Sunday 1sth March 2020 - Brown Clee Hill G/WB-002, Titterstone Clee Hill G/WB-004, View Edge G/WB-018, Long Mynd-Pole Bank G/WB-005, Stiperstones G/WB-003, Corndon Hill GW/MW-013, Mynydd-y-briw GW/NW-060, Gyrn Moelfre GW/NW-049, Hope Mountain GW/NW-062, The Cloud G/SP-015 & Gun G/SP-013

Around a year earlier, I'd headed out to the Shropshire Hills to do the "Shropshire Five" (which amusingly comprises of four hills in Shropshire and one in Powys, Wales).  I then added a couple of North Wales summits, and then two summits local to my home QTH before returning home.  That made nine activations, my record for a single day.  This time, I set of with the intention of repeating that sequence but adding in an extra North Wales hill and thus hitting double figures for the first time!

Many parts of Shropshire had suffered extensive flooding in recent days.  The forecast was very good for the day ahead, but I wondered about the extent of the flooding remaining and potential disruption to my route.  As I neared my first summit, I drove through some badly flooded areas, though thankfully the water level was below that of the road surface.

I parked on the East side of the hill and ascended through the picnic site.  Once on the transmitter access tarmac road, care was required as it was iced over and very slippery.  Once up on the summit plateau, I clambered up one of the steep banks and started trying to solicit a simplex Fusion contact.  It was the first day of the digital voice flavour in the SOTA 2020 Challenge, so I was determined to record at least one QSO on C4FM on each activation - and more if possible!

It was a good start, for I managed to actually qualify the activation on 2m C4FM.  One of the stations was worked initially on analogue, but it conversation it was revealed that he had Fusion available.  Several attempts were made to work Richard G3CWI who was QRV from his campervan in the Delamere Forest, but these were ultimately unsuccessful.  It was time to descend at get to the second summit - Titterstone Clee Hill G/WB-004.