6 SOTA Summit weekender (part 3) The Cloud G/SP-015, Shining Tor G/SP-004 & Black Hill G/SP-002. 7/9/24

Day 3 of the multi summit weekender, and we decided we would do the Cloud, Shining Tor and finish on Black Hill for a total of 5 points! We were omitting the Gun, as I had done that earlier in the year.. We had been keeping an eye on the mountain weather, and the front wa supposed to move to the South from the North of the South Pennines area through ghe day, meaning it would be horrible on Black Hill in the morning and nice on the Cloud! and Vice Versa in the afternoon, we were soon to find out this would not be the case..

Anyhow, an early start and off down to Macclesfield we went.. The cloud is a trial by a million steps (ok slight exageration but still...) but the summit is doable in 20 mins or less from the parking spot, as we were early, it was thankfully quiet! Chucked the antennas up, fired a spot off and away we went! First up, the ever faithful Paul, M0CQE, followed by 14 more on 2M including 2 S2S (Matt M0MZB/B on G/LD-025 Seatallan. And Duane 2E0DIJ/P on G/SP-017 Billinge Hill).. after I had exhausted 2M, i fired up the 4M handheld, sadly only 1 contact on 70Mhz, but 16 all told, in just under an hour on VHF.. happy with that!!

As can be seen from the Tshirt, it certainly wasnt cold, but the clag was looming in the background on the Cloud! 

Anyhow, Job done! Off to Shining tor we went.... The weather was intermittently Claggy as we got up to the Cat and Fiddle, but still fairly mild... we reckoned it being the crappy weather heading south, as we were heading North, passing us on the way! we kitted up, and set off, but noted the path up was decidedly damper compared to the Cloud... hmmmm.... in and out of the Clag we passed, and managed the summit in a fairly good time, although it was busy! the bench on the summit was clear, so up went the mast on the finger post, and the ever reliable Spectrum Communications Slim G, and we got on air. Again Paul, M0CQE was number 1 in the log, followed by a 14 more on 2M and 2 on 4M! 16 total in 35 mins, with the clag thickening... we were off! 

Note the thick claggy cloud behind us.... it was a taste of what was to come!

Lastly we set off to Black Hill, and this is where things would get fun! the Clag was thicker than ever, but still thin enough to be able to sensibly navigate, the path these days is pretty well marked and obvious, so we decided to have a go.... there are 2 streams to ford on the way along the pennine way, and these would be make or break, if they were even remotely raised, we would be calling the trip off.... but thankfully there were ok!

 William on the ford crossing! Note the thankfully low water levels..

Anyhow, the clag got thicker and wetter, wetter and thicker as we climbed the Pennine way to the summit plateau, by the time it levelled off we were RIGHT in the thick of it, already soaked we decided we may as well find the trig, and get the activation done. Now I have NEVER had much luck on Black hill, its a bogey summit to me, but the mast went up, this time on the William mount and we got too it... I literally managed 6 contacts in 5 mins, mast down, and gone! 

One day im going to do black hill in glorious weather! 😂😂

The way down was claggier, and wetter and more miserable.. but we safely got back to the car.. What a great day! and some plans for the next day on my return to the Girls in Wales! and that will be the subject of my next piece.... for now, 73 everyone!

Alan & William

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!