14/03/2025 - Black hill G/SP-002

Black hill G/SP-002 2 SOTA pts + 3 bonus

An impromptu trip to the highest point in the west riding! 

This would by my third time on black hill for SOTA and likely my best ever trip up to date! The WX was superb for the last day of the winter bonus season, it was more like summer!

I normally go for the trig on this summit, but decided to operate from the last fence before the trig, its well within the AZ and a bit further from the transmitters that can give so much grief on this summit...

13 VHF QSOs made, and I was off home again.. very happy the change of position paid off! 

73 all - Alan 

Pike of Blisco G/LD-024 6/3/2025

 As you can probably see, I have been extremely lazy updating this blag in the last 12 months or so, and I profusely apologise for that! so, I am going to start 2026 By posting short summary posts summary posts of 2025s activities!

06/03/25 Pike of Blisco - G/LD-024 - 6pts + 3 Bonus

I primarily picked Pike of Blisco as it had decent fairly nearby road access, and being surrounded by taller stuff I didnt expect too much from it in terms of "summit experience" I was however VERY surprised with just how nice a summit it was! bit of a mission to summit as the path fades off and disappears, leaving the explorer to work it out for themselves! but a great afternoon out in the lakes :) 

8 QSOs all VHF brought me the points, and I left a very happy man!

All in all a great day and a 8 points in the bag!

If you se this, thanks for still being here! 73 - Alan

Autumnal Cumbrian adventures (part 2) G/LD-049 Kirkby Moor 1/10/24

A couple of days recovery, and spending some time with my Wife she was having a tired afternoon, and wanting to do nothing more than relaxing in the recliner, with a the TV and a pile of snacks! "why dont you go and play some radio" she said, followed up with "you dont need to sit here and be bored beacuse im tired"! Well, I dont need asking twice! I already had an outline plan for Kirkby moor so the maps were studied, radio stuff thrown in the car and off I went! Now Kirkby moor is probably the nearest (by road) SOTA summiot to my parents house, so half an hour later I was parked up and staring at the quarries and Wind turbines of Kirkby moor.

I actually ended up taking the wrong path up, according to the map it was more direct.. According to the ground, it was a nightmare trudge through the waist high ferns, heading in the vague direction I thought I needed to go! This led to more navigational nightmares, and eventually I found a path, that led towards the quarries... hey ho, at least when I get to the quarries there is a track heading up for the wind turbines I can use! 

I actually enjoyed the Quarries, there was plenty of industrial stuff for me to poke around at, and the track heading up was good and well made, and the Views were fantastic!

 

As I rounded the track to the first turbine, I got a bit of a suprise, a metal road! they must have laid it to do some work on the turbines, but this led neatly to the summit cairn.

Not much up here to secure the mast too, so made something up using the cairn and wedging the pole with the rocks, quite typically for Cumbria it was again blowing hard, and getting it up much higher would have been a problem! 

Mast up, and spot away to SOTAwatch it was time to get down to business! Cals were somewhat slow, with 5 over 25 mins on 2M, somewhat dissapointing if im honest, and if I were to try it again I would definately be going straight onto HF, but 5 is enough and it was time to set off back to the car. Just beyond the 1st turbine there is a park bench laid in memorial, and accross the front of this is the path i should have taken! It takes you down through the old quarries on the inclines, and leads you round the waste tips and back to the road, definately will going that way if I go back up there again! 1 for 1 point, and Actually a pleasant little mooch.

Part 3 will be out tomorrow! 

73, Alan

Autumnal Cumbrian adventures (part 1) G/LD-030 Black Coombe 29/9/24

 My parents live in Cumbria, and this is useful! ok, they dont live in the national park, they live on the Furness peninsular, right at the bottom before you get wet! so its still one hell of a drive to alot of the summits in Cumbria! and this is not so useful. Black Coombe DOMINATES the bottom end of the peninsula, its visible from just about everywhere, and for years has tormented me.. I just wasnt fit enough for the climb! But now, I think I might be... A plan was formed, and a mission set.. Activate Black Coombe! 6 points and 600M dead, and 590 of which you have to climb as the start point is about 10M ASL.. this is a PROPER lump!

I parked in the usual spot, at the church at Whicham, headed down the little passhae and onto the lane, Black coombe is an absolute BEHEMOTH and towers over you as approach the bottom, the path however starts of fairly gently, but luls you into a false sense securuity! Make no mistake, these Cumbrian mountains are steep!

The number of false summits are probably the most annoying thing, that and the unrelenting steepness! its just up, up and more up requires some serious stamina, but I plodded on.. this seriously nearly broke me!

As I got higher the wind started off the Irish sea, properly blowing it was aswell, and as the path runs up that side, there is no let up from it.. certainly made things more difficult! as I got to the summit shelter, I realised putting the mast up would be nearly impossible as the wind was properly gale force by this time! I managed to get the spectrum Communications Slim G up, just above the summit shelter at a jaunty angle! That would have to do..... Spot sent, and away I went on 2M! 

Things were quite slow, I managed 8 in 19 mins, Matt M0MZB First, and Paul M0CQE (Just) to finish! not fancyng that wind any more than I needed too, it was time to go!

I did the descent with the wind in my face, and that was a struggle.... but going down was definately quicker than going up! hahaha

My first taste of a Cumbrian mountain, Bloody hard work and very rewarding in the same bag! 6 points in the bag too (my biggest SOTA to date)! Would I do it again? Maybe! although there are other fells and Mountains in the area, I would try first..I can see myself becoming very acquanted with cumbrian fells in 2025!

73, Alan

The Fear - Kinder scout G/SP-001 TP6378 (the Edge) 8/6/24

With hog roast weekend nearing closer, and fancying a piece of the S2S action, I spoke with my good friend Andy M7BOA and we decided to have a go at Black Hill (G/SP-002) this was, however, despite my posting an alert going to be the subject of a Denby Dale RC Field day station, that was announced with a week to go to activation day… Denby dale were very polite about it by the way, but We decided to step aside and re-plan for another summit. so plans were changed, and alerts altered! we decided in G/SP-001 Kinder Scout!!

Now, many of you will remember, last time I attempeted Kinder Scout, I ended up throwing myself in a gully on Ashop moor and having to be rescued by mountain Rescue with a smashed leg! this is something that weighed heavily on my mind, in more ways than one, its what kept me off the hills for most of 2023, and left me with a feeling of unfinished business… but this also stirred a new feeling in me, something I have never experienced going onto the hills… The Fear! but with a week to go at this point, I put it to the back of my mind and we made our plans…

The plan was, myself and my lad William would go via the route I came a cropper on 18 months ago. Snake pass summit, over Ashop moor and up the corner of Kinder, then follow the path along towards Kinder downfall, turning left just after Sandy Heys, to activate at the trig poinf at SK077893 - The Edge! for this walk i Reckoned about 1 hour and 20 mins (big mistake, more later) And after the activation follow the same route back. Andy M7BOA was travelling by train and was going to Solo up from Edale via Grindslow and Crowden tower, accross the downfall then meet us at the trig, with a return straight down the P/Way via Jacobs ladder and Upper Booth. All we needed now was the weather!!

the morning of the activation was upon as, and with an early start to collect William from his Mum’s we were up at snake pass head for around 0800, we were met with a heavy mist and wet weather with poor visability and miserable conditions, now if i hadnt read the mountian weather reports and knew it was going to clear up, at that point the activation would have been off, we agreed to re-asses the weather the other side of Ashop moor before we made the ascent onto Kinder! now i reckoned on half an hour for Ashop moor, its fairly flat going on stone slabs, and with the fear hanging haevily on me we gingerly set off along the slab pathway that was literally my downfall last time…

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The slabs are endless and punishing made more so by the conditions, but we were soon past the gully I came a cropper on, pausing for thought as we went it was at this point the fear ws at its wost, but i gingerly stepped accross the gully, and made it to the other side safely… just like that the fear lifted, like a weight coming off me, I finally felt free of the curse of 18 months ago! at that we pressed on, in pretty horrific conditions. Driving rain and a proper wind chill mader this feel like a winter bonus activation, I kept having to remind myself we were in June! But slowly, and thankfully the cloud began to lift and we could see the Behemoth that is Kinder Scout looming out of the mist.

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Ashop Moor was a huge underestimation on my part, i think the ZigZagging of the stone slabs robbed time, and added un-neccecary distance it had took us over an hour to reach the Tee junction at Mill Hill, but with the weather improving as predicted we decided to press on, cross the Col to the bottom of the ascent to Kinder, and then up the steep Scramble to the top! by this point the P/Way path has been joined by other paths coming up the hill, and its got alot busier with other walkers, which is re-assuring! we pressed on up the Charged Rocks and were rewarded with fantastic views! Notice how the clouds have gone… quite a contrast!

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By this stage we were well late for our alerted time, but making good progress on tired legs we located the fences that marked the way up to the trig, and after a bit of an awkward navigation we located the trig, sat on its plinth! by now, over an hour late, I decided due to time constraints to forget the HF, and concentrate on VHF so the Slim G was deployed and the FT4X hooked up and the activation was on!

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Straight into the S2S contacts from North wales I rapidly got the 4 needed to Qualify the activation, and ended up with 13 S2S and 17 all told, not massive, but i only had about 25 mins, as we needed to get back! I was a bit gutted not to have more time, i could have easily doubled that total I would have thought but hey ho! We needed to get back!

M7BOA (left) and myself

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Some idiot on a trig!

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The way back was relatively uneventful, just very busy with walkers till we got to Ashop moor, the slog across the moor was even worse on the way back, on extremely tired legs and bad cramps… but eventually 2 hours and 10 mins after leaving the trig we were safely back at the car EXHAUSTED!!

I really did underestimate the scale of this walk, I reckoned on an hour and a half up but it took 2 1/2 hours almost the same back… but I conquered it! I also realised I had made the same mistake the day I fell, and maybe the fall saved me from a worse fate, as I would have been benighted in a snowstorm on Kinder… not good! but it doesnt do to dwell on these things…

Thanks to everyone I worked, and the usual Chasers, without you guys we wouldnt do what we do!

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!

21 & 29/10/23 - A BOTA completion, and a bonus trig to trig..... B/G-0944 Crossland Moor and TP2622 Crossland heath.

 Unfortunately due to "life" I haven't been as active as Id hoped on activating the bunkers, i am quite lucky here, that I am within half an hours drive of several bunkers, but settled on the one at Crossland Moor, Huddersfield as my first one.

The Bunker is located in front of the Huddersfield Observatory, and has sadly been demolished, or rather the surface features have been, I'm unsure if the bunker its self is still underground. 

Anyhow, the bunker rues stipulate an activation is allowed within 1Km of the bunker site, and this one affords a nice easy Layby where you can sit in the car and fill yer boots! 

I first activated the Bunker on the 21/10/2023 on HF, using the little Xeigu G106 and an EFHW on 40M, but I ROYALLY messed up my timing, Worked all Germany weekend and the usual big station contesters were making life VERY difficult, with my little 5W QRP station! I persevered and with some internet assistance managed 17 calls, including a few into France and Belgium, but sadly short of the 25 needed to qualify a bunker as activated. I gave up in the end, as the band conditions were worsening by the second... 

Now this is where the rules work to an activators advantage, you dont have to do all 25 qualifying contacts in 1 session so I planned a return at some point...

I returned on the 29/10/23, I did take the HF gear, but planned on doing the activation on VHF, using the car antenna and the usual FT4XE handheld, I made a start calling on the 2M calling frequncey, but calls were slow! I needed 8 to qualify the bunker, and boy did I struggle!

The first out of the bag was G6XBF - Walt and then M7GDE - Andy K in Kippax, north Leeds. who proceeded to text his radio friends and DX groups he knew of to try and get me over the line, Thanks Andy!

I got a few more in the log, and then spoke to Paul, M0AIA/P who was at a trig point, we got talking and he mentioned there was a trig near to the bunker! A golden opportunity for a trig to trig... he helped me over the line with my last 3 contacts, and a change of antenna to the slim G helped AGAIN to get the last couple in the log, happy with 25 uniques, it was tick tick... bunker activated! 

Trig point TP2622 - Crossland heath

Bunker done, I was off to the trig point, its literally a few mins walk from the road, Paul had kindly agreed to hang around for a trig to trig. so i made my way over with the handheld, and called "trig to trig, trig to trig 2E0JWA/P" and we did it! A VHF trig to trig TP2622 Crossland heath to TP3676 Haw Cliff Top .. had a little QSO from the trig, and with the light failing and the temperatures dropping rapidly I made a dart back to the car!

A really nice trig point, in a picturesque location made a nice end to the activation.
Special thanks to the Bunkers on the Air crew, for setting up and managing a fantastic scheme, long may it continue! Andy K M7GDE for Rallying the troops and Paul M0AIA for telling me about the trig, passing some of his calls to me so I could get over the line, and for hanging around so we could get the trig to trig. Sometimes I am humbled by the amateur radio community's willingness to help others and keep the spirit of amateur radio alive..

Till next time 73s - Alan

POTA - Peak District National Park G-0048 - A foggy activation! 16/09/23

 Still on the now long road to leg recovery, and owning a new radio I have been itching to do SOMETHING for a few weeks now... I had the thought of a potentially easy SOTA on the Gun, and then the Cloud, but the weather looked like it was turning and it was decided that maybe my fitness isnt quite there to deal with crappy weather!

Not fancying another Mountain Rescue, myself and my son (William) decided a POTA might be a nice idea. Living on the edge of the Peak District national park has the advantage that we don't have to go far to have a play! anyway, we decided that Holme Moss car park might be a handy spot for some QRP HF action.

As you can see the weather was pretty crappy on the tops, and we were glad we didnt attempt SOTA! We managed to get my pole up and the EFHW thanks to a handily positioned fence, there is a pole on the end of the wire.. Honestly there is! 😂😂

EFHW up, and radios connected to the battery and the bits and bats, it was time to have a go! 40M was the weapon of choice, and a spot on the POTA site, and another on the WAB group soon produced some calls, I got 3 in on 7097 but then the perils of operating QRP kicked in and I got wiped out by a station who either couldn't hear me, or could hear me and decided that he wanted the frequency anyway by tuning up, and then calling CQ on the frequency....... needless to be said I wasn't too pleased!

A scan about the band showed a space on 7108.500, so I spotted my new location and was soon into some great contacts, Lincolnshire, Devon, London, Leicestershire and Norfolk.. all on 5W! then the surprise for the day, PD1CW, Patrick in the Netherlands! Williams jaw dropped, he couldn't believe it! Anyhow, after 12 contacts on HF we were getting cold, so we decided to pack up the HF gear.. A successful activation! operating from the boot of the car.

After we packed up, I wasnt QUITE ready to give up yet, so i stuck the 2M filter on the handheld and made some calls on the car antenna on VHF! another 10 local QSOs, predominantly Leeds & Bradford filled the log nicely for a total of 22, and a completed activation! While sat in the car operating VHF William got a bit bored, but something pulled in the car park that woke him up and got him all excited!

A Rally Replica Skoda! he went running over camera in hand, and took the picture below. it was nice to be fair, and the owner was a nice guy too!

That done, it was time to go home.. 22 contacts in the bag, 12 of them on the little Xeigu at 5W.. Cant wait to use this setup on a summit proper im absolutely over the moon with its small but mighty performance! as usual, thanks to all the Chasers new and old...

73, till next time! Alan - 2E0JWA

Kinder scout G/SP-001 - Failed SOTA & a mountain rescue - 2/1/23

Fancying a winter bonus activation, I fancied a crack at the biggest summit in my local area. G/SP-001 Kinder Scout 4 points plus a 3 point winter bonus so a worthwhile 7 point total. I originally had the thought of doing it between Christmas and new year, but my missus catching Covid put paid to that, so a replan was devised for the bank holiday Monday 2/1/23.

The Weather on the morning of the activation day was fantastic, sunny, warm (ish) a lovely day for a SOTA activation! a plan was formulated to solo the trip, going on to Kinder Plateau along the Pennine way from Snake pass summit, and activating the trig point at SK 07698 89370 - TP6378 The Edge. this trig is well within the AZ for the SOTA and would have the added bonus of ticking me off a trig too! kit prepared, and a last check of the mountain weather report.. bright and sunny, clouding over late afternoon and a small chance of snow after dark... that'll do! I planned on being off the hill by 1600 latest, so was satisfied this would be a pleasant activation. 

I parked the car on Snake summit, did a SOTA activation alert, and set off. the path is well marked on stone slabs laid by the national parks service to reduce erosion to the local pathways. these stone slabs, would prove to be my literal downfall! the going was good, and although the slabs were damp, the temp was around 6 degrees and there was no sign of any ice I reckoned on about 50 mins to cover the 3 and a bit miles to the trig the path crosses several gullies, and the stones slabs form little bridges across the gullies. Placing my foot on one such slab, I felt my left leg crumble from underneath me and in that split second it dawned on me, id hit the only patch of black ice on the whole path! BALLS by this point im upside down, on my back doing a dying fly impression wedged in the gully by my backpack. this was the point the pitfalls of soloing a walk on the moors become very apparent! I knew there were others in the vicinity so I shouted and whistled for help managed to extract myself from the straps on my rucksack and luckily people appeared to help me. they rolled me from my precarious position back onto the path, it was then the pain in my leg hit me, and I realised I was in ALOT of pain from my Left leg and now in quite serious trouble.

So, here I am, lying on the cold floor I cant move due to a busted leg and people are trying to help me, this led to the 1st problem.. poor mobile signal! I could get a GPS NGR but no one could dial out, not to worry I thought... I have radio! Now, I need to get something off my chest here, I could hear people calling on S20 I called mayday and my callsign.. but yet my calls went IGNORED! SERIOUSLY PEOPLE, WHY WOULD YOU IGNORE A MAYDAY CALL???? really, why? honestly, its been nearly a month since my accident, and this is STILL really eating at me...

 So, here I am lying on the ground, slowly getting hypothermic due to shock and the pain in my leg. a small crowd was gathering to help me, people finding warm coverings and blankets, people off to raise help, MADNESS! but boy, was I thankful for them. my memory is a little hazy, so if you were one of the heroes who helped, thankyou! the ones I can remember were the older couple, who stuck their dog in a bivi bag with me to keep me warm, the polish couple who supplied hot tea, and all the runners who went to get mobile signal to get help! Special thanks also goes out to my friends Andy (M7BOA) and James, after I somehow managed to get a help whatsapp to them, with my NGR on screengrab and they came to meet me and sort my car and stuff...

All photos, unless otherwise stated on this post © James Smith 2023

After 50 or so mins, the angels in red coats arrived, in the form of Glossop Mountain Rescue Team who quickly administered pain medication, and packaged me in their fleece lined casualty bag while a plan was formulated with the team medic to get me off.. Meanwhile, in the background a storm was brewing.. one of the evening snow showers arriving early! so, the team survival tent was deployed...

They soon had my leg splinted, and I was loaded onto the team stretcher, fastened on and packaged up for the carry off. now this is quite cool, the stretcher is called (I think) a Bell stretcher, it was specially developed for use by MRTs and has a single wheel underneath, to roll it in a guided way, and take the strain off the team on a long carry off! great piece of kit, weird to ride on! haha

Luckily for the team, I was only about half a mile from the road, so the carry off wasn't too arduous, and they quickly got me into the back of a warm land rover, to await the arrival of NWAS to take me to hospital. Now, this is where things got a bit interesting! according to the MRT, NWAS had telephoned their duty controller and informed them an ambulance wouldn't be attending??!! so we worked out a plan to get me, in my own vehicle and James was going to drive me to the hospital... as preparations were being made.... an Ambulance turned up!

Anyway, eventually safely loaded into the Ambulance I was finally on my way to A&E, but that is a whole other story! one I may share one day, lets just say I wasn't too impressed with the care I received...

Final result is a Spiral Fracture Distal third Left Fibula, and after some messing around and an operation, its been pinned and plated, and im now non weight bearing on my left leg (so virtually immobile) till the end of February and then a decision will be made on whether or not I can start physio and gentle weight bearing... the screws and pins holding it all together are pencilled in for removal in 3 months time (so another operation) and there will be recovery time after that, so looks like the end of summer till im strong enough to get out on the tops again, and im utterly miserable about it!!

I will be back, doing something at some point when im back driving, maybe POTA or WWFF activations, in the meantime I wish to express my extreme gratitude to Glossop Mountain Rescue Team, without whom I would have been in real trouble and i would ask if anyone reading this could chuck them a few quid, whatever you can afford it would be really appreciated! I aim to do something to raise a few quid for them maybe later in the year, see how my fitness goes.. so watch this space!!

donation link for GMRT click here

GMRTs main website here

Its been pretty difficult to write this, and I have wrestled with myself for most of the month whether I should, or shouldn't do it! but reading it back to myself now, and reliving the experience I find quite therapeutic! Anyhow, sorry its a long one, I WILL BE BACK! thanks for reading folks

Alan - 2E0JWA