So here we were in Ballygally, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, in a
Christmas holiday apartment with a stunning view over the bay.
Preparations were almost complete to host my father-in-law Jimmy (who lives four
miles down the road in Larne) for Christmas dinner the following day. We
had driven up the M6 and A75 down to Stranraer for a B&B stop, before crossing
with P&O (Cairnryan to Larne, 2 hours) the previous day.
The journey saw us work some SOTA and WOTA activations. There was Mickey M6MMM/P
on Shining Tor G/SP-004, Brian GW4ZRP/P on
Moel Famau GW/NW-044 and Foel Fenlli
GW/NW-051, while Phil G4OBK/P kept us entertained from
Fairfield G/LD-007 plus WOTA LDW-221. We
missed him on St Sunday Crag G/LD-010 as we were inside Westmorland Farm Shops (Tebay)
services having a coffee. On the broadcast radio I heard Eden FM 87.7 while on
that part of the M6, and later Dayze FM 105.3, suspected to be a Belfast pirate,
after the crossing. While in the queue at Cairnryan port, a very readable signal
was heard on 10m SSB from VR2XMT in Hong Kong. My 5 watts, unsurprisingly, did
not make it back to him.
Jimmy (the EYP version, as opposed to his grandad) and I hadn't alerted anything
in advance, favouring taking later decisions based on family plans and local
weather. But those things conspired for a first outing on the morning of
Christmas Eve, Saturday 24th December 2011. At odds with all the forecasts
and rain radars that had been carefully monitored, we drove south from
Ballygally to Larne in heavy rain at 0530 UTC on Christmas Eve morning. By the
time we had climbed up the A36 and onto the road that passes to the north of our
target, it was now very light snow, so more acceptable.
The first hill therefore was Agnew's Hill GI/AH-005. There is a walled pull-in
at the side of the road with room for one car. From there, we walked 200m along
the road to the big stile signpost Ulster Way. Now the climbing in wet boggy
grass could begin. As us two headtorch donning walkers gained height, so the
wind gained ferocity, causing self-doubts amongst us.
The "fun" began after climbing a third stile, which we knew signalled that we
were nearly there. But the so-called Ulster Way was barely defined on the
ground, and this featureless lump of peat with its plateau summit was shrouded
in thick mist, as well as the pre-dawn darkness. After a bit of calm
logic, using the wayposts and our compass, we eventually found the hitherto
elusive summit cairn, although several peat banks in the area had the look of
being higher. We instinctively dropped away from the prevailing wind, and soon
recognised the exact same spot where we had operated from in our 2008
activation.
So up went the antennas, but not without difficulty. Jimmy battled for ages to
untangle his guy lines for the 2m SOTA Beam, while a known weak section in my
SOTA Pole snapped completely. I managed to get the 40m dipole hung at about 4m
AGL, and even then it was fragile. Fortunately, it lasted the activation.
Jimmy and I then managed to co-exist inside the same bothy bag without any
tension. Of course, this was my new 4-6 man bothy bag, and Jimmy and I could
both sit in it, operate our radios, and move about without touching each other
or breathing on each other. Much more harmonious!
My own stress levels were not tested, for the lower 40m dipole on the broken
mast performed as it would do normally, and Jimmy quickly had four contacts in
his logbook - one in each of GI and GM, and 2 in G (Cumbria). My own activation
was a satisfying one, all 40m CW from 0805 to 0833 UTC, and 30 QSOs, so slightly
better than one per minute. 14 DXCCs were worked, which were DL, F, G, HB, I,
LA, OE, OK, OM, ON, OZ, PA, S5 and JA!
The descent was easier in clearer skies and daylight, but still not without
incident. I kept putting my foot confidently on what I assumed to be bits of
white rock poking through the peat, only causing me to skid and tumble over, for
they were not rock, but shreds of wet snow! Three times I ended up on my
backside. I remembered something similar happening the last time I descended
this hill in 2008. After driving back down the hill into Larne, we availed
ourselves of an Ulster Fry before heading back up to Ballygally.
The next plan was for an early morning activation of
Slemish GI/AH-007 on Boxing Day, then a 6m contest on the evening of Tuesday
27th. It would be good to work the chasers then, as it was this morning.
Many thanks for the contacts.
F6CEL |
40m |
CW |
T |
S58MU |
40m |
CW |
T |
LA8BCA |
40m |
CW |
T |
DL1FU |
40m |
CW |
T |
OE7PHI |
40m |
CW |
T |
PA0ALW |
40m |
CW |
T |
IK3DRO |
40m |
CW |
T |
OK1DVM |
40m |
CW |
T |
S51ZG |
40m |
CW |
T |
DF5WA |
40m |
CW |
T |
IK1GPG |
40m |
CW |
T |
ON6NW |
40m |
CW |
T |
F5UKL |
40m |
CW |
T |
PA0HRM |
40m |
CW |
T |
HB9BIN |
40m |
CW |
T |
DK1IP |
40m |
CW |
T |
PA0SKP |
40m |
CW |
T |
F5IL |
40m |
CW |
T |
HB9CMI |
40m |
CW |
T |
MI0BOU |
2m |
FM |
J |
M6EPW |
2m |
FM |
J |
M0XSD |
2m |
FM |
J |
2M0NCM |
2m |
FM |
J |
OZ1AAR |
40m |
CW |
T |
OM7OM |
40m |
CW |
T |
G4AFI |
40m |
CW |
T |
JA8AZN |
40m |
CW |
T |
PA0B |
40m |
CW |
T |
DJ5AV |
40m |
CW |
T |
LA1ENA |
40m |
CW |
T |
F5SQA |
40m |
CW |
T |
DL8DXL |
40m |
CW |
T |
G3VXJ |
40m |
CW |
T |
DL1DVE |
40m |
CW |
T |
|