Today I shall be mostly getting wet.
Three winter bonus summits in north Lancashire. Good test of my new waterproofs if nothing else!
I’m only taking my handheld, so local chasers monitoring S20 would be highly appreciated!
G/SP-006 approx 1030 then G/SP-003 and G/SP-007 if I haven’t washed away by then.
Hope its not too bad for you Tom - and the waterproofs work. Going nowhere here today so I’ll listen out for you but I think 115 Km which is the nearest summit to me, will be too far away for me to hear you.
Good luck!
Phil
I’ve just looked at the rain radar on the Met Office site. Nasty. Rather you than me, mate!
“I’m only taking my handheld” , that must be magic 
Here despite the Wicklow Mountains being only a stones throw south of the capital if it was not for the few regular chasers in GW lots of vhf activation’s would be a bust. Funny thing is if you post the spot on the local SOTA Facebook page you will get 50 “Likes” but rarely a qso 
Dec
ei6fr
Tells you all need to know about Facebook.
“If it ain’t raining, it ain’t training.
Skin’s waterproof, clothes dry”
Seriously though, get rid of all cotton, change over to all polyester sub-layers and Buffalo pile shirt (and gloves). Then if the waterproofs leak a bit it does not matter.
The mind set is keep warm, not necessarily dry.
Have fun
David
G0EVV
Geez. Macc man grumbles about liquid sunshine.
There were days when my waterproofs were wetter on the inside than the outside!
Waterproofs worked. Never emerged from 6 hours hiking in constant heavy rain so dry!
White Hill was the wettest I’ve ever experienced - and it’s a soggy lump at the best of times.
Stupidly I went to the 561m trig on Ward’s Stone first. Just one contact from there. Remembered that the other trig (560m) has a much better VHF take-off so walked the kilometre or so over to there and got the other three contacts.
Cancelled the 3rd summit - but forgot to delete the waypoint in the satnav, so wasted some time following country lanes around to the foot of Fair Snape Fell - doh!
And yes, I’m getting more and more confident of qualifying activations on most G and GW summits on just a 2m handheld and rubber duck. Quick, easy - and minimises “ranger danger” too.
I used to enjoy ‘wasting time’ driving my girlfriend (now my wife) around those country lanes in my Lotus 7 in the 1970s.
Is that a new one from Wincle or Storm?
Saw your spot this afternoon Tom, I did a couple of hours chasing from the car with an ‘optimised’ deployment of the Chameleon MPAS 2.0 to save from getting wetter than I had to from the car to the antenna, about 6 metres. I went to try and catch Guru @EA2IF who’s spot I saw in the house but it wasn’t making it through my S7 noise. Seems like I missed him.
It has rained cats and dogs all weekend. I don’t enjoy activating deliberately in the wet. There were several folk who appeared to be forcing themselves on a walk, who I watched wander past the car. I’m OK thanks.
Every single HF band had activity on this afternoon that I listened to: 40m to 10m. Wonderful radio. The MPAS 2.0 totally unphased by the rain or wind.
Mark.
Back in the days when I was active in the climbing club, we had weekend meets once a fortnight, car sharing so you had to put your name on the list in advance. If the weather was rubbish we felt that we had to get something out of the weekend, so we climbed the hills in even the most rubbish weather, things like doing the Nantlle Ridge in a snowstorm, walking parts of the West Highland way in driving rain, scrambles with the rainwater running down the inside of your sleeves, and so on. I remember only aborting Mynydd Mawr when one of the party actually became airborne! If the alternative is sitting in a tent or bothy playing cards all day its better to get cold and wet, and there is a certain masochistic pleasure in going out in bad weather - as Tom will probably agree!
Hi Brian
To be fair I do love it when SOTA activations are a ‘bit of an adventure’, and some inclement weather can definitely make an activation fall into that category.
I have the absolute luxury, living in the Lakes, of picking and choosing without limiting the opportunities much, and I do appreciate that luxury very much.
Nothing sadder than seeing Japanese tourists arriving in Windermere when the forecast is for terrible weather all week. The Japanese have an affinity for the Lake District as they learn English from Beatrix Potter books, in part. It’s a terrible lot of money to spend to have a week of no views. I genuinely feel for them, given how wonderful it can be. The weather, like the sea, can be a cruel mistress.
Speak to you soon from a summit when it stops raining 
Regards, Mark. M0NOM
Is it raining down there - blue sky and sunshine all weekend in the frozen North 
…… in British Racing Green?
Sadly not (that would have been my preference). It was in yellow. It was the only (proper**) Lotus 7 that Caterham Cars had left with a twin-cam engine. The Weber carburetors gave it a very distinctive sound. I’ve had cars before and many since but that was the only one I really cared about.
**When Lotus stopped making the Seven, Caterham Cars got the license to make them but called the Caterham Seven (also brilliant) but I wanted a bit of British racing history.
This, 1000% 
I ran a Caterham Seven for several years and whilst not as original as yours, there is nothing that I’ve driven since that comes anywhere near my Seven. Even seeing it in the garage made me smile, and I so miss that smell the garage had.
Jonathan
Warning: even more topic drift
I spent a lot of time working on the Seven in my garage. Like most young people back then [1970s] I couldn’t afford to have a car serviced by professionals and did all my own car maintenance (my grown-up kids have no idea how a car works - one even put engine coolant in the oil filler).
When the valve clearances on the overhead twin camshafts went out of spec (which they did quite often) I would have to cycle about 6 miles to the nearest Lotus dealership for a couple of shims, cycle back home, even before I could strip the head to fit them.
I had a mate that had an Elite S2 (nb: he was hooked ever since Emma Peel climbed out of one!) and we put the head back on it after a rebuild. It always leaked oil but was a fantastic car to drive. He later got an Elise S1 and that was equally an amazing drive too!
