SOTA - Bardon Hill - G/CE-004

Bardon Hill - 278m, 1 point

Association: England  Region: Central England  
Latitude: 52 42 52 N, Longitude: 1 19 14 W
Grid Reference: SK 459131, QTH Locator: IO92IR

At my planed, and recommended parking spot for Bardon Hill, I took a wrong turn which actually brought me to a much more convenient parking spot in Dauphine Close, right at the start of the trail. From here the track is easy to follow, up through the woods, right just after a big yellow boulder, and then upwards towards the summit which can be seen on its promontory above the tree line. Once again I was totally on my own  and had the place to myself. I tied off the pole to the trig point but could have just as easily used the chain link fence which separates the summit from the deep quarry workings. The views, to say the least,  are uninspiring, with views across the quarry workings being a blot on the landscape.The sun however came out and it was quite a nice warm early afternoon. Again not the best HF conditions and I didn't have much time to play around, but was also happy to bag two S2S contacts with OH6VA/P on OH/SL-001 and DL/HB9BRJ/P on DM/BW-479.
With that it was pack up and off to East Midlands airport about 10 minutes away...

The summit

QRV. New pico paddle doing the business.

A quarry...

Uninspiring views

SOTA - Walton Hill - G/CE-002

Walton Hill - 316m, 1 point

Association: England  Region: Central England  
Latitude: 52 24 58 N, Longitude: 2 5 9 W
Grid Reference: SO 942797, QTH Locator: IO82WJ

A quick check of the summits database showed me that I could work in a couple of activations before an early afternoon airport pickup at East Midland airport. With that settled, I  set off at 0800 to head first to Walton Hill. On arrival at Walton Hill I found an empty car park and I had soon gathered my kit and was ascending what's got to be one of the easiest summits in the region. A short walk very quickly brought me to the trig point. A  convenient fence nearby was used to erect the pole, and very quickly I was on the air. 20 metres was pretty dire but conditions on 40 metres was much better with a short steady run of  stations quickly in the log. This was also the first outing of my new Palm pico paddle and I was very happy with its operation. I still prefer my AME Porta paddle, but the pico is much smaller and compact for really minimalist activations. With a tight timeline for the day, I packed up and was on my way towards Bardon Hill within an hour of arrival.

A good run on 40 metres

Convenient fence!

Waiting for the sun to come out