Well after Tom m1eyp spoke about the Northern Pennines, made me want to get out up them yonder hills in the dales again, A few phone calls and we are in business, minus our leader Dave from Bradford who was gigging last night, We made arrangements to meet at Burnley for 8-00am and a trip up Whernside NP-004, After another brew and two geocaches we where on the M65 and A56 heading for Gisburn and Settle, Once we arrived at Ribblehead Viaduct a quick brew and on our way, We set off up by the signal box (a few photo’s taken)and followed the track till we met a sign men at work (on a Sunday dont be daft). The weather was great but a little bit cold southerly wind was coming down from Scotland, Once at the trigpoint a few cq cq calls where made but nothing heard, So had a look around and found 2e0edx-2e0yg-2e0occ on Harter Fell ld-028 for 3 quick qso’s oh i forgot g6lkb Dave in Ulverstone. Then i heard m0rcp/p on NP-018, i asked him to qsy to 145-525 but nothing only g4rqj/p calling, who dont know, So made the qso with Rob who was on Ld-040, My radio companion on this activation was g6ddq who called out on 70mhz but nothing came back, He had a good chat with g6lkb and g4rqj on 145mhz, (Long time since they had spoken). A few more calls on 145-500 brought nothing, We had our sandwiches then it was a case of make our way back down to ground level, on the way we visited a geocache where a coin that belonged to m1eyo was left, pity Alan was not with us (but in thought), Once at the car we just managed to get the last brews from the burger-van who had a good trade today he said, Well the weather was great, Now for the short drive back down to Burnley and Bolton, Everyone in our group really enjoyed our adventure out again, We might even try another soon,
Thanks for the qso’s to those who worked us, and apoligies to those who did’nt, looks like 145 is not as good as it used to be from Whernside.
A few photo’s uploaded on flickr.com
Fantastic to hear that you are out and about on “yonder hills” for SOTA again, Steve. And I’m deeply flattered to have been singled out as the one that inspired you to fo so
Good point about 2m FM not being as lively as it used to be. I would agree with this point from my own recent experience, but it certainly merits further analysis. The overall number of QSOs in SOTA continues to rise. But certainly, that number in the UK is more “spread out” across more bands and modes than it was “in our day”.
2003 to 2005 would see a significant majority of SOTA QSOs on 2m FM. Since then, activators, chasers and SWLs alike have extended their portfolios to various HF bands, SSB and CW to name but a few. The overall number of QSOs has continued to rise, but the number on 2m FM may seem to have dropped. Then again, the hard stats indicate that even 2m FM UK SOTA QSOs are still rising!
I think it is significant though, that at one time, every chaser looking to work a SOTA would be knocking around on 2m FM. Now they’re spread out across 7.032MHz CW, 3.557MHz CW, 7.118MHz SSB, 144.300MHz SSB etc etc with everything else that is going on.
I’m really enjoying getting the last few of the NP uniques done. There’s a real variety of terrain up there, and some really interesting approaches and views. The Ribblehead Viaduct - signal box - Whernside - Station Inn walk described by Steve is a superb route, which I did earlier this year, and highly recommend it. More details via the Summits link above.
sorry I missed you from NP-004. I was struggling to get the antenna up and I think I heard you on the handheld but didn’t realise you were on a summit. By the time the antenna was up you’d disappeared. I agree 2m was a bit quite - especially given the excellent weather - and only managed 7 QSOs on 2m FM and 1 on 2m SSB in over an hour!
