Day 7 - Saturday 31st July 2010 (part 2)

From Beacon Batch G/SC-003, I was now directed by Jimmy in a generally south-eastwards direction and through the village of Maiden Bradley. As we drove, we listened in to 105.6 Midwest Radio, which seemed to be in parallel with 97.4 and I assumed was a new identity for the old Vale FM from Shaftesbury. Another station heard was 87.7 New Wine FM from Shepton Mallet, but it wasn't really my cup of tea.

   

Up the hill on the other side of the village, and we looked out for the start of the path up through Rag Wood. This was quite overgrown to begin with and clearly not used for anything other than pedestrian access, so I took the opportunity to reverse my car into the start of the track by the side of the road.

       

This hill is a real gem. After the initial gentle ascent up the partly overgrown path, there was a steep grassy pull. Liam, to my astonishment, really got motoring on this section, so much so that I shot a video of him doing it, otherwise the XYL would never have believed me! I even phoned her up to tell her what was in progress before my eyes!

After the ridge levelled out, Liam shot off ahead, overtaking Jimmy and Craig, as I racked my brains to think what he had for breakfast that morning! After a slight dip in the ridge, there was a small ascent up to the summit and trig point, and we began to get set up as usual, Jimmy on 2m FM and me on 30m CW.

       

Jimmy managed six on 2m FM, including S2S with Eleri MW3NYR/P on Great Rhos GW/MW-002, and 'DX' contact with Nick M1DDD/P near Buxton! Over on 30m CW, I managed ten QSOs, but with one agonising 'getaway'. Norby HB0/LX1NO/P was a superb signal from Ochsenkopf HB0/LI-005, but no way could I break his pile-up. I worked a few more on my own QRG, then went back to check Norby's frequency. Result! He had finished working down his pile-up and was calling CQ with no-one responding. I sent my call and 'SOTA' a few times, but Norby obviously couldn't hear me. A pity, as he was a solid 599 with me.

We packed up and set off back down the ridge in glorious sunshine. Craig found a set of car keys on a small brick structure just before dropping steeply off the end of the ridge, but we reasoned that all we could do was leave them there as there was no clues or contact information attached.  It was getting on for 5pm by the time we were back in the car, but the unanimous decision was to press on to Win Green G/SC-008.