|Tuesday 17th September. The sun was out, there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and hardly a breath of wind. Mrs P dropped me off a Hazel Gill (782998) a few miles south of Kirby Stephen on the B6295.
Following the bridleway and turning south on (The Nab) a prominent feature on the fell I was on the summit 1’ 10’ minutes and dead on time to set up and start calling on my alerted time at 12.10 LT. To my dismay and horror 
I couldn’t load a spot as I had no signal despite much wandering around and waving my phone about. My only hope was to be spotted by the RBN.
After calling on 7mhz for nearly half an hour with no answers to my CQ I had visions of a failed activation. 
Given the current propagation I QSY’d to 14mhz to get a better chance of being picked up. A few CQs later I was starting to think I was wasting my time until I got answered by HB9AGH/Ambrosi, then HB9CBR/Bruno a minute later. Relief!!! i knew i’d been spotted and soon got several more QSOs in my log. 
Listening to 10mhz I heard G0EVV/P calling from G/LD-020 and a minute later I had an S2S with David, followed by 4 more QSOs. An hour an half on the summit in beautiful weather I decided to pack up and walk back to our caravan at Kirby Stephen Caravan Park 9km away. An easy walk of about 9 km over the hills in superb weather and met up with this magnificent old oak (Its on the register of Ancient Trees) near Wharton Hall. Also, waiting for me there was Mrs P and Alphie our dog, near Wharton Hall. 2’ 30" minutes after setting off from the summit I was back at our caravan.
There are a number of fell tops in the Yorkshire Dales with these cairns on, notably Nine Standard Rigg, and whilst I was packing up a walker asked me what they were for. There are a number of suggestions - everything from representations of soldiers to ‘guard’, the dale below and representations of families or individuals. Some are obviously built by folk experienced in stone work, others not so well built. Probably built by generations of bored, shepherds or other folk simply for fun.
(upload://9zsuNJGEte0oAI1TUYAByyE54UY.jpeg)
Here’s my office position and my kit:-
Not much spotted in terms of wildlife except a grouse on the hill. Not unusual you might say, but it was in purple moor grass and there was only a couple of acres of heather moor and that was a couple of miles away.
Much more interesting was hearing, then seeing one of those military transport planes which had a pair of engines, each powering enormous propellers. I think this plane is one which can land/take off almost vertically. It flew south well below me and turned a sharp east to fly down Wensleydale. From the pilot’s perspective this must be much more fun than flying a similar sized plane full of passengers at 20,000 ft or so.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:50 | G0EVV/P | 10MHz | CW | S2S |
| 12:53 | OE7PHI | 10MHz | CW | |
| 11:55 | HB9AGH | 14MHz | CW | |
| 11:57 | HB9CBR | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:01 | OH3GZ | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:02 | SM5LNE | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:03 | DL8DXL | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:05 | OK1LV | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:25 | EA5JN | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:28 | EA2BD | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:28 | HA0IS | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:30 | IK6LBT | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:33 | F4WBN | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:35 | DL4CW | 14MHz | CW | |
| 12:36 | OH6NPV | 14MHz | CW | |
| 13:02 | PA0RBA | 10MHz | CW | |
| 13:04 | F8FKKI | 10MHz | CW | |
| 13:06 | DJ5AV | 10MHz | CW |
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