For this activation, we parked just off Rochdale Road (SD 81049 18201) although good parking spots on this side of the fell were very limited. The plan was to walk along the road to the start of the public footpath at SD 81388 17834 and then walk along the base of the hill in the access land (SD 81417 17899) towards the Coal Road (SD 82259 17687). This was a perfectly workable path, but wet underfoot. Definitely better in boots. However, you could walk further along the road and join the Coal Road from SD 82063 17623 instead (which is the route we took on the descent).
Once on the Coal Road the ascent was very easy, this is a wide gravel track which was wide enough for a 4×4 to get up there. At the top of the hill there is a gravel road which links the wind turbines and if you make your way over to the junction at SD 83681 18601 then you are at the edge of the activation zone, although we headed further into the zone before getting set up.
The weather wasn’t too kind to us at the summit; it was warm enough although there was a persistent light rain. I initially constructed a makeshift shelter using a tarp – however, ducking behind a small dry stone wall was enough for the most part.
I spent a lot of time fussing over the radio, I guess in part due to the damp weather but also trying to get comfortable and in actuality I should have just started transmitting and getting on with it.
Once I eventually sat down and started working the PTT I quickly made my contacts. This time I was operating the IC-705 on 10 watts (powered via an 8ah LiFePo4 battery) using the RH-205 telescopic antenna. I made my first contact on VHF to G0PJY at 12:00 UTC before contacting G0BJK, 2E0JWA, M7XSD, M0CQE, and G6DFD in quick succession finally followed by G4IRN at 12:07 UTC. Thanks to everyone who came back to me especially those with good humour around me complaining about the British Summertime weather!
The original plan was then to jump over to HF although on the day as I’d already hit 7 QSOs and the activation was confirmed, we packed up and explored the summit and turbines instead!
Failures
Nothing major went wrong with this activation, but an improvement that could definitely be made was in the tarp shelter. We brought the tarp along to protect our radios in the event of light rain and in reality, we should have been more set up for this. That said, I’ve put a little work into various tarp shelters using some simple guy lines and one or two hiking poles and I’m very happy with this new setup. I think in the event of wind or light rain on a summit this will definitely be a comfort improvement.
Successes
Overall everything went well with this activation and I was happy to get a contact at just over 110 kilometers.