And to celebrate and wet the head of the new Intermediate Licence, what better way than to activate Black Hill G/SP-002? Well, very many better ways actually! But what better than to activate Black Hill G/SP-002 then go to the Stalybridge station buffet bar? Well, we couldn't think of any. And when Richard G3CWI found out about the plan, he immediately booked himself a place.

       

Hence after a 6am get-up for Liam, Jimmy 2E0EYP and myself on Saturday 24th March 2012, we picked Richard up from across town and headed up the A34 and M60. The Tesco Extra at Reddish provided the breakfast stop, and we enjoyed an 8 item plus Tropicana orange juice at £4.25 each - a good start.  The A635 up through Ashton-under-Lyne and subsequent small towns was a bit of a drag and progress was slow. But at least we didn't need to cover many road miles this being a relatively local Marilyn. We were parking up in the usual lay-by ahead of schedule, comfortably before 9am.

   

I spotted the fine weather ahead and immediately layered down to shirt sleeves as a warm early sun set about burning off the mist, which was trying in vain to cling to moor. A better job of this was made by the grouse in their short, low and noisy flights between the heather. Richard was sending APRS packets while ascending, which sounded like a robotic impersonation of the grouse!

       

The weather was stunning, and Liam and I used the tall base under the trig point to lean against and provide shade from the sun. The downside was that a plague of midges descended on us a couple of times, but they weren't biting. I set up the MM20 aerial, while Jimmy erected the SOTA Beam. Richard was determined to qualify using only a Baufeng HT with rubber duck, on 70cm FM. On Black Hill.

   

I was a little surprised, as I have some 70cm FM QSOs from this summit myself in the past, but Richard could not solicit any response, despite a self-spot. He was offered use of the SOTA Beam and Jimmy's 2m HT, or my station which was set for 20m CW or SSB, but Richard seemed determined that he was either going to make his contacts on 70cm FM with handheld and rubber duck - or not at all. And not at all was the result!

Jimmy racked up 16 on 2m FM, including 3 S2S QSOs as he celebrated the launch of his 2E0 logbook. On 20m CW, I self-spotted on 14.012MHz CW, mentioning SOTA G/SP-002 and WFF GFF-014. My first call was greeted with an almighty pile-up, which took me 45 minutes to work down! I ended with 58 QSOs, with the best DX being N3GJ, N1EU, N4EX and CN8GL. I was surprised at how early the US stations were coming through - N3GJ was worked at 1047z - and pleased with an unexpected call from CN. The activity from OM chasers continues to impress me - Slovakia has really got going in SOTA since its launch.

With EA4MZ at 1121z, I had worked the last station of the pile-up. Jimmy, Liam and Richard were ready to go, and I had lost a bit of momentum when one of my callers decided to send me a 4 minute over about his shack, his family and his life-story. I assume he hadn't noticed I had been working between 1 and 3 stations per minute up to that point!

If I'd called again, I imagine I would have got another pile-up to work down, but with the flask of beef broth now emptied, the tummy was rumbling again. So down we went for a very pleasant walk back to the car, and short drive to Stalybridge station. For once, it was easy to get a table because most customers were sat outside lapping up the sunshine. We all had corned beef hash and black peas, and it was absolutely delicious, matched only by the excellent refreshing ale that we chose.

We drove back to Macc and agreed that it had been a splendid outing. Getting home by 3pm was useful, as I had a gig to prepare for - The Manatees (Unplugged) at Amuse Bar in Macclesfield. So I was soon anticipating an evening playing fretless bass for blues/funk/rock/jazz music, without a drummer, but with a supper of ribs & chips. Sure beats Britain's Got Talent - even if my brother could have been on it!  Thanks to all for the calls.