December morning on Watch Hill LDO-089

My Wife and I fancied a walk today , so I Looked at the weather forecast last night which suggested that some of the higher summits might be in the low cloud , which turned out to be the case from what we saw , so I opted for Watch hill . I’d never activated it in the year I’ve been doing Wainwrights and SOTA , though we have walked it many times over the years .
We opted for route up through the woodland , from the Isel side and as I emerged from the trees at the top , it was nice to see Reg 2E0LDF/P stood there already making contacts . I wasn’t too surprised to see him really as I suspected that if he’d seen my alert he might turn up for a visit , but as a bonus it became a joint activation . Mrs XGO/P also enjoyed the opportunity of being able to put a face to at least one of the voices of my regular contacts when we are on the tops.
I had also found a light weight fishing shelter in the back of the garage which is compact and has been up to now an unused gift from years ago . It looked ideal for today as it was drizzling at home . All it did today as it happened was entertain Reg for a while as I wrestled with it in the gentle breeze before giving it up as a bad job and it went back in the bag more practise needed I think . Fortunately the antenna set up is much more obliging and I was soon on the air.
We managed two summit to summits as well , the first being Alan 2E0MKU/P on Blencathra . both Reg and I both got him but the signals back and forth were weak which surprised us initially ,but looking at the line of sight map there is about 286m of Skiddaw in the middle of the 10 mile path by the look of it . The other was Jordan MM3TMX/P on GM/SS-112 . I had a S2S with him when I was on Dufton Pike earlier in the year so it was good to connect again.
Of course it wouldn’t be the same without our regular contacts either , and with eight contacts , two S2S and some good company it was a nice way to spend an hour or so on one of the “dark days before Christmas” as my Grandmother would have said . (Unfortunately , there are no photos , as I forgot that I hadn’t forgot to take my pocket camera , which was actually in my bag ! )
Best wishes .
Richard
2E0XGO/P :christmas_tree:

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Thanks for the report Richard. Apart from LD SOTA weekends I vary rarely meet anyone doing radio! I need to do Watch Hill as well, I think a North Lakes WOTA tour is in order.

Regards, Mark.

It’s a nice little walk up there Mark and not too strenuous if you have an hour or so spare and handy for anyone to have a wander up to see you .
Richard
2E0XGO