As this is the best weather we have seen up here in North East Scotland for some time (3 days without continuous rain) I thought I would make the most of it. Saturday was Hill of Foudland (GM/ES-071). This hill is adjacent to Hill of Tillymogan (GM/ES-079) and has similar remains of what was once a very active slate quarry. I went up via Red Hill from the West as the route stays clear of the radio masts. With the hill to myself, I set up at the trig point. 40m brought in some of the chasers I had QSO’d with the previous day from all over the UK and 20m some good contacts from Norway, Poland and Spain.
With the contest in full swing, it was difficult to find a clear frequency without QRM, and there were some ominous clouds to the Northwest. So I quickly packed up and got down the hill, arriving at the Landy as the heavens opened.
In my haste to decamp, my new Sotabeams Tactical Mini decided to bite me.
After a quick committee decision on WhatsApp with the NE Scotland SOTA musketeers, today, I took the family up Ben Newe (GM/ES-53). Once the (adult) kids plus the other half had packed for Everest basecamp, we arrived at the summit to be greeted by a family party who, along with bunny ears, were swinging from the right end of a bottle of Prosecco. They were fascinated by the SOTA thing and stayed just long enough to see the mast and inverted V go up along the convenient fenceline. It was a struggle on 40 and 20 due to the contest, but I was rewarded with a fresh cup of tea from the climbing party.
Morven with a lot less snow than last week eh Fraser?
It was a great day out, and I have 18 QSOs in the log, including a difficult StS with Andy (MM7MOX). I even found my own patch of snow to keep up with MM0EFI.
Lessons learned today: Don’t unhook the dipole end from the peg to undo the crocodile clips and expect to find the peg again in the heather…
