Mount Eagle, GM/NS-151 - 256m ASL - NH 649 590 - OS Explorer 432 - 1 SOTA point            

GM Tour - Tuesday 24th August 2010

Another 5am get-up and another SOTA. It was damp and gloomy as we drove from Nairn, through Inverness and onto the Black Isle. Jimmy directed me to the access point at NH639578, where I parked the car at the edge of a very wide approach to a track. This would be a new SOTA region for Jimmy and I, having never ventured into GM/NS before.  But first, we sat in the car for rather a long time, listening to BBC Radio Scotland and watching the rain coming down on the windscreen. 8am came and went without improvement - the forecasters had assured me that the rain would move off by then. Fortunately, it did settle down sometime later, and we got walking up the virtually flat track.

We turned left onto another wide track at NH649580, and then right at NH647587 to walk around the right hand side of the transmitter compound to the edge of the forest, near the trig point. Unfortunately, we hadn't given any thought to the rough track straight ahead of us at the point.  When we emerged from the forest behind the transmitter station, we were face with a trackless 100m hop across rough ground, vegetation, heather, fallen trees, gorse etc to attain the trig point. We would have easily have been already in the activation zone - but you have to get to the real summit don't you?  Why?  Because you do!

I caught Jimmy up at the trig, took off my rucksack and went to get my digital camera from the side pocket.  Disaster!  The zip had broken on the side pocket of my pack, and was wide open. Fortunately, everything was still there - energy bars, feeder, tape, cable ties, pegs, headtorch. Everything that is except my digital camera. I was absolutely gutted. I think I was more horrified at the prospect of losing the photos from the previous day's activation and that of not getting any photos from this one, than I was about needing to buy a new camera.

Time to start looking. Fortunately, I had got my camera out at the edge of the wooded area 100m away, before deciding to wait before taking a photo, and putting it away again. But I couldn't remember which route I had picked across the featureless but tricky and vegetated rough ground in between. So that was a potential of 10,000 square metres to search then, and with lots of heather, bushes and long grass to check underneath...

I picked a way back across to the trees. No sign. And it was a slow process, with the abundance of vegetation to check under. I started to pick my way back across towards the trig point, with the positive thought that this way I was more likely to retrace my original steps. And within seconds, I found it!  My despair turned to ecstacy in a moment. I punched the air and yelled a cheer of victory. I think a Greek chap wrote a similar story a while back. Jimmy looked across, somewhat bemused, as he continued setting up the 2m SOTA Beam.

       

From the trig, you could see a small path across to the other side of the transmitters from where we had come from. We made a note to return that way. Setting up the two legs of the 40m dipole was easy, using the path to lay them out, but erecting the mast and fixing the back guy was more challenging in the thick gorse that surrounded the area. Once up and running, I made 19 QSOs on 40m, 18 on CW and one on SSB. Jimmy did mainly 2m FM, but needed to come across to 40m SSB to get his 4th QSO.

The OS 1:25000 map showed a more direct path back via another transmitting station. We decided to try and head down this way. When this became completely blocked with fallen trees and thick gorse, Jimmy, sensibly, decided to retreat and follow the wide forest tracks back to the car. I was more stubborn, and tried to get around the obstacles and stick as closely as possible to the direct route on the map. What a mistake this was. I ended up truging through heather, bog, and finally knee deep water before I regained the forest track close to the parking spot. Jimmy, by this point, was already at the car, well ahead of me. So much for short cuts - you'd think I'd know better, wouldn't you?

What with losing the camera, Jimmy struggling for a 4th contact and my pathetic "direct" descent, we were off the pace on our return. Fortunately however, our return to the cottage just before noon did not elicit an adverse reaction. Nonetheless, I was minded to get back earlier the next day and keep the goodwill going.  Already, we had an eye on Cnoc Mor GM/NS-150.