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Saturday 5th May 2018 The A249 was still closed. Vehicle entry to the summit car park remained impossible. I followed the country lanes around in a clockwise direction until I eventually found the ascending back road on which I parked on my first visit some years ago. This time, I parked right at the top of the lane at its dead end. I didn’t have a clue which part of the country park this would lead me into, but to my surprise, it was very close to the summit car park!
I set up at the picnic table, and had another unmemorable activation of answering four contesting stations.
My next call was the Circus Tavern at Purfleet for soundcheck ahead of the night’s show. I remembered the important thing - to pay the Dartford Crossing charges online!
The following day - Sunday 6th May 2018 - I had a brilliant walk. Only slightly radio related - and non-SOTA - but superior in every way to the three rotters of the previous day! I had another day to kill, between breakfast in Romford, and soundcheck in Ongar. I fancied a trip further into Essex to try and catch a glimpse of the Radio Caroline ship, the Ross Revenge, anchored in the River Blackwater estuary. The closest vantage point would be the sea wall path near Tollesbury.
My iFootpath app suggested a 6 mile circular walk from Tollesbury. It was a beautiful hot sunny day, so I liked the sound of this. I left my bandmates in Romford, and drove out towards Maldon. I parked in the car park in Tollesbury and set off. The route was excellent, taking in super views and good public footpaths.
Early in the walk, I came across an adder basking on the path ahead. It disappeared very quickly, but nonetheless, this was a first for me. It was pretty big as well - 2-3 feet long and similar diameter to a toilet roll tube.
Most of the walk was atop the sea wall, and it was just fabulous walking in the sunshine. I was able to see the Ross Revenge from which Radio Caroline was broadcasting on 648kHz, though the sun was not in the optimal position from a photography point of view. I’d done two non-SOTA circular walks from the iFootpath app now, and was rather impressed. I expected I’d be using this quite regularly. An excellent route.
Saturday 20th October 2018 - Detling Hill G/SE-013
Gig: Joe Longthorne Venue: Brookside Theatre, Romford This was the day of the VK-ZL-JA DX S2S event, though I would be far too late to join in with the peak activity of that. My own activation on Detling Hill G/SE-013 (Kent - North Downs) was good fun, on a lovely day in hot sunshine - shirt sleeve order for most of it. The operating position was comfortable too, making use of a picnic bench 30 yards or so across the grass from the car park! The other guys in the band wanted (a) a lie-in and (b) trips to the local music shop and pub in Romford to kill time on the Saturday. Not for me. I was up at 7am and off out! It was probably a 60 mile round trip for me to visit Detling Hill, and included a £2.50 each way charge for the Dartford Crossing, and another pound for the parking at White Horse Woods, but overall, this was decent VFM for a day out doing what I enjoy. I parked in the large pay-and-display car park right on the summit of Detling Hill and set up a few yards across the grass at a large wooden picnic table. Overall, I made 61 QSOs, all 5w from the FT-817 + homemade 20m GP. Modes used were CW, SSB, FT8 and JT65. 29 DXCCs: 9A, E7, EA, EA9, ER, EU, F, HA, HB, I, JA, LY, LZ, OE, OK, OH, RA, S5, SM, SP, SV, SV5, TF, UA2, UA9, VE, W, YO, YU. DX: Just one (like many others it seems!) - JA2ATE. 4 S2S: IK2LEY/P on I/LO-220, SV1RVZ/P on SV/PL-022, HA2PP/P on HA/KD-047, EA1AER/P on EA1/LE-105. After that night's show, I started the return journey north intending to pass over Wendover Woods G/CE-005 with a view to bagging another double activation.
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