New award: WAJ = 'Worked All June'.  Well, in a SOTA activating sense, and obviously not in a work sense, this latest activation being as a result of a very rare weekday not at work!  Jimmy wasn't at work either, while Liam was in school, so we agreed to pop up to Black Hill G/SP-002. We had breakfast at home, and planned to be out within a 9am to 3pm window.

   

After parking in the usual layby on the A635, we walked along the current official route of the Pennine Way, which is almost all on a slabbed path. The weather was horrid during the drive, but was now dry, if still menacingly grey. I decided to have faith in the forecast that promised it would remain dry, and, eventually, sunny. Apart from two very short periods of very light rain, this was right.

This route drops quickly away from the lofty A635, and half a mile or so must be walked before you are even back up at the altitude of the road! Then there is a steady graded slog up hill, curving around west to the summit.

Jimmy M3EYP set up for 2m FM as usual, while I went for 12m CW using the vertical. But I didn't begin operating for ages, preferring instead to lounge around by the trig point chatting away to three successive Pennine Way full distance walkers. By the time I was QRV, I was half-an-hour later than my alert time, and Jimmy had already qualified and made plenty of QSOs!  24MHz wasn't playing, so it was just three contacts on CW, all with regular chaser G stations. I took down the MM12 and replaced it with the 40m dipole, which was also in my pack. On 7MHz CW, I made 11 contacts, including S2S with SM3/HB9CMI/P on SM/VN-022.

The return walk was most pleasant in the early afternoon sunshine, and I enjoyed the far-reaching views over Huddersfield and Emley Moor. I had completed a personal target of activating every day of a month, and extended my run of consecutive days SOTA activating to 39.  Thanks to the following stations: