4th April saw us out having a family lunch at one of the local garden centres, but after returning in the late afternoon, Jimmy & I decided to do a local evening activation. We set out for The Cloud G/SP-015, parking in the usual area on Cloudside and taking the short partially staircased route to the summit. We took Liam's playtent with us to help keep off any wind and rain, and set up in the shelter on the summit.  It did a reasonable job, while clearly not designed for the purpose. 14 stations were worked over the course of 1.25 hours, on 2m FM and 2m SSB. Good fun!

Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m - the four contacts from BVE to NES on SSB, the rest FM:

On a later weekend, I was unable to travel out to new summits for the year, but the weather and Roger & Rick's overnighter on meant that I just had to do something.  After completing everything we were doing as a family on Saturday 18th April 2005, Jimmy and myself selected Tesco's Smoked Haddock Chowder as our soup of the evening, filled the flask and set off for The Cloud G/SP-015. 

The summit was fairly busy, as to be expected as we arrived around 7.30pm.  We set up the SOTA Beam and 40m dipole, and got cracking with the activation. A surprise was GW6SKP/P on Arenig Fawr GW/NW-011, also camping out, before we hooked up with Roger MW0IDX/P and Rick GW0VMW/P on Pen Llithrig y Wrach GW/NW-013. Not to be outdone, Ian G7ADF/P was inspired to get out onto (guess what) Winter Hill G/SP-010 in order to make it no less than five activators on four summits by around 9pm! Sadly, I coudn't make myself heard on 40m, and so no contacts on that band.  Roger and I contrived to arrange a 40m QSO, but that failed.  This was a shame, because on the last 40m outing, on Mynydd Llangorse GW/SW-015, at the same time of night, several stations in Ireland and mainland Europe were worked with ease.  Nonetheless, the erection of the dipole was not in vain, since it proved to be a very effective 6m aerial, as I used 6m from a summit for the very first time.  This was good fun, and something I will look to repeat in the future. Rick was worked on 6m, 2m and 70cm, and I SWLd Roger on 30m CW.  We eventually packed up just after 10pm with the flask empty, the sun virtually set and the wind picking up.  There was just enough daylight to get back to the car without headtorches, although it was a bright clear moonlit night anyway. We called in at Treasure House (formerly known as Greasy Gordons on Sunderland Street for anyone that remembers "The Macc Lads") for a quick cheap supper of egg fried rice with curry sauce each, and went home.  

Thanks to the following stations, worked as indicated in the table:

Such was the success and popularity of the Winter Stockport Radio Society SOTA night (two weeks ago), that it was decided to hold another on Thursday 14th July 2005.  This time, Summer was hoped for, and got on a beautiful hot summers evening.  I even negotiated use of GX4MWS/P, the club callsign of the Macclesfield Wireless Society for the evening.  They would turn up in their droves wouldn't they?  Apparently not; just two of us...

Richard G3CWI/P opted to do Gun G/SP-013.  I selected The Cloud (Bosley Cloud) G/SP-015, even though it would be my third activation up there of the year.  Then I discovered a hastily arranged new intake evening had been scheduled for the same night at the school where I work.  Disaster?  Not quite, I could reasonably be away from it by 7.45pm local.  This I did, and folowed the country lanes from the northern quarter of Stoke-on-Trent:  Tunstall - Sandyford - Newchapel - Mow Cop - Mossley (Congleton) - Timbersbrook and finally to Cloudside, the usual parking area for The Cloud.   There was just one spot left for me to park, following which I checked carefully that the other vehicles were uninhabited.  I was still in my suit, and needed to undertake a rapid and daring full change of clothes.  This I did, and headed up the steps to the summit.

On summit, I was offered some chops by a gang of Australians having a barbecue up there.  I declined, having earlier dined on a Monster Mixed Grill at the White Horse in Tunstall between lessons and the open evening.  The summit was busy as usual - The Cloud appears to be a magnet for young folk at night!  In all the excitement, I forgot about the availability of the club callsign and conducted the first four contacts under my home call.  Thankfully, then the next to respond was Ronald G0WUZ, treasurer of the Macclesfield Wireless Society, and this gave me to prompt to start airing GX4MWS/P! 

I made a further six contacts and closed down at 9.15pm local. As I reached the car, many more cars were arriving, spilling out teenagers in hoodies with cans of lager.  It was definitely time to go!  I made the short drive to the A54, left at Bosley lights onto the A523, and to the Fools' Nook Inn for a chat with Richard and a pint.  

Many thanks to the following stations, worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:

Thursday 11th August was a gorgeous, and rather hot day today.  I fancied playing HF on a local hill, no new points involved.  40m SSB had been really good fun recently, and I wanted more of it.  So much so that I neglected to swot up on any propagation forecasts or index readings! Yep, you've guessed it, conditions were bobbins.  Having set up on The Cloud G/SP-015, I tried in vain to respond to the CQ calls from a WAB mobile on 7060kHz.  He was strong and clear, so I can only assume he had considerably more than my 5 watts at his disposal. 

Throughout this time I was joined by another amateur who I had intercepted descending.  He was not doing SOTA specifically, just "playing radio".  He wandered back up with me, and was particularly keen to discover the secret of tangle-free HF wire storage.  Furthermore, Jimmy managed to find the kite winder I had lost up here three activations ago! I had been so focussed on 40m, that I hadn't even carried the SOTA Beam.  However, I could leave "empty-handed", so out came the rubber duck for the FT-817.  Contacts were still hard to come by on this blazing afternoon, but eventually I got four in the logbook, and no more.  The summit was plagued with swarms of midges and larger flies, so we weren't too sorry to be descending, and adjourning to Macclesfield Leisure Centre for the much more appropriate pursuit of swimming.  

Callsign used was MX1SWL/P, club callsign of the International Short Wave League.  Thanks to the following stations worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:

We were back, yet again, on Sunday 30th October 2005.  Well, Christmas was coming, so... "...six hikers, Five Radio Amateurs, ... (pause) Four Marilyns, Three Sotacaches, Two wrong turnings, And a chicken in Thai lemon sauce" Oh, and zero points. The six hikers became so when the hitherto unknown actvation plans of M1EYP and M3EYP just happened to coincide with the hitherto unknown activation plans of G0MJG and G0OXV.  This alerted G1INK who decided to join us to register the five radio amateurs, and of course Liam came for the day out which meant the six hikers.

Jimmy, Liam and myself kicked off with a breakfast at McDonalds at Hurdsfield (closer parking than town centre Macclesfield) after which we drove straight down the A523 through Bosley lights and right into the windy road through Bosley Wood Treatment - the timber works that spawned the world-famous tug of war teams, and still apparently world champions in several weight categories.  Soon we were parking up on Cloudside as the first vehicle there - a rare luxury compared to the usual routine of waiting for someone to depart and vacate a parking space. Soon we were atop The Cloud G/SP-015 which was fiercely windy, but dry, so we set up  a little north of the trig point which allowed us to sit in a five foot deep hole for shelter.  First though, we used the GPS to locate the Sotacache, and for the first time ever (doing it properly with a GPS that is) - SUCCESS!  Jimmy and myself added our callsigns to the logbook, replaced the cache and returned to our hole!  Two of the stations worked were Stuart G0MJG and Keith G0OXV, mobile in the lanes below, and after passing them as we descended, we returned the compliment from the car, before driving across to Gun G/SP-013.

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