CHASING THE DX FROM THE HILLTOPS by Tom Read M1EYP, BDXC 1040

Most people that know me, or know of me, know that I like to frequent high-up viewpoints in the UK countryside - but not for the views - well, the views to the eye anyway.   Although the theory of 'hilltopping' as this aspect of the hobby is know, is well documented in books and periodicals, I more stumbled upon it than anything else.  I had picked up a strange VHF broadcast on my car radio, and while driving my car and straining my ears to learn more, I noticed that as my car ascended a few metres, reception and readibility improved dramatically.  Being a logical sort of chap, I decided to head for the hills, in order to climb not just a few metres, but a few hundred metres.   Fortunately, my home town of Macclesfield sits conveniently by the foothills of the Pennines, so plenty of good take-off points within half-an-hour's drive from home.

That 'strange broadcast' turned out to be one of the early RSL stations, and I have since chased well into the thousands of RSL, pirate and newly licensed commercial stations from various hilltop locations.  I have increasingly enjoyed and appreciated RSL stations, as they prove a welcome return to that unique excited, enthusiastic and slightly naive style of broadcasting; a refreshing antidote to the formatted computer-playlisted commercial radio stations claiming to serve our localities.  I also started to get into the habit of seeking out the most profitable hilltops whenever in other parts of the UK, either when working or on holiday.  So as well as Cheshire/Derbyshire/Staffordshire, I have also discovered good spots in West Yorkshire, North Wales, Ulster, Wicklow and even Richmond Park in London for monitoring the capital's pirate airwaves.  Its the relative height that makes the difference, and I once had a very good FM DXing session from a hump-back bridge in the flatlands of Norfolk - that single extra metre of height bringing in ILR stations from 80 miles away!  I did have to keep shifting the car to let other road users over the bridge however!

Over the years I have corresponded with many of the stations heard from my hilltopping sessions, and have received a great many QSL responses, including what I would wager is one of, if not the biggest FM RSL QSL collection in the UK. My QSL collection is available for general viewing in my website http://tomread.co.uk , although the QSL section is being continuously constructed. As QSLs arrive, they are published, and I am about halfway through publishing my all-time archive of around 5000 QSLs from the UK and around the world.

In recent years, the changing status quo in UK domestic broadcasting has sharply affected my focus for hilltopping.  The use of the 105-108 MHz subband for permanent commercial radio licences, including large regional outfits occupying 3 or 4 frequencies in parallel, has severely limited the space still available for RSL and pirate stations.   RSL and FM pirate activity is still considerable, and there to be listened to, but perhaps a little more predictable, and only audible over a much smaller range than was the case a few years ago.  That is nothing to do with transmitter power or technical quality, just the fact that neighbouring regions are much more likely to be hosting commercial stations on the previously clear frequencies.

Hilltopping for me never came to an end however, as in addition to still chasing the remaining RSLs and pirates, I started to utilise the the take-off positions and their noise and interference-free characteristics to string bits of wire up and enjoy much clearer short wave reception than was available at the home QTH.  One of the first stations - and QSL cards - that I captured in this way was LRA36, from San Gabriel in the Argentine Antarctic.  Too mushy and noisy to hear at home, but in the clear from a local hilltop 5 minutes drive away!  Much of my Sunday morning DXing on the short wave free radio bands now takes place out mobile rather than from home also.

Somthing I have realised over the years is how much I appreciate the fact that this aspect of my radio hobby takes me to the great outdoors, and to some beautiful, peaceful and spectacular places.  The hill walking has become as much of a draw as the radio to be heard up there, and it does rather uniquely involve the family in an otherwise solitary hobby.

The latest innovative twist to my hilltopping activities came courtesy of amateur radio.   I became licensed as M1EYP in 2001 following my attendance on the RSGB Teachers' RAE crash course in Harrogate.  The chap who sat next to me on the course - and now has the callsign before mine - M1EYO - emailed me recently to let me know about SOTA - Summits On The Air.  This is a new amateur radio awards programme, similar in ways to IOTA (Islands On The Air) and WAB (Worked All Britain).  Activators need to work four other amateur radio stations from a summit in order to claim the points for that summit.   Chasers just need one contact (or SWL report) with an activating station to claim the points on the chasers programme.  A definition of a "hill" is obviously required for this programme, and the list adopted is that of the "Marilyns" of Great Britain.  These are defined as summits with a drop of at least 150m on all sides, ie "relative hills".  This does have its quirks, for instance, two peaks could be 10 miles apart, one being a metre higher than the other, with the coll between them being 140m down.  In this case, they would count as the same summit under the Marilyns definition, with the higher one being listed as the Marilyn.   However, there has to be a way of defining a hill, and any method will have its talking points.  Furthermore, the Marilyns are well documented, already listed, and the subject of various well-researched books.

So far I have activated Shining Tor, between Macclesfield and Buxton, The Cloud and The Gun, both near Leek, Billinge Hill - the county top for Merseyside, Winter Hill in Lancashire and Raw Head near Nantwich.  I have worked (as a chaser) Gyrn Moelfre in Wales, close to Oswestry, plus Holm Fell (Lake District), Whernside (Northern Pennines) and Shining Tor!  I plan to activate more summits throughout 2003, particularly during the summer months, including some more ambitious family hiking up Kinder Scout and Black Hill to name but a couple.  This scheme sits very comfortably with me, as it strikes me as an amateur radio version of the hilltopping I have so much enjoyed with the broadcast side of the hobby.  It is sort of an official confirmation that radio people like hill walking and vice versa!

Further details on my VHF broadcast hilltopping may be seen in my article in the October & November 1999 editions of Radio Active magazine. Information about the SOTA Summits On The Air programme can be found via http://www.sota.org.uk

Tom Read, January 2003