Coniston Loop in the Mist

Took a wrong turn this morning up Walna Scar Road following a teacher and some teenagers, turned too quick and ended up at a no-entry gate. Not sure what happend to the kids!

I decided to follow the fence (on the left) around the Burlington Slate compound and picked up a path that ended at the other side. I realised when I got to the gate I wasn’t going to end up on Dow Crag but The Old Man first, so flipped the order of the activation.

Although it was a bit punishing towards the end, I only saw the teenagers, probably going the wrong way, and a couple of people coming down - compared to the usual highway, so that was good!

Coniston Old Man

WOTA ID: LDW-030 Height: 803 m (2634 ft)
SOTA ID: G/LD-013 Grid ref: SD272978
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KI
Book: The Southern Fells Lat: 54.370355 Long: -3.120712

I was in the mist on the way up, that turned freezing with Rime Ice on the foliage.
On the Old Man I setup the FT-817 and HF SOTABeams Band Hopper IV quad-band dipole and the VHF Spectrum Communications Slim-J on the SOTABeams Tactical Mast. I just about managed to fit the HF antenna between the main path and a smaller path. Took a bit to find a frequency on 20m and worked most of the regular chasers and a couple of S2S. No chance of finding a frequency on 40m with a contest on! There seemed to be a lift on 2m with some really good contacts from all three summits, although some folk did notice my signal going up and down as the pole bent and the Slim-J was blown 45 degrees!

TIME CALLSIGN BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
12:56 EA3EVL 20m SSB 55 55 PABLO
12:56 EA2DT 20m SSB 55 44 Manuel
12:57 DL2DXA 20m SSB 59 57 Bernd
12:57 F6FTB 20m SSB 59 57 CHRISTIAN
12:57 EA1DHB 20m SSB 59 55 Ricardo
12:58 S52AU 20m SSB 51 55 Borut
12:58 SQ9CWO 20m SSB 59 57 Jan
12:59 CT2IWW 20m SSB 55 55 Paulo
12:59 EA3ARP 20m SSB 53 54 Joan
13:01 DL/HB9EVF/P 20m SSB 55 55 Thomas SOTA DM/BW-193
13:01 DL/HB9HXJ/P 20m SSB 55 55 Tabea SOTA DM/BW-193
13:02 SQ9MDF 20m SSB 59 55 Leszek
13:02 DL/PA3FYG/P 20m SSB 57 53 Hans SOTA DM/RP-180
13:04 DG6CA/P 20m SSB 53 53 ARMIN
13:06 G8CPZ 2m FM 59 59 Andy
13:08 2E0MIX 2m FM 59 57 Derek
13:09 M6KWB 2m FM 59 59 Kelly
13:11 G6AEK 2m FM 59 59 David
13:12 G4WAM 2m FM 59 59 Mike
13:13 GW4TJC/P 2m FM 51 52 Simon SOTA GW/NW-014
13:14 GW1SGG 2m FM 55 57 MERVYN
13:15 M6KWB 2m FM 51 51 Kelly
13:16 2E0FNM 2m FM 59 59 Matt
13:16 G4CPA 2m FM 55 55 Geoff
13:17 G0HIK 2m FM 59 59 Nick
13:18 MW3YNK 2m FM 59 59 Gerry

Longest DX on 2m FM was with GW4TJC/P on SOTA GW/NW-014 at 167 km.

First views were had on the way down to Goat’s Hawse.

Dow Crag

WOTA ID: LDW-047 Height: 778 m (2552 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: SD262977
HuMP ID: G/HLD-016 QTH Locator: IO84KI
Book: The Southern Fells Lat: 54.369313 Long: -3.136078

Dow Crag was great, I stopped just before the summit as I was completely out of the wind so took the opportunity after the activation to have some lunch. I’m always terrible at taking food - I never bring sandwiches for example - but I’ve found that tinned mackerel (that I eat a lot of to help with the arthritis) is great - full of calories.

Whilst appreciating that there was a bit of a lift on for VHF I was really happy to get so many folk in the log for a WOTA, especially as I was mostly sitting with the FT1XD and RH-770 antenna.

TIME CALLSIGN BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
14:07 G6AEK 2m FM 59 59 David
14:08 G4MYU 2m FM 59 56 Art
14:10 M7HNS 2m FM 59 59 John
14:11 M0ALA 2m FM 55 55 Andrew
14:12 2E0MIX 2m FM 59 59 Derek
14:13 M0RSF 2m FM 59 55 Chris
14:14 M6KWB 2m FM 57 59 Kelly
14:16 G4WAM 2m FM 59 59 Mike
14:17 GM4WHA 2m FM 55 33 GEOFF
14:18 G1CLT 2m FM 57 52 Ray
14:19 GM8ORE 2m FM 55 56 RUSSELL

Longest 2m DX was Russell GM8ORE at 157 km.

Walna Scar

WOTA ID: LDO-001 Height: 621 m (2037 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a Grid ref: SD257963
HuMP ID: n/a QTH Locator: IO84KI
Book: The Outlying Fells Lat: 54.356659 Long: -3.143424

As you reach the cross-roads after Brown Pike you have to ascend another 50m or so to reach the summit of Walna Scar. Again some excellent contacts from this summit, belying it’s lower point.

TIME CALLSIGN BAND MODE RST RSR OPERATOR SIG REF
15:05 G7CDA 2m FM 59 59 Douggie
15:05 M7HNS 2m FM 59 59
15:06 M3LNN 2m FM 59 59 Jack
15:07 G1OHH 2m FM 59 59 Sue
15:09 M6KWB 2m FM 59 59 Kelly
15:10 M0RSF 2m FM 59 54 Chris
15:10 M6NSV 2m FM 59 54 Neil

Very impressive contact with M6NSV from this lower summit at 194 km using the FT1XD and RH-770 antenna. He told me his location was elevated but he was only using a Diamond X50!

There were glimpses of the fells now with some gaps in the mist, with one walker proclaiming ‘finally the inversion they promised us!’ - unfortunately the MWIS forecast of 70% chance of cloud-free summits didn’t include any of mine today! As soon as I started descending back down Walna Scar Road the views disappeared again.

Some very atmospheric views of Harter Fell before the descent - it has always been a very photogenic summit for me!

APRS Tracking

My LoRA APRS tracker was picked up very early by @G8CPZ Andy’s new iGate and I also hit several other local iGates including G0HIK and M5TUE - comprehensive coverage, although mine being low down and in a couple of valleys along didn’t seem to catch me.

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Looks like you had a great day out there Mark!
Was fishing on Bassenthwaite lake yesterday and the breeze was surprisingly cool , I expect it was particularly so on the tops ?
Some good contacts on VHF as well with Andy and Chris down in West Yorkshire and GM8 “Old Rusty Equipment” at Stranraer . Some nice pictures as well.
Managed to get the abandoned Fellbarrow/Low Fell trip in today after the roads were too bad to access last week .
Cheers.
Richard
2E0XGO

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I can’t always get those fells from home there are to many higher one’s in the way Great Gable-Grasmoor. But it’s great to see you are finding more time to get out, look forward to a s2s this year

Not sure about your choice of lunch ?

Reg

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