I do too, but not for everyday use - they are too expensive for that. I used normal paper log sheets on dry activations but stow a very small flip-over-the-top spiral Rite in the Rain notepad in the pencil bag as a backup literally for a rainy day. They work fine with pencils or pens.
5 Likes
Snap
A little bit wet was an understatement 
but a great day had yesterday on Mickle Fell G/NP-002 with Mr JKS, we certainly ājust kept smilingā 
@G1JKS - thanks to all for the contacts and S2S, full report will follow.
73, Ben
GW4BML
9 Likes
A very enjoyable weekend and nice to meet some fellow SOTA participants. Apologies to those that I missed, maybe next time.
On the Saturday I activated G/NP-010 Pen-y-ghent on 2m FM logging 19 QSOās including 3 S2S QSOās. The WX on the ascent wasnāt too bad despite a modest breeze. Once at the Summit and on the descent things changed considerably as can be seen from the photos which were taken from the same location. As soon as there were no replies to my CQ calls I got off the mountain. Iām back home now drying off my clothes.
Ascentā¦
Descentā¦
Thanks to the organisers and looking forward to the next one.
6 Likes
You can buy cheaper notepads, Iāve had some great ones from army surplus stores- some are branded āKombatā. Iāve also had some good notepads from Regatta - they are sometimes on a stand with a 3 for 2 offer - I buy 3 notepads.
Iād definitely recommend waterproof notepads over plain paper. I use, and recommend, a mechanical pencil. My favoured brand of mechanical pencil is PaperMate - they make a pencil with the lead suspended in a coil spring - the lead doesnāt snap like it does in ordinary mechanical pencils. I have a Fisher Space pen, I bought it because I was (still am a little bit) a space nerd. I wouldnāt recommend a space pen as a pencil works much better. The space pen does work but can sometimes be messy - the ink is pressurised and the pen works by the ink being āshearedā by the ball at the end. The ball rotates with writing action and the ink travels around the ball on to paper. The trouble is that often the ink is squeezed out due to the pressure and you can end up with an inky mess. Pencils are just a better, cleaner option in my opinion. Space Pens are a novelty item (I still love my Space Pen!).
73, Colin
4 Likes
Iām a bit old fashioned and use pencil and paper for logging.
The paper also acts as an indicator, when itās too soggy to write on, I take the hint and pack up the station to go down the hill. When itās blown about too much to write on, itās too windy to activate but often the antenna pole letās me know that first !
Iāve been spoiled the last few weeks, sitting in shirtsleeves atop munroās playing radio in the sunshine.
Andy
MM7MOX
5 Likes
Great Coum was a little moist. I made a handful of 2m QSOs and then a sharp exit. I think Iāve almost dried everything out now. The highlight of the activation for me was the Short-Eared Owl I accidentally flushed on the pathless section of my ascent.
Nice to meet a few people but such a shame the weather wasnāt conducive to us all sitting outside at the camp site and having a beer in the evening. Perhaps next year.
8 Likes
Add:
If itās raining when you set off so you leave the suncream out of your bag, then get half a mile down the road then have to go back because you forgot your waterproofs itās almost guaranteed that the rain will stop in 15 minutes and it will turn into a sunny day.
5 Likes
With only 3 NP summits left to activate, all around Swaledale I stayed in Keld so to enjoy being able to walk to all three summits over the weekend. Plans nearly fell though as the week before my foot had swollen up and I was struggling to walk but some decent drugs from the GP got things under control in time.
Kisdon G/NP-026
A short walk after arriving on the Friday night. I took my FT891 and link dipole for a quick activation on 40m however conditions on the band were poor and I only made 2 contacts so jumped up to 15m which is usually good at that time of day however the band was also quiet with no replies to my CQ. The summit was qualified with another 3 contacts on 15m FT8 which was very busy - itās a shame nobody was on SSB.
G/NP-006 Great Shunner Fell
An 11 mile walk which started off dull and dry but turned wet and very windy but the scarecrow festival brightened up the first couple of miles of the walk.
I was grateful for the shelter at the summit which meant I could stay there for a few hours.
I was hoping to qualify the summit on 23cm but unfortunately only managed 3 contacts, although plenty were made on 2m including 6 summit to summits. I wasnāt able to work all the summits who spotted - I couldnāt keep up following people around the band!
I started heading down about 1330 BST, planning to get a nice warm drink and some food at the tea rooms in Thwaite - only to find it was closed. I headed back along the road to Keld, the large number of cow houses were really noticeable although I didnāt see any cows in the area.
I made it to the cafe in Keld, only to find they were also closing early. Fortunately I was able to get some refreshments at the camp site.
Kisdon G/NP-026
Late in the afternoon, the rain cleared and the sun came out. A listen on some of the UK web SDRs found lots of activity on 6m so after dinner I headed up Kisdon again with the FT891 and 6m antenna.
When I arrived in the AZ, there was hardly any activity on 50.313 and it seemed like I missed the band opening. Spotting and calling on SSB with 75W yielded no replies so I tried FT8 and the only person calling was a chap from Edinburgh who I eventually managed to get in my log. About 30 minutes after I had set up, a Serbian station came out of the noise and became really strong as the band opened up again. Another 3 European stations were logged before I had to head down before it got dark. Unfortunately there was no opening to NA this time.
Roganās Seat G/NP-014
As alluded to further up, the weather was miserable and raining in the morning. I got to the end of the road and realised I hadnāt packed my waterproof trousers so headed back to pick them up. I headed down to the river, past the waterfalls and picked up the C2C path for wet walk up the hill which was unpleasant in waterproofs but quite scenic.
The route to the summit follows the āhigh levelā C2C path which runs up through some old quarries. By this point the rain had stopped so waterproofs were stashed in my rucksack.
The path then runs up the side of Swinner Gill on a ledge, over a stone bridge then up the east side of the gill. The path was narrow in many places, the rock paving slabs were wet and slippery and there was a section of path that had been taken out by a landslide with a swampy detour required.
Once out of the gill and up on the moor there is a wide stone track to follow to the summit. In the open, the wind was really noticeable all the way to the top.
The summit was just a small pile of stones and I opted to sit on the rocks near the track to activate as it was slightly out of the wind which made it easier to hold the antenna pole.
There was no mobile signal on the summit so I called on 2m and found enough chasers to qualify the summit, thanks in part to M9OUD/P putting a spot on for me, who also gave me a summit to summit contact on 4m.
I set up the 23cm gear as the rain was holding off. I tried spotting using my LoRa tracker but didnāt receive an ACK so wasnāt sure if it had worked, and it hadnāt received anything on the way up. 2m APRS didnāt seem to be getting picked up either. After a bit of a walk a managed to find enough mobile signal to put a spot on and dashed back to find a couple of chasers trying to get hold of me 
5 stations were worked on 23cm, including G3SMT down in Oswestry 185 km away just down the road from home!
A quick jaunt on 2m SSB brought in a few more contacts, and after packing up I heard M0CBC calling from Dodd Fell so managed another S2S in the log.
The sun was now out, although due to the wind I kept my jackets on until halfway down the Swinner Gill. Thankfully the stone slabs had dried out so werenāt as slippery as they were on the way up.
It was then just a few km back to Keld.
Kisdon G/NP-026
6m seemed to be open again in the evening so I quickly swapped equipment over and headed up Kisdon for a third time. There was a single cow on the corner of the track, looking a bit lost but happily munching through the grass.
About half way up I realised I hasnāt brought an antenna pole - no matter, I can probably rig something up off a fence post and a convenient one was found not far from the tower. I got all my kit out and realised Iād forgotten the Deans-Powerpole cable for the battery, so third time unlucky it seems and after looking for and not finding an alternative way out through the stone wall I headed back down through the gate and back down.
10 Likes
I activated Kisdon on Thursday and ā after qualifying the activation on 30m^^ CW ā I really struggled to get 2m contacts (with FT817 into J-pole on 5m pole). Getting no replies to my repeated 2m FM CQs, I thought I must have a fault with the setup but then got two 2m SSB contacts including Richard @G4TGJ /P on Binsey G/LD-041. Checking my logs for Kisdon for previous years, 2m was a problem then, no doubt due to the surrounding higher hills.
^^correcting original typo where I wrote ā10mā
2 Likes
Thanks to Mark for organising. I just about managed to activate NP-003 with 6x 2m QSOs in the log, 3 of which were S2S. Conditions were grim as with most of us, so I couldnāt face setting up the HF station!
1st August is Yorkshire Day, so would be a good time to focus activity every year!
3 Likes
Iād just done HF and was setting up for 2m FM but the FT817 was still on 144.300 and I heard the end of your CQ just as I switched on. I only knew it was you as Iād seen your earlier spot for FM and Iād thought youāll be lucky to get anything from Kisdon!
I think you mean 10MHz. How are you finding 30m? The last couple of activations I havenāt bothered because the response has been so poor. 20m has worked much better.
On Saturday I was not happy about not being able to make it.
Despite being all packed and ready to go on Friday evening but due to unforseen circumstance, I had about 1 hour of sleep so made the call not to risk driving while tired esepcially on the return journey after a few hours on a summit.
I half considered a jaunt up Billinge Hill for some STS action, but going back to bed and not setting an alarm put paid to that.
After seeing some of the reports and pictures, I am a lot less sad about not being able to make it. While waterproofs help, rain can still make for an uncomfortable day.
Its in the dairy for next year though.
Ian
1 Like
Hello
On Saturday I have activated Great Knoutberry Hill,G/NP-015
Did quick activation on 2m FM from HT, menage to do 5 qso
Conditions was poor, rain, fog and wind , because of that didnāt took HF set out.
Was pop in to campsite as well but didnāt manage to get night there. As I have seen was quite busy there
Havenāt seen any gazebo or SOTA flag to actually pop in and say hallo, maybe next time.
Unfortunately Sunday need to give up as circumstances change and need to go back.
73 de M0MTP
2 Likes
Yes, quite right (easy to get oneās MHz and metres mixed up when posting in a hurry)
Funny you should mention that. In the past I was always banging on about how good 30m was, regularly getting pileups. But in the last few years itās been a lot quieter. Iām pretty sure itās not propagation conditions as Iām still getting and giving good reports using more or less the same setup at roughly the same time of day. Okay, Iāve used the FT817 (5W) exclusively this year rather than the usual KX2 (10W) but I donāt think that matters much with my EFHW tuned carefully for 30m.
Seems like youāve had the same experience. What about other regular 30m band activatiors?
Great to meet everyone we bumped into over the weekend. Great countryside, great people and great fun.
I was a little disappointed with the campsite though, but that is nothing to do with the organisers. Thanks for your efforts. 
7 Likes
Is everyone on FT8?
I popped up Aye Gill Pike G/NP-023 today on the way home. I had previously activated this one, but only managed 2 contacts so didnāt get the points so today was to right that wrong.
After picking up some cheese from Hawes I headed down through Garsdale to the start point only to find the A684 is closed for 3 weeks at Garsdale village, requiring a lengthy detour meaning I started late.
On the last visit most of the route from Tom Croft hill was very boggy and I ended up soaked. I wore my Gore Tex winter boots today and (like leaving the suncream at home) it was almost bone dry and I wouldāve been fine in trainers.
The forecast had been for rain all day, however apart from a few spots it stayed dry and pleasant. Plenty of sunny spells on all the surrounding 4 pointers but none of it made it over to me.
I reached the summit around midday and set up between the wall and the fence out of the wind.
I quickly managed 3 contacts on 23cm, the 4th remaining elusive despite trying with a few chasers. I was pleased with 3 given the location. This was followed by 3 on 2m SSB and 1 on 2m FM.
I had a message saying 6m was open and busy on FT8. I didnāt bring my 6m antenna so turned the power down to 2W on my FT817 and used the 2m slim jim, getting 2 contacts in Italy
Next time, I think Iāll just plan on HF on this summit, and anything on VHF and up will just be a bonus.
4 Likes
