Firle Beacon, G/SE-010 - 217m ASL - TQ 485 059 - OS Explorer 122 - 1 SOTA point            

Thursday 10th October 2019 -  Firle Beacon G/SE-010 & Wilmington Hill G/SE-010

Gig: 60s Gold - The Mindbenders & Steve Ellis

Venue:  Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone

The Easternmost South Downs hills were further west than I'd anticipated.  It would have been more sensible to book a night in the Lewes area after the Croydon gig, and then one night in Folkestone.  Still it was what it was, and I had plenty of time to drive across to play SOTA, having decided to leave Cheriton Hill G/SE-015 for the following morning when I would be departing Folkestone.  Meanwhile, Simon Faulkner who I'd gigged with two nights earlier, now needed me to play for him on the Friday night in Nottinghamshire - so I would be out on the road for another extra day!

I'd originally planned to activate Cliffe Hill G/SE-014 as well in this day.  But it seemed to take an eternity to drive out to the Lewes area, and I soon realised that there would only be time for two activations.  For Firle Beacon, I parked on the grassy car park at the cul-de-sac (from the A27) south of Firle village, south-east of Lewes.  From here it was a short walk along a pleasant grassy ridge up to the summit.

There was to be no getting away with a low-effort 2m FM handheld approach on this one - though I did try!  I needed to set up the 30m GP on the SOTAbeams Travel Mast, and work on CW.  Similar to a VHF handheld approach, just four QSOs were made!  That was fine though - there was no time to waste!  I drove the short distance to the parking spot for Wilmington Hill G/SE-011.