Cracoe Fell, G/NP-032 - 508m ASL - SD 993 588 - OS Explorer OL2
- 2 SOTA
points
Friday 10th December 2021
Gig: Christmas Live!
Venue: Doncaster
Racecourse
I was up around 0730 and went down to join the stable staff for a cooked
breakfast in the lodge. It was a raceday at Doncaster but I wasn’t hanging
around.
I set the satnav for the usual lay-by in Rylstone, and made the 90 minute drive
north. I’ve always done this circuit anti-clockwise previously, but at the
last moment I decided to reverse that. I walked the Chapel Lane track from
Rylstone to Cracoe village before turning right onto the Fell Lane track towards
the hillside.
I started to pick up the pace as the ascent became steeper, conscious that
Friday afternoon traffic back through Bradford might not be as optimistic as my
satnav prediction. Little did I know what I was in for!
I managed to get my four contacts to qualify on 2m FM on the handheld, but I
clearly wasn’t hearing everything. One of my callers suggested I might be
suffering some local desense. I heard Nick G4OOE/P calling CQ SOTA so called
back for the S2S - only to find he (and Dave G3TQQ/P) were also on Cracoe Fell -
just a few yards from me! I hadn’t spotted the vertical poking up from behind
the drystone wall!
I completed the descent (working Dave and Nick for the chaser points as I did
so?) and set off back to Doncaster with plenty of slack time in the bank ahead
of the 5pm soundcheck. Or so I thought. Nobody had told me about the
three hours it takes to drive a couple of miles down the A1 at Pontefract, where
roadworks funnel four lanes down to one. That was pretty stressful, and I
eventually pulled into the racecourse at 1705. Fortunately, the bandleader
was still outside smoking a fag and hadn’t summoned the start of the band’s
soundcheck - so I made it by the skin of my teeth!
Time |
Callsign |
Band |
Mode |
S2S |
12:19 |
M1PAC/M |
144MHz |
FM |
|
12:21 |
G4TGJ/P |
144MHz |
FM |
G/NP-009 |
12:23 |
M0ALA |
144MHz |
FM |
|
12:25 |
G6XBF |
144MHz |
FM |
|
|