On Sunday 19th January 2003, Jimmy & myself activated Shining Tor between Macclesfield and Buxton.  This is normally a 2-pointer, but with the 3 point bonus for all summits over 500m ASL in the winter period, there were 5 points in the bag.   Just completing his activation as we started ours was Alan Poxon M1EYO - the adjacent callsign to my own M1EYP!  Jimmy took the photograph of Alan and myself at the trig point.

There are a couple of nearby places to park and start walking from - The Peak View Farm Kitchen/Tea Rooms (formerly the Shining Tor pub) at SJ 996 726 or the famous Cat & Fiddle pub at SK 001 719.  Both places offer decent lunches (at the Peak View, try the special cream tea, while at the Cat, go for the filled Yorkshire pudding!), but note that the Peak View Farm Kitchen tends to be closed during winter months (as it was on this day).

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:

Liam and myself decided to escape the confines of the home QTH on Wednesday 23rd July 2003.  It was already mid-afternoon, and hence only time for a local summit, and therefore it had to be a repeat activation for zero points!  However, most of those worked were collectors of SOTA chaser points, and so the trip out was very worthwhile.   We headed up the A537 Buxton Road out of Macclesfield, and this time parked on the gravel track just short of the Cat & Fiddle pub.  We walked back along this track, soon to meet with the previously used path that comes up from the Peak View Tea Rooms.  The path from the 'Cat' is definitely easier, and then it was the usual down the dip and climb to the summit - just 15 minutes leisurely walking altogether.  This was one of my typical spur-of-the-moment unnannounced activations, so thanks go to Alan M1FHM, who answered my call on S20 as I parked my car, and then posted an activation alert on the Summits Yahoo reflector group.

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts, apart from the last contact which was 2m SSB.

In August 2003, I made a third and fourth activation of SP-004 just two days apart.   I was holding the ISWL club callsign MX1SWL/P and following the recent Gazette notice, I had a unique opportunity to be the first to air it on HF bands.   I borrowed a portable 40m dipole antenna from Richard G3CWI and made the trips up Shining Tor - firstly for a "practice run", and then secondly on the Sunday to attempt to call into the scheduled ISWL 40m net at 1500 local.  Again we walked, both times, from the Cat & Fiddle, on my own on the Friday, and then with the whole family (Marianne, Jimmy & Liam) on the Sunday after first having a nice lunch at the Peak View Tea Rooms.

The stations worked on Friday 29th August 2003 were:

The stations worked on Sunday 31st August 2003 were: