Just a quick activation of our closest summit in order to hopefully catch some of the GM/ES contingent on their Spring Activity Day, and have a bit of a wander about in the snow. Both boxes ticked.
Ascent
Nothing new here, just park up at Bungalow and follow the short track to the summit. Pretty much the whole way was covered in snow today which made for a slippery climb in places, and I’d forgotten my poles.
Summit
On this occasion we set up in the SE shadow of the radio shed in order to get out of the wind, and that still gave clear view over towards Scotland. No QRM from any of the commercial equipment, Spooltenna happy on the Tactical Mini as a shallow inverted V.
Contacts
I had a look for any spots as soon as I set up today but there was nothing about, so I put out a spot of my own, found a free slot on 40m and started calling CQ. Contacts started rolling in straight away but I didn’t take long before somebody set up camp on an adjacent frequency and made it difficult to hear, so I changed to 20m and picked up a couple of S2S stations. Really wanted to get Alex GM5ALX as well but he was on 2m SSB and 300 km was just too far – maybe next time.
| Time | Callsign | Band | Mode | Distance (km) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10:27 | G0FEX | 7MHz | SSB | 280 | |
| 10:29 | ON7ZM | 7MHz | SSB | 778 | |
| 10:30 | M5LGM | 7MHz | SSB | 299 | |
| 10:31 | G0MHF | 7MHz | SSB | 134 | |
| 10:32 | G7SXR | 7MHz | SSB | 191 | |
| 10:33 | M0JSB | 7MHz | SSB | 421 | |
| 10:34 | GW0PLP | 7MHz | SSB | 243 | |
| 10:36 | M0VAZ | 7MHz | SSB | 130 | |
| 10:37 | G4IAR | 7MHz | SSB | 271 | |
| 10:37 | 2E0FEH | 7MHz | SSB | 433 | |
| 10:38 | M1AOB | 7MHz | SSB | 381 | |
| 10:39 | GD4OFB | 7MHz | SSB | 3 | |
| 10:41 | M0LEP | 7MHz | SSB | 320 | |
| 10:43 | DL9NCI | 7MHz | SSB | 1188 | |
| 10:45 | OE5WHR | 7MHz | SSB | 1458 | |
| 10:48 | HB9EAJ/P | 14MHz | SSB | 1144 | S2S HB/BL-014 |
| 10:54 | EA6/M0JIA/P | 14MHz | SSB | 1704 | S2S EA6/MA-023 |
| 11:04 | GI6PJZ/P | 14MHz | SSB | 129 | S2S GI/CA-001 |
| 11:10 | HB9WDE/P | 14MHz | SSB | 1193 | S2S HB/BE-148 |
| 11:11 | MM7MOX/P | 7MHz | SSB | 196 | S2S GM/SS-171 |
| 11:23 | OE/HB9IQL/P | 14MHz | SSB | 1258 | S2S OE/VB-534 |
| 11:29 | HB9HIC/P | 14MHz | SSB | 1177 | S2S HB/BE-156 |
| 11:31 | MM0EFI/P | 7MHz | SSB | 298 | S2S GM/ES-012 |
| 11:34 | GM5OLD/P | 7MHz | SSB | 314 | S2S GM/ES-025 |
Descent
Roughly the same way down again, only this time most of the snow had melted already. Squelchy but fun.
Summary
A great morning on the hill, nice to hook up with a few of the GM/ES crown and further afield. Definitely worth keeping an eye on the reflector for subsequent activity days!
