Having tasted the awful ground on GM/NS-117 I was up early and fed a lovely breakfast and was off for first proper summit of the trip. My three targets are on the Scoraig Peninsula that runs between Loch Broom and Little Loch Broom. I found out about them back in 2009. I came up to the “Ullapool area” looking for summits. I printed maps for many summits between here and the far North and these 3 looked straightforward and simple. Ha!
The WX was glorious and there wasn’t much traffic so pretty soon I was on the narrow single track road making for my parking spot that is basically between GM/NS-100 and GM/NS-090. And I never considered some damn van-lifer would be parked up in my spot. The cheek! Also someone had put some large rocks in the old borrow-pit to make the parking area smaller. Don’t know why but I knew I could move them for me to get in. Anyway the van life dude was super nice and him and his lady were just about to leave and were off to bag An Teallach just across the loch. He had enough room to get out so I booted up and kitted up. There’s probably no need as for me with a modern phone on EE, I get good 4G coverage anyway but I had my homebrew Iridium satellite modem system which means I can spot from anywhere on Earth. I checked I had all the SOTA stuff and the Iridium stuff and chocolate and set off.
Where the views good Andy? Oh yes… Sail Mhor GM/NS-048 from my parking spot.
The sun just about to peep over Beinn nam Ban GM/NS-090, the second target of the day.
Our first target, Cnoc a’Bhaid-rallaich GM/NS-100… looks trivial (hahahahahahaha!)
The route was over the first rise then down a slight slope, up that gentle rise to the top, then along to the top proper. Easy, peasy, lemon-squeasy. Except it wasn’t. No we have had a very dry summer but there has been more rain up here by the coast. But nothing, not even Galloway prepared me for the ground. No ground was level… every step had my feet at different angles. The vegetation was quite soft and long. Occasionally it was a bit boggy and soft and wet. Or not. But every step required feet lifting high to clear the drag from the grass etc. I marched along and after a while thought well how much further is it as this is a bit slow and was saddened to see how slow progress was. Finally I got to the slopes and the ground stayed uneven and progress was even slower.
I finally got to the “top” and it’s just along a gentle slop now. No it was still up/down/uneven and soul-destroying energy sapping stuff. Now I know I’ve been less active this summer but I can still do my training hill in the same time. But here we were… computer said 1h35 to the top and it took 2hr20 and I was a lifeless blob. I sat down on the rocks and just did nothing for 10mins thinking about the plan. Obviously this will take much longer than 1hr back and the other hill will take longer. So is there enough daylight to do both? Only if I do a smash and grab. Well neither hill had been on for 8 or 11 years so it would be stupid not to do a decent activation of at least one to give as many a shot as possible. So I decided that I do just this one today. Beinn Ghobhlaich on the Friday and Beinn nam Ban on the way home on Saturday (WX permitting).
Here’s the view back to Ullapool from not quite the summit. People who have walked in Scotland will recognise that ground… and this is the easier stuff!
And from my operating point to the summit cairn. It’s rocky at the top with not much soil/vegetation except between the rocks. Enough to support the tent pegs and the mast. This is looking out NW towards the Hebrides. After them next stop Canada.
Anyway up with the 40/30/20 trapped EFHW on a 5m Decathlon glass fibre pole, homebrew 1:64 match with feed about 1m AGL, approx 3m counterpoise running down guy support then ground, 4m RG58 to KX2, 4000mAh Hobbyking battery. First off 40m SSB and conditions were quite good with 19 stations worked including OE5 at 1040Z. Really quite a simple QSO and impressed me to get such a long QSO that time of day. After that 6 stations on 17m CW, typical short haul European stations. 20m CW was busy with 25 stations worked including UR7EZ for ODX. 15m was again the band to use, 10 stations including Matt W4GO, Fred WX1S and finally Hideo JH1MXV. His signal was quite warbly and the tone was not steady which made me think maybe multipath. I don’t think it was long path but it had a fluttery trans-polar sound to it. I finished off with 10m on 30m.
I spent a total of 2h30 operating with 74 QSOs and I certainly think the decision to stay and do one proper activation not two smash and grabs was the right move. If I hadn’t I wouldn’t have worked JA :-).
Tomorrows target Beinn Ghobhlaich GM/NS-080, the off-grid “hippy” village of Scoraig is in the forest at the edge of the loch to Beinn Ghobhlaichs left edge.
Oh dear, it does look rather steep just like all the reports say 
Looking out to the Hebrides, Scoraig on the right. Badcaul on the left of Little Loch Broom. The island in the far right distance is Priest Island, one of the Summer Isles (not to be confused with The Whicker Man and Lord Summerisle) and the ground in the far left is the seriously remote Mellon Charles / Mellon Udrigle peninsula. Between the Mellon Udrigle and Badcaul you can see Gruinard Island which was off limits for 40+ years. Why? Well my nice government did Biological Warfare testing of Anthrax for WWII use in 1942. It was finally declared safe in 1990. It’s quite strange to look at the place and think how dangerous it was there for so many years.
Cul Beag GM/NS-047, Cul More GM/NS-029 and maybe Canisp GM/NS-030
Looking Northish… Coigach Peninsula on the left with Beinn Mor Coigach GM/NS-057, Cul Beag and friends and the grey hills straight ahead in the distance Conival, Breabag GM/NS-034 and Ben More Assynt GM/NS-009
A zoom on to Beinn Mor Assynt and friends.
MM0FMF antenna setup with Beinn nam Ban GM/NS-090 behind to the right.
An exhausted MM0FMF at the top… I’m smiling inside 
Beinn nam Ban GM/NS-090 with some of The Fannisch behind him.
The Iridium spotter. 3x18650 cells, a Rasberry Pi B+ in the middle with 5V PSU and USB Wifi unit. The Iridium modem on the right powered by USB and a 5F Aerogel capacitor, you can see the 1.5GHz patch antenna
How hard can that ground be? Damn hard. The Fannichs behind Sgurr Nan Clach Geals GM/NS-002, Sgurr Breach GM/NS-007 and A’Chailleach GM/NS-008
I cannot believe how hard that was to climb, Cnoc a’Bhaid-rallaich GM/NS-100
Finally still trying to be an arty photographer, a view over Little Loch Broom towards Dundonnell Hotel.
I was proper tired when I got back to the car and spent 25mins catching the rays as my feet steamed in the sun. 2 points that were hard earned.
Now the first activator of this hill was Ioan Jones 2W0NNN. Ioan was a young man who worked in the merchant marine on tankers and was keen on SOTA when not at sea. Sadly in 2014 Ioan went missing and was feared lost at sea, drowned when his tanker was sailing near Malta. Can we have a moment to remember our lost friend who was only 29 or so at the time.