Freeholds top - G/SP-011 TP4100 - WABsq SD92. The ONLY operator in England!

The sister in law had a pre planned visit to the Rochdale infirmary for a small procedure, that was going to take about 4 hours.... hmmmm.... Freeholds top! G/SP-011.

Its only about a 20-25 min run from the infirmary at rochdale to Sharneyford, and the start of the track up to freeholds top so it was cracking idea!.... except for 1 thing..... the weather! The hourly weather was hastily pulled up on the PC and what do you know? dry from 1300 :laughing: :laughing: its VERY unusual for the WX gods to act favourably on me, but hey.. ill take it!

The start of the walk is a nice made up track called Limers gate, in the Village of Sharneyford a couple of miles East of the town of Bacup, but be warned it somewhat luls you into a false sense of security! and I somewhat understimated the time it would take me (and my still gammy ankle) to get up the track to the trig point! further up the track its made up of huge bricks and full of holes and chunks, that in the wet made the track quite hard going in places, with water completely covering the track over for large parts, facilitating the need to either wade or find an alternative! The path veers right near the end, and climbs steeply onto the moor plateu, with the wet weather this was by far worse than the track, and "bog hopping" was the order of the day, for the final tortuous 200M to the trig!

Just as i opened the gate to the trig area, lady luck ran out.. the heavens OPENED! So a quick operation on the "rubber duck" was called for, I fired up VK portalog, spotted gave it a min or 2 and then called CQ, Quickly Paul @M0CQE came back to me, for number one in the log.... "you know my friend, you are the only operator out in England today according to the spots" he informed me! Mind you, i wasnt suprised with the weather! it soon became apparent that paul was the only person who could hear me on the rubber duck, so with the rain pouring i stuck the trusty mast and Spectrum slim G up, and made another call.... BOOM! Straight into 3 more M7ELO - John, G1JPV - Tony and G6XBF - Walt! gotta admit it was a releif to hit the 4 mark, it was more of a releif for the rain to be stopping too! I added 6 more to the log for a total of 10, that'll do!

Anyhow the descent was more of the same, bog hopping, ankle crunching fun and it thankfully stopped dry! if i go again, i might try it from Shawforth next time.. steeper, but shorter!

Oh, and im now on 20 Activator points! haha

Thanks to all the Chasers and those taking the time to read.

Alan

Battling Gun - G/SP-013 - TP3538 29/03/24

My lovely Wifey decided that she wanted to go to Bingo, with her pal and wanted to be dropped off in Manchester near Belle Vue at 1715… given that it was now 1500 that didnt leave me alot of time. So a plan was hastily formed to have a quick trip up the Gun, i should be able to drive there, activate, and get back to the car before we lost complete daylight. and given its a fairly straightforward half mile wander up a well defined track a headtorch descent wasnt the end of the world! the weather had been fairly decent here all day, and so I reckoned the going would be ok, with no major issues!!

Quick activation gear was packed, and the Girls dropped off to (try) and win us some money I was on my way to the Gun! G/SP-013. all was well, as I passed through the town of Macclesfieldbut as we drove up the Leek road, the heavens OPENED! proper biblical rain… ooooohhhhh i was chatting with my mate on 4M FM at the time and distinctly remeber saying “if this doesnt clear up soon, im calling it off” anyhow, as quickly as it started was as quick as as it stopped, with warming spring sunshine and blue skies behind it, I decided to press on.

As I arived at the parking area, I could see the remnants of a hail storm settled on the road, but it was fast dissapearing, but there was ALOT of water on the road… i had a quick look at the track and the bottom bit by the gate was a quagmire, but the rest form this position looked easy going, so the gear was grabbed and off i went! Quagmire was an UNDERSTATEMENT it was a horrible wet mud pit that tried to suck my trekking poles into its black depths, but after some careful footwork i was accross and on the track proper. Now this was to be the HARDEST virtually flat 1/2 mile i have EVER walked, the mud and water was constant and never ending, and what should have been a 10 min bounce to the top turned into a half hour battle with the bog!! however, i would come oput triumphant!

Mud, Mud, Glorious Mud…

Anyhow, the twighlight was fast approaching and in the distance in incoming squall, I needed to do this and do it FAST! I chucked the roach pole up on the trig point, whipped the Slim G up on it, and cracked on… 10 contacts in 11 mins, that’ll do!

Everybody loves a Slim G!

Selfie time!

With the rain spit spotting as i packed my final bits, and donned my head torch we were off to do battle again! unsuprisingly things hadnt improved much, but the descent was slightly quicker (about 20 mins) than the ascent! after again crossing the mud pit of doom, I was elated to be back at the car! gear packed and off to find food…

Muddy…

Great little evening out, and ill be back on the Gun, i can see it being a great little spot on a nice summers evening in the dry!

Thanks to all the Chasers, with a special mention to Paul @M0CQE First in the log, and for later checking I was down safe by whatsapp. thankyou buddy!

73 all, till next time!

Alan

First HF activation G/SP-004 Shining Tor TP5950 25/11/23

No idea why i forgot to post this one.. Anywhoo!

As pretty much all of you know by now, I have been off the mountains since my unfortunate accident on the way to Kinder Scout at the beginning of the year. Having missed pretty much all of the summer SOTA season and with my leg much improved, I have been ITCHING to get out! I also reckoned it was time to test the Little Xeigu G106 out on a proper activation…

A window of opportunity presented itself, and after spending most of the week watching the mountain weather, Saturday looked suprisingly pleasent! it also had the advantage of being a weekend when i had my son, so he could be roped in to help!

The day was pleasant and although it was cold, it was lovely in the sunshine. I couldnt have asked fr better walking conditions although imnot going to lie, I was nervous… conditions were spookily similar when it all went so wrong on Kinder! but I put this to the back of my mind as we set off up the track from the Cat and Fiddle. Now i must confess, I did cheat slightly, William was my Sherpa!

Anyhow, summit reached and time was knocking on… we were late (as usual for me) so we rapidly set up the EFHW to the summit finger post and got the G106 hooked up to the SLAB, found a peaceful frequency on 40M… chucked up a spot on SOTAwatch, gave it 2 mins and put a call out…

9 contacts later,i got wiped out by QRM and loads of stations suddenly deciding to use my frequency,sometimes QRP has its drawbacks! Either that or some people are just plain ignorant, but hey ho, I was not too dissapointed though! 9 contacts meant for the first time it was activation complete on 40M… happy days!

I left William packing up the HF gear, and decided on a quick VHF activation on the handheld with the NR770 antenna, mainly because I wanted a 10th contact for the POTA! This lead to another 7 in the log, but I soon had to call time on the activation, honestly i could have worked stations all day!

The sun was fading RAPIDLY as by now it was 1530 and i didnt fancy a walk off by head torch we gathered the gear and made our way back to the Cat and Fiddle just in time for the sun to set.. Perfect!

This is fantastic SOTA mountain I reckon ill be back to spend a whole afternoon up there in summer playing radio and making contacts. It was honestly such a fantastic feeling to be working contacts form a SOTA summit again, after the fat end of a year off the hills... Thanks to everyone for their ongoing support, and the Chasers I worked, you guys make SOTA what it is!

Till next time, 73 - Alan & William!