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Thursday 30th August 2018 - Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052 & Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: The Brunton, Musselburgh
After Hutton Roof Crags G/LD-052, it was time to head up to the border, and clock the miles in towards Edinburgh. I arrived in Scotland’s traditional capital city in plenty of time, and the activation of Arthur’s Seat was feasible. I followed the one way system around Holyrood Park to the highest point of the estate road, from where wide green paths strike up pretty directly to the lofty looking summit. Even from the roadside, you could see that the hill, and especially the summit, were very busy indeed.
This was still the case up by the summit trig point, where the ground was very rocky. My thoughts quickly turned to trying to get away with a simple VHF handheld activation! I didn’t really want to be up here too long anyway. A group of young guys (early 20s) were up there with a crate of Brewdog ales. They was very loud, and inappropriately vulgar, given that there were families with young children there.
Five contacts were made on the handie, 4 on 2m FM and 1 on 2m C4FM. It was great to speak to Ken GM0AXY and Christine GM4YMM. The small summit was far too busy, and I was pleased to vacate it. It was now just a short drive to Musselburgh for soundcheck. We had a great show, made all the better by a fantastic audience. In fact, all the audiences in Scotland are brilliant, and I have to say, significantly better than their counterparts south of the border. It was a longer drive back into Edinburgh city centre for the youth hostel I had booked. The late check-in rendered me to a top bunk in the dormitory, but it was comfortable and I slept well. The following day I had a day off before a gig in Leeds, and I headed first to The Cheviot G/SB-001.
Thursday 1st November 2018 - Arthur’s Seat GM/SS-272
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Rothes Hall, Glenrothes
Waking up in my digs in Glasgow, and checking online stuff, I was heartened to note the increasing interest in this these reports in “the other place”. My landlady was about to embark on a two hour public transport commute to work - but suggested that she could cook me a breakfast if I could give her a lift. That sounded like a deal to me. It was on my way over to Edinburgh anyway, so that was fine.
My satnav then led me to somewhere unanticipated, so I had to follow my nose around to the main road access into Holyrood Park. Earlier I had phoned up the estate office and secured permission to erect an antenna and operate for a couple of hours. The summit was busy as usual, but I found a clear and sheltered spot on the west side where I could just about get my 20m GP up without getting I anyone’s way.
It was a pleasant session on the radio. 38 QSOs were made as follows:
2m FM: 4 2m C4FM: 2 20m FT8: 5 20m CW: 27
I was particularly gruntled to work SOTA friends Christine GM4YMM, Ken GM0AXY and Robert GM4GUF during the activation. Afterwards I suffered the tedium of escaping the Edinburgh traffic as I made my way to the gig in Glenrothes. That went well, then I drove back down to the capital for the night’s digs. I had a day off to look forward to the next day, so would be heading towards Berwick and a cluster of border summits, starting with Sell Moor Hill GM/SS-211.
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