Keen to make the most of the winter bonus period and using up holidays that I can’t carry over to 2025, I 've been up a couple of hills this week.
Yesterday afternoon was Kirkland hill GM/SS-164, an interesting drive down the B740 and out on a single track road into the hills.
The B740 might get a MCsota visit in the summer to let some of the Triumph ponies out for a gallop through the twisties.
The forecast was for the weather to be sunny in the afternoon, well it was cold and showery instead. I set up my shelter and settled in for sota. 40m seemed very long skip with East European stations fading in on top. A spot on 15m produced the most intense pile up I’ve dealt with so far, 12 qso’s in 6 minutes. Asking for EA stations didn’t help since there were three at once. I ended up going with last letter of suffix to separate them out. The showers and the cold got to me and I came down and headed for home, the hill was a bit squelchy with the rain.
Today’s forecast was for better weather in the morning, so I set off early for Well hill GM/SS-112 hoping for a complete since I had chased it last year. It had been clear sky over night so there was ice on the puddles and a crust on the boggy bits of the hill, also a bitter north westerly wind.
I startled a couple of Roe deer at the start of the walk and flushed a brace of Grouse further on. The track is easy to follow along the old Roman road until you cut up to the right on an ATV track before a gate. There are grouse butts so I guess that’s what the track is for. It leads all the way to the confluence of fences at the summit.
The wind was very strong at the summit so I set up my shelter a wee bit lower on the Lee side.
I started on 40m and had to move to avoid qrm then saw a spot for Alan @MM0VPM M0VPM on Trahenna hill GM/SS-143, we had a quick s2s on 2m and that was a complete for me. Happy days, it turns out that one qso got me two completes since I had an s2s from Trahenna hill to Well hill last year. I had a few more qso’s on 15m, one more on 2m and then my toes were numb and it was time to go. After getting my torso cold yesterday I had raided my diving kit for my Damart thermal vest which made a difference to my core temp. but couldn’t help my toes.
Well hill summit with Green lowther behind covered in cloud.
Since I came down early I had time to scope out the start point for Hods hill, GM/SS-131 on the way back.
Andy
MM7MOX
