Wonderful High Rigg

Activation Reports
1

The forecast for today was about as good as it gets approaching the winter season - light cloud, 7 degC and most importantly light winds.

High Rigg is a very short, steep ascent if you decide to drive all the way to St John’s Church. As plenty of folk will know this summit nestles inbetween Helvellyn, Blencathra and Skiddaw with commanding views of the later two as well as good views to the North and West.

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Looking South towards Thirlmere, Helvellyn on the left

I setup just a smidge to the West of the summit cairnstone pile with the FT-857 running around 50w, Chameleon MPAS 2.0 and my FT-1XD with stock whip for VHF. I was only expecting VHF contacts with folk doing SOTA, but as I got to the summit I could hear Les 2E0LDF and Geoff @GM4WHA working Ben G4BML on G/LD-009. Once I got my breath back my CQ call only raised Geoff who I think had gone mobile to try and get me, so it was great to get one VHF chaser.

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VHF/HF Operating Position

Skiddaw and Blencathra were in light cloud for most of my activation.

Had a great time working HF - it’s been a while from a SOTA summit - so many friends out there. Lots of great S2S into Europe. On 40m I was getting reports of broken audio, so need to check the path from microphone to antenna to see if there are any weak links. The Chameleon MPAS2.0 presents reasonable SWR on 40m, but not fantastic, so I would imagine if I’m going to have RF problems on any band it would be 40m.

Managed to get Andy @G8CPZ on both VHF and 30m CW from his summit position on G/LD-040 - I think we both started feeling the cold as the wind picked up, which eventually called an end to play.

Thanks for all the contacts, hopefully it won’t be as long to next time.

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Skiddaw and Blencathra

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Looking West

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Summit Cairnstone Pile

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Thirlmere

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Gyrocopter

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Castlerigg Stone Circle

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Paraglider setting up on Skiddaw

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Paraglider in and out of the clouds above Blencathra

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TIME CALLSIGN BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
10:05 G4BML/P 2m FM 59 59 Ben SOTA G/LD-009
10:22 GM4WHA/M 2m FM 41 53 GEOFF
10:35 SV2RUJ/P 15m SSB 55 57 Stavros SOTA SV/TL-090
10:39 G8CPZ/P 2m FM 55 53 AJ SOTA G/LD-040
10:42 DL2HWI 20m SSB 59 57 Dietmar
10:43 OE6RCD 20m SSB 59 55 ROLAND
10:43 EA1DHB 20m SSB 59 55 Ricardo
10:44 OE5JKL 20m SSB 58 56 KARL
10:44 SP6KEP 20m SSB 59 59 Radio
10:44 EA4IS 20m SSB 59 59 César
10:44 OK1SDE 20m SSB 59 57 Dalibor
10:45 EA2BD 20m SSB 59 57 Ignacio
10:45 F4ISZ 20m SSB 59 56 Franck
10:46 IK2LEY/P 20m SSB 44 44 FABIO SOTA I/LO-424
10:47 ON3RMB 20m SSB 58 35 Kristof
10:47 EA5IYX 20m SSB 59 55 Lorenzo
10:47 DL5AWI 20m SSB 59 57 Gerhard
10:47 CT2IXX 20m SSB 57 57 Jacques
10:48 EA8DKV 20m SSB 58 57 ALEXIS
10:49 IK2YYB 20m SSB 56 55 MARIO
10:55 LA9XGA/P 20m SSB 59 59 TOR-ATLE SOTA LA/RL-132
10:58 HB9CRY/P 20m SSB 55 57 René SOTA HB/TI-150
11:01 2E0BIA/P 20m SSB 52 52 Martin SOTA G/SP-004
11:02 EA2EVM 20m SSB 59 55 Cesareo
11:02 ON7TWA/M 20m SSB 59 59 Geert
11:03 ON2LVC/P 20m SSB 59 59 Luc WWFF ONFF-0039
11:04 SP7MAZ 20m SSB 59 54 Mariusz
11:04 EA2ECA 20m SSB 55 55 Joseba
11:05 S57EA 20m SSB 55 57 MIRAN
11:05 DL6MST 20m SSB 59 59 Klaus
11:05 OH6JYH 20m SSB 59 57 Harri
11:06 S57ILF 20m SSB 57 55 FRANCI
11:06 F4IAW 20m SSB 59 57 Eric
11:07 SV1RVJ/P 20m SSB 53 53 Kyriakos SOTA SV/AT-044
11:08 EA2WX/P 20m SSB 55 57 Marcial SOTA EA2/BI-057
11:08 LY4Q 20m SSB 59 56 Rolandas
11:09 EA3HYJ 20m SSB 59 55 Agustín
11:09 DL5DXS 20m SSB 59 58 Steffen
11:10 DG7BBP 20m SSB 59 59 Jens
11:14 HB9HCS/P 20m SSB 57 56 Stefan SOTA HB/BE-165
11:17 2E0FVO/P 40m SSB 59 57 Matt
11:19 G0FEX 40m SSB 59 59 KEN
11:20 2E0LLB 40m SSB 59 53 Lee
11:22 G4IAR 40m SSB 59 57 Dave
11:23 G0RQL 40m SSB 59 49 DON
11:24 G3TQQ/P 40m SSB 59 57 J SOTA G/TW-004
11:24 G0FGI 40m SSB 59 56 Tom
11:25 2E0FEH 40m SSB 59 57 Karl
11:25 MW0SAW 40m SSB 59 57 Steve
11:32 G8CPZ/P 30m CW 599 599 AJ SOTA G/LD-040
11:39 MW0RWX/P 40m SSB 59 58 Robert SOTA GW/MW-025
11:41 SQ3M 17m SSB 59 57 Martin
11:44 OE6GND 17m SSB 59 59 GERHARD
11:44 SQ9MDF 17m SSB 59 57 Leszek
11:45 OH3GZ 17m SSB 59 59 JUKKA
11:45 OE6TTF/P 17m SSB 55 56 Eric SOTA OE/ST-468
11:46 CT3MD 17m SSB 59 59 Jose
11:46 DL8MF 17m SSB 44 55 Immo
11:47 EA5K 17m SSB 59 58 Miguel
11:47 EA2BO 17m SSB 59 59 Raul
11:48 ON7USB 17m SSB 59 59 Geert
11:49 DM2VC 17m SSB 57 55 Manfred
11:52 CT3MD 10m SSB 59 59 Jose
11:53 DJ5AV 10m SSB 59 55 Michael
11:57 OE5EEP/P 20m CW 599 599 Heinz SOTA OE/OO-293
12:00 TM15SOTA 20m SSB 59 55 2022 SOTA F/AM-329
12:07 HB9EIV/P 20m SSB 55 59 Michael SOTA HB/BE-111
12:11 OE7HPI/P 20m SSB 57 54 Holger SOTA OE/TI-564
12:13 EC2AG/P 20m SSB 59 59 ANTONIO SOTA EA1/CT-103
12:15 2E0BIA/P 20m SSB 55 55 Martin SOTA G/SP-004
12:17 G0RQL 60m SSB 59 59 DON
12:19 G3RDQ 60m SSB 59 44 DAVID
12:20 G4IAR 60m SSB 59 55 Dave

All photos here.

18 Likes
2

Hi Mark, M0NOM

Beautiful pictures! Nice to have you in the log, and thank you once again for the activation!

73 de ON3RMB
Kristof

2 Likes
3

Oh, so many QSO and S2S. A great activation and fine pictures, thanks for your report.

73, Ludwig

1 Like
4

Great pics, Mark, thanks. Loved the stone circle, sparked a chat about Stonehenge with an adjacent table at the cafe!
73 Andrew VK1DA/VK2DA

2 Likes
5

Stunning photos, such an open landscape.

Cheers, Wal VK2WP

1 Like