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Botley Hill, G/SE-005 - 267m ASL - TQ 396 553 - OS Explorer 146 - 1 SOTA
point
Saturday 31st August 2019 - Botley Hill G/SE-005 & Detling Hill G/SE-013 Gig: Simon Faulkner Band Venue: Church Gables, Rolleston, Newark-on-Trent After breakfast at the Europe Gatwick hotel, I drove the short distance to near Caterham, and up the hill onto Botley Hill. This is the only SOTA summit within the confines of the M25 orbital motorway. I drove right up to the water tower and electricity substation on the summit, parked and went to set up my antenna against the fence opposite.
Again I operated on 40m, but a little less rushed this time. I made 8 contacts on FT8, followed by 6 on CW, including a couple of S2S. It was yet another hot day, and I figured I could activate Detling Hill G/SE-013 before driving up to my gig in Newark-on-Trent.
Friday 15th November 2019 - Leith Hill G/SE-002, Botley Hill G/SE-005 & Detling Hill G/SE-013 Gig: 60s Gold - Mindbenders & Steve Ellis Venue: Winter Gardens, Margate
After Leith Hill G/SE-002, I set the satnav to guide me to Botley Hill. This is a very rubbish summit just south of London - and the only within the lies within the M25 orbital motorway. Rubbish it might be, but it's hard to ignore it when working in the area - there's kind of nothing better to do!
With one eye on my watch, and with no pressure to get the four contacts to qualify, I tried my luck with the 2m FM handheld. However, luck was in short supply, and I resorted to setting up the 15m antenna. QSOs seemed hard to come by on this HF band too, but I did manage to complete one contact on FT8. With, seemingly, no further interest, I packed up and continued my commute to the Kent coast - but the next target was Detling Hill G/SE-013.
Saturday 16th November 2019 - Leith Hill G/SE-002 & Botley Hill G/SE-005 After Leith Hill G/SE-002, as is now customary, I drove over to Botley Hill. Upon arrival, I received a telephone call from the bandleader checking that I would be back in time to go out for dinner as arranged. I confirmed that I would - but took the hint to conduct a rapid activation then get back in plenty of time. Fortunately, one station was there and able to work me on 2m FM, so I only needed to use the handheld.
For dinner, we went to the excellent restaurant at Epsom racecourse and treated Jan to dinner as a thank you for kindly giving us three nights of accommodation.
Sunday 17th November 2019 - Leith Hill G/SE-002 & Botley Hill G/SE-005 Gig: 60s Gold - Mindbenders & Steve Ellis Venue: Regent Theatre, Ipswich
After the shortish drive from Leith Hill G/SE-002, I arrived at Botley Hill, and with plenty of slack time in the bank. Without putting pressure on my further drive to Ipswich, I had time to set up my groundplane for 30m and play a bit of radio.
Well, in fact the band was hardly "buzzing". Nonetheless, I made six FT8 QSOs, including one with my friend and SOTA chaser Roger F5LKW. But then I packed away and got cracking with the drive to Ipswich. I was slightly concerned about the big queues when approaching the Dartford Crossing from the south, and wanted to leave some time in reserve. Several interesting FM broadcast radio stations were noted while driving across London, many of them suspected to be pirates. These were:
88.4 Vision 92.8 STOMP Radio 96.1 S-Dance 98.0 Phoenix 102.4 London's Wax 103.7 Funky SX 104.7 Kream FM 105.6 Playback UK 106.5 Project
As I queued for the Dartford Crossing, and for the rest of the journey to East Anglia, I tuned to Radio Caroline on 648kHz medium-wave.
It was another great show in Ipswich. I was starting to really love and enjoy doing this show! It was a happy cast, well organised, and playing to full, enthusiastic audiences every night. Great fun! Even so, I didn't hang around once my sets were done. I quickly got changed and got on the road down to Hampshire. My lovely sister-in-law Charmaine had left me a homemade hog roast sausage roll and a bottle of beer for my supper. Obviously this went down a treat, and I could relax and look forward to the family holiday starting the next day.
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