Remember the one about our bobbins holiday in Cornwall?  Well, that had to be put right, and hence when we learned that Marianne's sister's family were away in Wicklow for a wedding for a few days, we suggested that we house-sit for them in their absence!  We have swapped houses in the past, us to Chandler's Ford (Hampshire), them to Macclesfield for holidays that (a) are considerably cheaper than normal and (b) have considerably superior accommodation to normal!  When I think of the price paid for that shabby static caravan in Newquay....

Anyway, Hampshire was our new base for a few days, and hence the pressure was on from Jimmy for us to do Butser Hill.  This was one of the remaining three Marilyns that I had done and he hadn't; the others being Scafell Pike G/LD-001 and Cringle Moor-Drake Howe G/TW-002.  Marianne agreed to a family picnic on Butser Hill, a rather touristy spot with picnic tables, ice cream shop and pay-and-display car park. Originally, we carried the picnic and radio gear to the trig point, but upon realising that this whole area was swarming with flying ants, we beat a retreat to the picnic area, where, funnily enough, we had our picnic. 

Then we reconvened in the field between the picnic area and the trig point (the summit activation zone is huge) to set up for radio.  I assembled both the 2m and 40m aerials, but had no joy on either.  However, a repeater was in use, and for one station (on the IOW), a 59+ signal came up on the input frequency.  He agreed to QSY to simplex to give me my first contact, following which the requisite three more stations (and no more) popped up on frequency at the end of each QSO. It was a gorgeous day, and we drove down to Southsea, near Portsmouth.  We had never been here before, but really enjoyed it.  A lovely seaside resort, and a good curry house! 

Again I used the ISWL club callsign, MX1SWL/P.  Thanks to the following stations, worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts: