Windy Knott Round

M0NOM · 22 February 2025 21:45

With Reg @2e0ldf and Derek @2E0MIX encouraging me on recent activations to do some more northerly fells the opportunity presented itself this weekend with Alex on a course over the weekend just south of Carlisle. We booked the J44 Premier Inn for Friday and Saturday night.

Looking on the map it was clear that Knott and associated fells appeared to be the best use of my time - both in terms of number of WOTAs but also a nice SOTA fell with winter bonus.

I used Phil’s @G4OBK excellent blog post from 2010 for planning purposes - I parked at Longlands (got the last space) and ascended direct up the nose (instead of their longer route round to the left). A couple set off on their route and reached the top at around the same time, so probably not much in it! Wind was very strong on this first fell, probably around 40 knots, it slowly eased to around 20 knots by the last fell.

Longlands Fell

WOTA ID: LDW-179	Height: 483 m (1585 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a	Grid ref: NY275354
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84KR
Book: The Northern Fells	Lat: 54.708279 Long: -3.125353

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR	SIG	REF
11:00	GM4WHA	2m	FM	59	59	GEOFF
11:02	M0LLC	2m	FM	59	59	Lee
11:03	2E0LDF	2m	FM	59	55
11:04	2E0IKM	2m	FM	59	58	Mike
11:19	MM0VPM/P	2m	FM	55	57	Alan	SOTA	GM/SS-148

Unlike Phil and Geoff I didn’t end up doing Brae Fell - it is a there and back summit and I decided, given that I was on a timescale to get back for Alex at 4pm, that the extra 40 minutes or so couldn’t be justified.

Great Sca Fell

WOTA ID: LDW-114	Height: 651 m (2136 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a	Grid ref: NY291338
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84KQ
Book: The Northern Fells	Lat: 54.694129 Long: -3.100134

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR
12:00	M0LLC	2m	FM	59	59	Lee
12:01	2E0LDF	2m	FM	59	59
12:02	2E0IKM	2m	FM	59	58	Mike
12:03	GM4WHA	2m	FM	59	59	GEOFF
12:03	G0TDM	2m	FM	59	54	John
12:03	2E0MIX	2m	FM	59	59	Derek
12:04	2E0XGO	2m	FM	59	52	Richard

The ascent to Knott was somewhat boggy and required some careful footing, but nothing too awful and I was somewhat surprised how quickly I got to this flat summit.

Knott

WOTA ID: LDW-082	Height: 710 m (2329 ft)
SOTA ID: G/LD-023	Grid ref: NY296329
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84KQ
Book: The Northern Fells	Lat: 54.686112 Long: -3.09216

Having done 2m FM I erected the Sotabeams Bandhopper IV inverted dipole on the tactical mast three sections down from the top to make it stronger. I was on the NE side of the summit in a slight dip that afforded some little protection from the unrelenting wind. Trying 80m SSB first I only got one response which I think was someone who just happened to be listening to 3.710 (I choose this frequency when clear because it is the default frequency for the hackgreen SDR). 40m was working inter-g with 20m fairly quiet, a pattern I’ve had on other SOTAs recently for some reason.

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR	SIG	REF
12:28	GM4KNU/P	2m	FM	59	59	Archie	SOTA	GM/SS-033
12:31	2E0LDF	2m	FM	59	59
12:32	G0TDM	2m	FM	59	59	John
12:32	2E0IKM	2m	FM	59	57	Mike
12:33	GM4WHA/M	2m	FM	59	59	GEOFF
12:34	2E0MIX	2m	FM	59	59	Derek
12:49	GM3YXM	80m	SSB	59	57	Dave
12:54	G3TQQ/P	40m	SSB	59	55	DAVID	SOTA	G/TW-004
12:55	M0MDA	40m	SSB	59	57	Michael
12:56	MW7RTB	40m	SSB	59	59	John
12:57	GW3YQP	40m	SSB	59	58	Chris
12:57	G3RMD	40m	SSB	59	57	Frank
12:58	G6AEK	40m	SSB	56	57	David
12:58	G0FEX	40m	SSB	59	59	KEN
13:02	EA2DT	20m	SSB	44	44	Manuel
13:02	SV3IEG	20m	SSB	58	55	Dinos
13:03	DH7RK	20m	SSB	44	43	Rainer
13:05	9A/S57MS/P	20m	SSB	44	55	Marko	SOTA	9A/PH-041
13:06	I1WKN	20m	SSB	58	57	BEPPE
13:07	DL2DXA	20m	SSB	59	57	Bernd

Meal Fell

WOTA ID: LDW-148	Height: 550 m (1804 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a	Grid ref: NY282337
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84KQ
Book: The Northern Fells	Lat: 54.693103 Long: -3.114072

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR
13:51	2E0LDF	2m	FM	59	59
13:53	M0LLC/M	2m	FM	59	55	Lee
13:54	2E0IKM	2m	FM	59	59	Mike
13:55	2E0MIX	2m	FM	59	59	Derek

Great Cockup

WOTA ID: LDW-159	Height: 526 m (1726 ft)
SOTA ID: n/a	Grid ref: NY273333
HuMP ID: n/a	QTH Locator: IO84KQ
Book: The Northern Fells	Lat: 54.689379 Long: -3.127934

NOTE: I was giving out the wrong reference for this summit, so please check your logs before logging!

TIME	CALLSIGN	BAND	MODE	RST	RSR	OPERATOR
14:20	2E0LDF	2m	FM	59	59
14:22	MM5AKZ	2m	FM	59	59	Ian
14:30	M0XUP/M	2m	FM	58	52	Steve
14:31	2E0IKM	2m	FM	59	59	Mike
14:33	2E0MIX	2m	FM	59	59	Derek
14:40	GM4WHA/M	2m	FM	59	55	GEOFF

In the interests of haste I didn’t follow Phil and Geoff’s route off Great Cockup - I descended earlier following a couple, and then cut back to the right to pick up the path that runs along the bottom of Longlands Fell.

APRS Lora Tracking

Tracking was excellent after I had ascended Longlands Fell, although there was a gap between Great Sca and Great Cockup - no signal path to the West.

In the evening we ventured into Carlisle for a fantastic tea at Cumbria Roast - I had an open yorkshire pudding with shredded turkey and all the trimmings - very nice!

Thanks to all the dedicated chasers. The MWIS forecast for tomorrow is for even more wind, so I’m going to spend the day doing one or two POTAs from the comfort of the car!

I will be back up to the North Lakes again soon - preferrably travelling to summits on the motorbike given how much more fun and variety there is in the roads compared to the South Lakes!

g7kse · 23 February 2025 10:24

I really like that walk, its also pretty good on a mountain bike (on the bits you can ride - ignoring the weird bridleway to footpath transition for 100m near Knott). That car park gets really full, quickly too. I’ve been the last one in at 8am

I managed to pick you up on my LoRa from up on Grizedale Pike but nothing down lower.

2E0XGO · 23 February 2025 11:23

I saw you and Mark were out and went up Scilly Banks about 10:45 , but hadn’t seen the amended time for Grisedale . I also just missed Mark on Longlands . I had to get back home before he reached the next one but I put the radio on any way not expecting to hear him so was surprised I could work him even though it was a bit marginal . There’s not that many fells I can get at home due to that hill behind us .
They are pleasant walks round there , maybe not today though !
Richard.

M0LLC · 24 February 2025 09:30

Nice to work you Mark and the majority of your walk was received on my Lora in ym attic

I plan to get this put outside this year
73 Lee M0LLC

M0NOM · 24 February 2025 13:43

Thanks Lee, and apologies for not recognising your callsign, given the recent traffic on LoRA. Yes, excellent job in tracking me on this loop - I suspect the break in tracking between Knott and Meal Fell was where you couldn’t receive my tracker!