Shining Tor, G/SP-004 - 559m ASL - SJ 994 737 - OS Explorer OL24 - 2 SOTA points        

New Year, new bonus points, and a new band - for me.  Sean M0GIA (considerably) helped me build a 30m dipole last weekend, and I couldn't wait to try it out on a summit. In fact I couldn't wait to get out on a summit at all after all the cancellations and abandonments that have characterised the winter SOTA season for me thus far!

To Sunday 24th January 2010, and Marianne due in from a night-shift and deserving (and needing) of an empty bed and a quiet house. Cue me, Jimmy and Liam going summit walking, just like the old days.  Well, not quite. Marianne made us a picnic the night before, so I never bothered preparing any soup. This later proved to be a mistake - Liam was two-thirds of the way through the butties before Jimmy spotted his clandestine greed and managed to salvage one each!

   

Jimmy invited his 6th form mates Hunter and Craig out for the walk, so the first job was to pick them up from Bollington. Up the A537 at the Cat & Fiddle, and it was very wintry - sharply cold, and sleet coming down. This quickly turned to snow as we set off on the walk alonside the road then onto the track.  This was much better going than last time. The deep drifts and deep sections of snow were still in place, but now it was all well consolidated, and you could just walk along on top of it. In places, the snow was over two feet deep on top of the path, but the boots barely sank one inch into it. What a difference from the end of December!

   

The snow began to fall more heavily as we made the final ascent to the summit. After a few deliberations, we elected to pitch the small tent alongside the wall close to the summit, although none of the walls provided effective shelter due to the angle of the wind. Jimmy set up the 2m SOTA Beam, while I erected the new 30m half-wave dipole on the pole.  My CW operating was very "unslick". Concentration was difficult due to the boys asking me questions, wanting things etc, the voices booming out from the tent to the side of me! Hence there were several gaps and QRX requests in my operation, that was really struggling to get any sort of rhythm. This was exacerbated by my noticeable lack of recent practice on the paddle, worsened further by the discomfort in my hands from the deathly cold!

   

Eventually I made 18 QSOs, including a couple into Russia, so the antenna definitely works - many thanks to Sean for helping me get it together. Jimmy did 11 QSOs on 2m FM. I know I had many more in the pile-up waiting to work me, and it is not my usual style to abandon a busy frequency, but one of Jimmy's mates was getting too cold, and it was the only sensible thing to do to pack up, descend and avail of the hospitality of the Cat & Fiddle. But apologies to all who were waiting before I abruptly went QRT.

The snow continued to fall all the way back to the pub, and the low visibility in the fog, and the streaks of deeply drifted snow made for a pleasant walking with unusual vistas. At the Cat & Fiddle, it was hot chocolates for the four lads, and hot mulled wine for me. And a bottle of Old Tom Chocolate flavour! Oh yes, and some pork scratchings.  Many thanks to all chasers who called us.