SOTA - 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

Cleeve Hill! There's a surprise. My 26th activation of Cleeve, maybe I should have waited until Boxing Day :-)

Anyway, it was hard to climb out of bed, look out at the cold, damp, dark morning and drum up  the enthusiasm to go up the hill. Tempted as I was to just return to the warmth of the duvet, I got dressed, threw my kit in the car and set off in the dark.

Surprisingly, when I arrived at the car park at 0730, there were already three cars parked and their occupants out on the hill with their dogs.
I trundled across to the gorse bushes to set up in the their lee.

Called CQ at 0800, just as it was getting daylight.
An hour and seven minutes later I packed up with 28 QSO's in the bag.
It was a leisurely affair, QSO's taking longer with the MX and HNY exchanges!

Log

Summary

Log2Map

By the time I got back to the car, just after 0940, the car park was full and people were still arriving and parking on the grass verges. I headed home to see what awaited me from Santa.

That's it for 2015. I'm having surgery on 29th so will be out of action for a while...
MX es HNY
72

SOTA - Craig y Llyn - GW/SW-010

Craig y Llyn - 600m, 4 points
Association: Wales  Region: South Wales
Latitude: 51 43 0 N, Longitude: 3 35 0 W
Grid Reference: SN 907032, QTH Locator: IO81FR

A scheduled trip to Swansea, to pick up my daughter from University, gave me the opportunity to detour slightly off route and pick up the easy summit of Craig y Llyn. Being within the winter bonus meant it was worth 7 points!

A very wet drive ensued to the viewing point car park, and it was still wet and miserable as I set off for the short walk to the summit.

Grey and miserable

This is one of the easiest summits in South Wales, and certainly the easiest to pickup 7 points. The ascent is a mere 450' over a distance 0.75miles of easy track. 

Easy ascent

By the time I'd reached the trig point and set up, the blue skies started to drift in from the west and it turned out to be a dry, although cold, activation.

Brightening up!

As no one was around, I set up (as usual) on the trig point. This one usefully has the top plate missing which allows a quick pole set up.

Shack on a stack

 Band conditions were reasonably good with a good run on all bands worked; 40, 30 and 20m, ending up with 49 QSOs in the log.

Log

Nice to have Stateside chasers back in the log after a bit of an absence over the summer months.

Thanks to K4DY, K4MF, KG3W and N1GB for the contacts from across the pond, and the solitary S2S with Heinz, HB9BCB/p on HB/BE-156, which, knowing Heinz, was probably also an ATS4 - ATS4 contact :-)

Log2Map

A refreshing walk back in the sunshine and cold northerly wind. Then it was off to Swansea and then home. A 250 mile day.

Back at the car

The western Beacons

Heading for Swansea