4pm Sunday afternoon, 27th January 2008, and Jimmy's moaning, groaning and general self-pity had Marianne stealing yet more of my Jim Beam, which was a Christmas present from my mum. "Can't you take him out for a walk or something? He's driving me to despair" said my exasperated wife.

I bundled Jimmy into the car and hatched a plan as I drove. We would need torches to cover the inevitability of walking in darkness. We preferred a mostly sheltered route, having been blown mercilessly around our local hills the previous day, and a route short enough to do in an hour or so, but long enough to walk the stress out of Jimmy M3EYP!

We headed through Congleton and onto Timbersbrook. I parked on Tunstall Road, at the botton of the steep Eastern flank of The Cloud G/SP-015. We ascended the steep muddy steps at the first stage, and made a mental note not to try and descend them in darkness! Then there was an access track to follow around, and then a choice of four paths through the wood and out onto the summit. I never normally approach this way, so this was good fun - and a better walk, all things being equal.

What with the impromptu nature of the decision to come out for a walk, I hadn't alerted, and my phone was charging up in the car! Nonetheless, my experience told me that early evening on a Saturday or Sunday was typically a busy time on 2m FM in this area, we would have plenty of contacts, one of which could well be a chaser who then spotted us. Alas not. The band was silent except for the GB2RS newsreader warming up on 145.525MHz; not even the repeaters were in use.

A few calls on S20 eventually brought up fellow Maxonian Andy M1BYH, following whom we both spoke to Kath M1CNY. No-one tail-ended, and there was no further response on S20, so we stood up from our trig point perch and commenced our descent. The torches were now on, necessarily so we could see where we were putting our feet. Soon it was completely dark, and we enjoyed the views of the lit-up towns in Cheshire as we curved around the edge of the escarpment.

The walk back through the woods, down the track and eventually the road, was good fun and a welcome breath of fresh air and stretch of legs. And it worked. Jimmy was good company, significantly cheered up and expressed how much he had enjoyed his little outing. Until he got home, when seemingly at the flick of a switch he reverted to Mr Misery Guts. I tried!  Thanks to the following, worked on 2m FM with 2.5 watts:

On Tuesday 5th February 2008, virtually every received signal was a huge 599. It was another very enjoyable activation. 19 contacts, 7 DXCCs (G, GW, HB, DL, F, RN, LA) and even a bit of life on 2m FM for once! Russia was a new one for me from a summit.

I won't mention what I had for my tea, suffice to say that it is Pancake Day!  Thanks to the following stations, all worked with 5 watts:

Despite a belly full of pancakes, and the disappointment of seeing Macclesfield concede two late goals to go down at home to Lincoln, I slept well and was up with the alarm at 6.00am on the morning of Wednesday 6th February 2008.  Looking out of the window revealed a wet start to the day, and that strong wind was still howling around the garden, let alone the summit of The Cloud. So I dawdled for a while before eventually deciding to don the waterproofs and do a 2mfmhhrd activation.

Arriving at Cloudside later than usual, just before 7.30am, I noticed that it was not raining and the skies were clear. Waterproofs were not donned. The rucksack was left in the boot, along with all my aerials.

The ascent as dawn was breaking was a joy and I felt in good shape physically. This regime seems to be working, and has none of the many irritations of the gym. I said hello to the man in the yellow jacket who walks over this summit every morning at 7.40am and pushed onto the trig point.

Despite the limitations of my working conditions, five contacts were quickly made, all with mobile stations driving to work in the Manchester and Wigan areas. The last station in particular was interested to find out more about SOTA, and so we continued the conversation on the GB3MN repeater as I descended.  Many thanks to the following stations, worked on 2m FM with 5 watts:

And back up again on the morning of Wednesday 27th February 2008.  And an even wimpier whimper!

I must admit, my priority is the exercise. Since I stopped the gym, which was costing me far too much in terms of both time and money, I resolved to do the stiff, steep but quick ascent of The Cloud more or less daily as an alternative. I will return to using 817/dipole/CW/SSB/SB270/SLAB etc for "decent" activations when it gets warmer and the wind dies down, but at present it is a case of head down, get the exercise done and take a handheld in the coat pocket!

So, as it turned out, just one 2m FM contact - Keith M3LUE/M - today, but mainly my own fault, because I spent most of my summit time involved in a very interesting natter about Diego Garcia/British Indian Ocean Territory on the GB3MN repeater.

I was looking forward to the morning activation on Tuesday 18th March 2008, as I had a sked with Roy G4SSH - one of the last remaining regular chasers not to have worked me on G/SP-015. The alarm went off at 6am, and I woke up. I then woke up again - so I grabbed anxiously at my bedside Degen DE-1103 world band radio to see if it was now 6.05am or 6.45am. Sadly it was the latter, so I got up, self-spotted the change of plan, and set off for The Cloud for a 2m FM only activation.

It was disappointing not to be contemplating another 80m two-mode activation, as these have been very successful. However, I still needed to stick to the new exercise regime, or I would have to rejoin the gym (no thanks) or get fat (fatter) again.

At 3 degrees, it was a cold morning, but it was bright and sunny, and the chill was not exacerbated, it being fairly still. I was using the Yaesu VX-7R and RSS, and chatting on the GB3MN repeater during the ascent. This, I'm sure, provided the 'advertising' for at least three of my five contacts, worked in a ten minute spell QRV.

My descent and drive to work got me into briefing with about 30 seconds to spare, after my 153rd activation of this summit.

Right then, with no RSGB contest on Tuesday 20th May 2008 (because I don't do/haven't got 1.3GHz/2.3GHz), a 'normal' SOTA Fun Evening on 2m FM it had to be.  Except that not everyone was on 2m FM, and most had finished before I started anyway.  Ho hum, maybe when the summer nights get a bit warmer - it was rather nippy up there, I have to say.

I nearly didn't go. At the last minute, Liam was deliberating as to whether he wanted to come out and do a canal towpath walk with me, and if he had wanted to, then the activation would have been cancelled.  Also I got an invite to accompany G3CWI on his 3cm exploits up on Axe Edge. Anyway, as it all turned out, Liam decided to go back to his bedroom and play Xbox 360, and I decided I need a few minutes of exercise.

With the 817 at the doctors, the working conditions were Yaesu VX-7R (later swapped for Yaesu VX-110 to try to eliminate breakthrough problems), SMA to BNC adaptor and 2m SOTA Beam.  I was set up by 8pm after several pathetically poor and inept attempts to guy the mast (walking pole and WASP special) in an upright position. Perhaps I need a little more practice.  I didn't go straight on the air, choosing instead to munch on a Cadbury's Brunch Bar and admire the views and privately sneer at the puffing and panting of the members of Congleton Harriers, as they passed over the summit on their regular Tuesday night run.

54 minutes, 18 contacts, all 2m FM with 2.5 watts.  No S2S contacts, and an estimated 7 chasers who would claim the contact on the Database. The last contact at 9.01pm local was really pushing it.  By the time I had packed up and descended to the car, it was 9.15pm. At 9.33pm I was outside the ATC in Macclesfield picking up Jimmy, just three minutes late.

This was activation number 597 for me, and with a surprise G/SE sorte planned for the coming Saturday onwards, it looked like #600 wouldn't be the multiband multimode all-day extravaganza on Cloud or Gun as I had hoped (indeed, it actually occurred on Saturday 24th May 2008 on Leith Hill G/SE-002).  Not to worry. A good batch of new uniques would make up for that very nicely.  Thanks to the following stations worked on 2m FM with 5 watts:

Well, it was Marianne's night-shift on the night of Saturday 7th June 2008, but for some reason I didn't have the appetite for a full day's outing. Nor, for some even stranger reason, did I have one for the following say, Sunday.  Perhaps after 15 SE/SC activations the previous week I was wanting to spread out the diesel fund somewhat, as well as wishing to regroup and reorganise the rucksacks for venturing out properly again. And Jimmy needed a new pair of boots...

But none of that stops us from going up The Cloud G/SP-015! Today began with lie-ins until 9am, metaphorical thick-ears all-round courtesy of Marianne, and uninvited brew calls at my friend's house and then my mum's. That killed sufficient time for us to be turning our attention to lunch, so we took a drive down the A34 to Newcastle-under-Lyme to sample the self-explanatory Buffet Island Chinese Restaurant. And a visit to good old Bosley Cloud to walk a few grains of rice off, if not the copious amounts of other foods.

Liam sat himself on the trig point and enjoyed the views and relaxation. Jimmy and I got to work on setting everything up, and were soon ready to go on 80m, 40m, 2m and 70cm. I kicked off with 6 contacts on 80m CW, following which Jimmy had a run of 6 on 80m SSB. This included a S2S with Paul GW4MD/P on Foel Offwrm GW/NW-055, who I also worked for the chaser points. I had made 3 QSOs on 80m SSB myself, before we finished on that band.

3.666MHz was a strange place to be today. After the first two contacts - M1MAJ and GW4MD/P - several chasers starting calling Paul believing it to be his frequency, and obviously not hearing us. Thankfully, the stations with both strong signals and "good ears" - namely Ken & Christine GM0AXY/GM4YMM, and Mr 59 Himself - Alistair GW0VMZ - restored some sort of order. Paul was actually down on 3.660MHz after working us. However, once Paul's chasers had gone to Paul's frequency, we had another challenge, and not such an innocent one this time. Jimmy's CQ calls were repeatedly answered by a Welsh-sounding voice saying "Why have you got a funny voice?" and other inane brain-dead comments. Suffice to say, no callsign was offered by this "gentleman". I suggested to Jimmy that if he got asked "Why have you got a funny voice?" again, he should reply with "Why haven't you got a callsign?". However, Jimmy told me straight that he would simply ignore the pirate, as per his licensing conditions.

Jimmy didn't quite keep his word though. On his next set of CQ calls, he was so doubled up with laughter that he could barely get the words down the microphone! I do hope Jimmy's would-be tormentor heard what was thought of him! I took over, and wrapped up the 80m SSB phase of the activation.  I then went over to 40m CW, and made 6 contacts. This included a 9A, rather a nice one, and encouraged me to go back to some more regular 40m CW activating after my illicit affair with 80m.  Finally, we sent our signals out on 2m FM, with 3 QSOs for me and 4 for Jimmy.  We were then going to finish on 70cm, using the SB270, but time was pressing on and we had a deadline equal to the start of Doctor Who on the telly to meet.

But a pleasant little unplanned activation, with 3 bands, 3 modes, 4 band/mode combinations, 2 activators, 28 QSOs, 8 DXCCs and 69 minutes of operating. Thanks to everyone that called in:

Friday 4th July 2008 brought to an end an uncharacteristically long gap between SOTA activations for me - 12 days! It took a good proportion of that time to dry the gear out after the Snowdon (South) Horseshoe Drenching, and the remainder of that time to dry out the enthusiasm! But, what with a fine, dry and bright Friday afternoon, and Staff 5-a-side footy cancelled due to some silly American idea called "Year 11 Prom", I thought it was as good a time as any to resume a bit of SOTA.

I need to get back to doing it every morning. The steep haul up the steps showed me that my fitness had dipped in the interim, while the number of times I sent six dots for the "5" in "SP-015" showed me that the CW training regime needed stepping up as well. Other than that, it was a nice way to wind down at the end of the working week, super views, warm if a little breezy weather, and the customary enquiries as to what on earth I was doing with the fishing pole!

I operated exclusively on 7.032MHz CW, and worked 28 stations in 9 DXCCs: G, EI, DL, F, HB, I, ON, PA and SM. I was giving one of my internal 817 batteries a work out, and it seemed to hold up well. I had a charged 4.2Ah SLAB with me if necessary, but it wasn't, and the 2.3Ah internal NiMH pack was more than sufficient.  Thanks to all that called in:

It was with a little agenda that I activated The Cloud G/SP-015 on Friday 15th August 2008. Jimmy couldn't be bothered, but it was useful him waiting in the car to provide me with a constant contact during the ascent and guaranteed QSO from the summit.  I was testing out a Bluetooth accessory, designed to connect to a hand-portable radio and used in conjunction with a Bluetooth headset. I haven't drawn any full conclusions yet, but intend to continue to trial the equipment in a few more scenarios.

While I was kitting myself up with the Yaesu VX-110 and Bluetooth equipment, Liam set off on his ascent. Due to some problems setting the FT-817 back up in the car for Jimmy to use, I was delayed in following Liam. By the time I was ready to go, he had returned, having ascended and descended! Liam got in the car with Jimmy, and I set off!

On the summit, I made just four QSOs. Two of them were S2S courtesy of Alun 2W0CYM/P on Tal y Fan GW/NW-040 and Gary MW3WFV/P on Great Orme GW/NW-070. The other two were fellow members of the Macclesfield & DRS - Roger M0GMG and Jimmy M3EYP/M!

Back at the car, I told Jimmy about the two S2S contacts, and he began to regret his decision not to walk up with me. I suggested he could walk up now to try and catch them, but he declined, preferring instead for me to drive around to Charity Lane, Walker Barn, the old "Chaser Central" spot frequented by myself and Steve G1INK in the "old days".

By the time we got there, 2W0CYM had disappeared. MW3WFV was still there, but pedestrain mobile, well ove halfway down the Orme. We chatted to Gary nonetheless, and then had a chat with chasers Nigel 2E0NHM and Barry 2E0PXW who were found in QSO on another frequency.  All rather pleasant. Oh, and it was my 650th activation!  Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM with 5 watts:

After a fruitful morning working many DXCCs on 20m, including W and VE in the Croatian CW contest, I was "in the mood". I had to go out into the hills anyway, to drop off Christmas presents at my auntie's house in Flash, Staffordshire, the highest village in Great Britain. A seasonal stop for mulled wine and mince pies at the Cat & Fiddle was enjoyed on the way, while on the way back we found ourselves pulling in on Cloudside.

It was 4.10pm, and starting to go dark on this, the shortest day of the year, Sunday 21st December 2008.  Nonetheless, we were able to be ascended and the 80m dipole erected before finally switching on the headtorch - and the radio at 1640z.  Jimmy M3EYP called without response for a while on 80m SSB, but eventually, Don G0RQL appeared on our self-spotted 3.625MHz. Nobody tail-ended Don though, so it was over to 3.558MHz CW, and the turn of Tom M1EYP.

I made seven contacts in nine minutes before the QRG fell silent. We QSYd to 3.663MHz SSB for Jimmy to get some more, but it was a similar story. After much calling, Steve GW7AAV was worked under difficult conditions, and again, that was it.  It was of course now pitch black, apart from the streetlamps of Congleton and Macclesfield, and the light from my headtorch. We carefully wound the dipole legs back in over the heather as we completed the pack-up, and I triple-checked the operating position as I cautiously do when packing up in the dark.

The descent was a little trickier with just one headtorch between us on this unplanned "ad hoc" expedition, and that was compounded when the batteries ran out just before the stairs! We always have back-up though, and while the light from the screen of my mobile 'phone wasn't emergency-standard contingency, it was sufficient to get us the final distance back to the car.

We drove back to Macc listening to the Pogues CD, and returned home to a full roast turkey dinner (we won't be having one on the 25th of course). A very nice and very seasonal day. Thanks as ever to all callers. I presume many more listened for Jimmy on 80 SSB, but just couldn't hear him.  Thanks to everyone we worked: