Will 2E0WTI and I left G5LSI and M7GAX near the bottom of the first hill we would be walking up. They were going to try and activate a new park but as we were doing the long walk we could not wait.
It was a pleasant sunny day but cold on the tops in the wind. With 2 hills to go up and then down before the final up to get the SOTA, the legs were feeling it on the way there.
On the way we heard fromM7GAX that they were at the Summit of Round Hill and were waiting for the summit to summit.
We go to the summit and found a small depression to set up in so were sheltered out the wind.
We worked both a 2m handheld and HF rig set up to try and get as many contacts as we could, as quickly as we could.
The HF was 2E0WTI’s, I had my 705 in my bag but we decided to use his rig.
Got 2 S2S with G5LSI and 2E0WTI and then we started on HF.
We were getting thick and fast with great signal reports then the wind gusted and the mast fell over midway through a contact . Normally this would have been an issue but the antenna was hanging off the ground over a small bush.
I checked with the contact he said we went from a 59 with the mast up to 57 with the mast down. So we just continued with the mast down.
We were getting very cold and we knew we had a long walk back, with 2 more hills before even getting to the final summit so we packed up and head back.
On the way back my legs started to cramp quite badly and my knee was hurting but I pushed on as not a lot of other choices.
2E0WTI scooted off ahead to drop his radio off at the car and grab some food he had left there.
I finally got to bottom and had to tape up my knee before even thinking about the ascent of the last summit
Working Conditions
- Yeasu FT-891
- Sotabeams
- Ham2K Polo
Operation Totals
- 21 QSO’s
- 3 DXCC entities
- 2 bands and 2mode
- 40m – 17 SSB
- 2m – 4 FM
