After Detling Hill G/SE-013 on Sunday 25th May 2008, the JimNav took me straight back to Junction 7 of the M20, and down the motorway to Folkestone. Radio stations heard on the route included 106.0 KMFM Canterbury and other KMFM outlets on 96.4 and 106.8. Jimmy directed me up to the village of Paddlesworth and around to the cul-de-sac lane up to Sole Farm.  I checked at the farm, and they advised me to park in front of the gate to the covered reservoir, because "The Water Board have already been up today". We went through the gate and took the customary photos as we posed by the trig point. We continued further and looked for a suitable place from which to operate in this large activation zone on Cheriton Hill G/SE-015.

The first call brought us both an easy 59/59 contact with Owen G0NCE in Dartford, but no-one else could hear us. I wasted much time here trying to persevere with 2m FM, before setting up for 80m. I should have done this earlier! Once I did, I got a good run on 3.557MHz CW with some very good signals coming through, and Jimmy got the three he needed once we went over to 3.660MHz SSB. It was a lovely hot day, and we enjoyed the views over Folkestone and the English Channel.

       

After packing away, I spent ten minutes monitoring French radio stations on the FM broadcast band on the car radio. In that time, I identified 92.7 Skyrock, 99.9 Culture, 101.6 & 102.5 RFM, 88.9 FUN, 91.5 Virgin, 92.0 Radio 6, 95.5 Bleunord, 103.5 Inter, 103.9 Europe 1 and 106.5 Info.

We now had a long long drive back across the South Coast to Hamble, and then onto Romsey where we were meeting Marianne's sister's family for a meal. I should have gone back up the M20 and used the M25 and A31 in hindsight, but I persisted with the coast route and found it very sluggish until we picked up the A27 near Brighton. Hastings was particularly busy with hoards on the seafront, mostly with beer glasses in their hands making me wonder if the JimNav had gone wrong and we had ended up in Blackpool!  Still, reception of Hastings Rock on 107.0MHz FM was a pleasant surprise, followed by 89.4 Musique (presumably French) and another of the Gold network on 945kHz MW.

We got near to Hamble and received a message from Marianne saying that she and Liam had already left for the meal in Romsey. That was OK, it had gone 7pm and we didn't have time to go down to the holiday park for a shower and change anyway. I had a contingency plan! We continued on the motorway virtually up to Romsey, and pulled in at the services immediately before our exit. Jimmy and I grabbed our suitcases, and I placed my £1 deposit for the shower key. We arrived at the restaurant clean, smart and on time. Unlike Marianne, who had got lost on her relatively short drive from Hamble (she was clean and smart though). She was amazed that we had got there before her, let alone made it at all!

Another long, packed and fun-filled day.  Thanks to the following stations all worked with 5 watts from the summit: