Was down in London with my wife and staying with some relatives in Herne Hill which is right next door to Brockwell Park so it would make an easy to get to activation on a very under activated park.
We had gone for a walk through the park the evening before so I could have a scout around for somewhere to set up. Was being a little cautious as a bit worried about having a radio and kit out in an urban area.
I got up early and headed out without having breakfast, I figured I would find a café to grab something on the way to the park. Only coffee shop I found didn’t have any food ready so just got a coffee to go.
I got the park and walked up the small hill and found a bench next to a tree with a suitable branch to throw a line over to lift the antenna. After a couple of attempts to the get the throw line over the branch I final managed it and got the antenna lifted.
Got the rest of the radio and tuner setup and started on 40m SSB and got 2 contacts and then nothing. I was worried about how much time I would have to get the 10 contacts so I swapped to FT8 for a bit and got a few more contacts. I then saw a spot on SSB and decided to try and get them and was successful. I stayed on 40m SSB 20 mins and got some more in the log.
Had a few people stop and ask what I was doing, I told them and they said have fun and walked on.
Moved to 20m and got another 17 QSO’s in 18 mins so very happy with that and called it a day at that as I was getting so cold sitting there. It was a very open spot and the consent wind had really chilled me.
I got packed up and walked back the 20 mins to where I was staying for a very welcome cup of coffee.
I did have a handheld with me and had kept trying 2m all the way through the HF activation but didn’t hear anything on it at all.
| Operation Details |
| Park: https://pota.app/#/park/GB-0371 Grid square: IO91wk WAB square: TQ37 |
| Working Conditions |
| Icom IC-705 Icom AH-705 Sotabeams EFLW Ham2K Polo |
| Operation Totals |
| 30 QSOs 10 DXCC Entities 5 P2P 2 Band and 2 modes 40m – 4 FT8, 9 SSB 20m – 17 SSB |
