SOTA - Christmas Day - Cleeve Hill - G/CE-001

Cleeve Hill - 330m, 1 point

Association: England Region: Central England
Latitude: 51 55 11 N, Longitude: 2 0 21 W
Grid Reference: SO 996245, QTH Locator: IO81XW

A few people had indicated that they would be out SOTA activating on Christmas morning.
As it happened, I was working night shift on Christmas Eve, finishing work at 0700 Christmas Day.
I decided to throw the kit into the car the night before, and if the weather was OK and I was still feeling sprightly, I'd make my way to Cleeve Hill for an early Christmas morning activation.

It was cold and frosty when I left work, and as I climbed the hill, the roads were white and glistening with ice filled puddles. I got to the car park at 0730, still dark but with a hint of daylight in the eastern sky. There was one other empty car in the carpark and I could hear the occupants, but not see them, exercising their dogs somewhere out on the common.

I was set up and operational a couple of minutes before 0800, temperature was -1ºC and the dawn was rapidly approaching.
Twenty metres only gathered 5 contacts before I moved onto 30m. I think every op in DL must have been there and the pileup was quite a handful. During this time the sun poked it's head up with a flaming red sky on the eastern horizon. Had I not been knee deep in callers I would have taken some photos!

Dawn.

32 contacts later, and after a chat to the now many walkers passing by, I had a quick run on 40 metres to finish off the activation. The temperature had risen to a balmy 4ºC by the time I packed up at 0915.

Time to go home to bed.

I was home having my breakfast at 1000 and then off to bed for some rest.
An enjoyable Christmas morning, beautiful weather and surprising to see so many people out on the hill that early on the day.