP9MA/P on OM/ZA-045 and then SQ9BQW/P on SP/BZ-048. Once contacts had dried up I did a little SaP for a couple of additional S2S QSOs.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:05 | EA7GV | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:05 | EA3BP | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:05 | EA5K | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:06 | EA2DT | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:07 | SV2SOQ | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:08 | SQ2RBY/P | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:09 | EA3GRW | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:10 | SQ9MDF | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:11 | OM/SP9MA/P | 14MHz | SSB | SOTA: OM/ZA-045 |
| 11:12 | SQ9BQW/P | 14MHz | SSB | SOTA: SP/BZ-048 |
| 11:12 | DJ2MX | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:13 | S57ILF | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:13 | EU2MM | 14MHz | SSB | |
| 11:14 | CT2IXX | 14MHz | SSB |
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:20 | HB9CYV/P | 7MHz | SSB | SOTA: HB/ZG-002 |
| 11:26 | HB9GUF/P | 14MHz | SSB | SOTA: HB/AI-008 RIG: KX2 PWR: 10W |
By this time the weather had really set in - the wind had picked up and it started raining. I did a quick 2m activation after I’d donned my waterproofs but standing by the cairnstone pile was really doing me no good and I had to quit earlier than I really wanted to.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11:33 | G6LKB | 144MHz | FM | |
| 11:33 | G1OHH | 144MHz | FM |
The Lake District Winter look
The Old Man wearing his wooly hat
View to the South
Thanks to all the chasers. I thought I was close to 1/2 mountain goat. I’m now at 496 points so hopefully there will be another break in the weather or two before the end of the year to ‘seal the deal’.
If you had a QSO with me today on HF it will be in one of these three audio files:
Merry Christmas! 73, Mark.
