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Arthur's Seat, GM/SS-272 - 251m ASL - NT 275 729 - OS Explorer 350 - 1 SOTA
point
Saturday 9th November 2019 - Arthur's Seat GM/SS-272 Gig: 60s Gold - The Mindbenders & Steve Ellis Venue: The Brunton, Musselburgh
I was awake bright and early at my digs in Dundee. This was no surprise having been in bed and asleep by 10pm the night before! This was good though, as it meant I would have opportunity to activate a SOTA before the day's two shows, even though the first one was a matinee.
No suitable places for breakfast were spotted as I drove from Dundee to Edinburgh, but once in the Scottish capital, I did chance upon a Turkish cafe in which I enjoyed a very good breakfast. Next I drove into Holyrood Park, in which Arthur's Seat is situated. I had already been in contact with the estate office to establish permission for both the Saturday and Sunday mornings to activate on Arthur's Seat. I parked, as usual, at Dunsop Bridge car park.
The walk up from Dunsop Bridge car park was straight forward and fairly quick. Arthur's Seat always has people on it, but does not have a large activation zone, so care is needed when siting and erecting a portable antenna. I almost always end up in exactly the same place - not surprising, as the options are very limited.
The 20m band was productive, throwing up good numbers of QSOs on CW, SSB and FT8 - 48 in all. I tried a few calls on 2m FM too, but there were no takers for these. But it was time to get to work anyway, so I packed up and descended, and made the short drive to Musselburgh.
It was two shows today. After the matinee performance, we got stuck into the catering backstage, following which John (guitarist) and myself went for a stroll by the seafront ahead of the evening performance.
After the evening show, I had a short
drive to the seaside resort of Portobello for my theatre digs accommodation.
This was in a very nice apartment with a lovely family who made me feel very
welcome. I enjoyed another very restful night ahead of another visit to
Arthur's Seat the next morning.
Gig: 60s Gold - The Mindbenders & Steve Ellis Venue: Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
Due to a pact I have with my son Jimmy M0HGY, the only option for a summit between Edinburgh and Glasgow - was to repeat Arthur's Seat in Edinburgh.
I set up in exactly the same position as the previous day, but this time I deployed the 15m groundplane antenna. Several QSOs were made on 15m CW and 15m FT8, but in contrast to the previous day, many contacts were made on 2m FM. 15m SSB was empty. 15m CW was nearly empty, but I made a few QSOs. There was lots of lovely stuff on 15m FT8 - E2, ZS, ZD7, PY, OD, VK, VE9 etc. I worked several UR and a GM…!
Anyway, I couldn't hang around too long, for I needed to get over to Glasgow, and the huge Royal Concert Hall venue. We completed soundcheck, indulged in the buffet, then slipped out into the city for a cheeky couple of pints before the show!
I experienced a bit of a career highlight! The show was a 3000 sell-out. As we came to the conclusion of the Steve Ellis set, and we were playing his huge hit "Everlasting Love", he turned and pointed at me. The spotlight fell on me and there I was, playing the iconic bass solo line, in front of 3000 fans. Fabulous!
Unfortunately (for my early getaway routine), because this was the Glasgow show, the running order was changed, allowing Marmalade to headline the show in their home nation. So it was a couple of hours later than usual that I got on the road. I made it just about over the border into England - but I knew I wasn't going to get much further. As such, I exited the M6 and drove down to the parking spot for Great Mell Fell G/LD-035. I pulled into a dark corner of the track off the road, reclined my driver's seat, got my pillows, and bedded down for the night.
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