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It would be nice to be able to open this report with some grumble that
"we
went all around The Wrekin to find the parking spot for this activation...",
but it would be totally untrue. In fact, I had selected this summit
specially for its ease of access to the start point. Having a gig in
Southport on the Saturday night, combined with wanting to provide
summit-to-summit contacts with the gang on the North Wales SOTA "do",
combined with not wanting to compromise with a repeat activation, pointed us
firmly in the direction of G/WB-010. The track is easy going, gently ascending as it winds around the lower
contours of the hill, but to one's surprise, one has quickly gained height
above the surrounding land. The end of the meandering is marked with a tea
rooms that was signed open all day, although we did not partake. From here,
the track follows the line of the ridge up to the summit. The weather was
lovely; clear blue skies and bright sunshine; a little cold but nothing that
could penetrate thermal base layers, performance fleeces and walking
jackets. In fact some of our gear remained in the rucksacks until we
arrived on summit, when it was then utilised to keep the cold northerly wind
out. Once on summit, a high layer of thin cloud replaced the previous clear blue
sky, but that was as bad as it got all day. We were in a very different
weather system to that being described a short time later from the Snowdonia
activations. We set up and bedded down a few metres south of the trig
point, ensuring that by sitting down we were out of the wind. My forecast
timings had been spot on, so we now had the opportunity to enjoy a full two
hours on summit. A substantial lunch of flame roasted red pepper and tomato
soup, with pepper steak and spicy chicken slices, prawn, chicken and all day
breakfast sandwiches, Boost chocolate bars and water was devoured gradually
between the three of us, but the real fun was on the radio. A total of 19 contacts were made in leisurely style, but these included 12 summit-to-summits! When including two further "chased" summits during the descent, this amounted to 13 distinct activations worked, across 6 different SOTA regions (NW, MW, SW, SP, WB, LD) racking up 68 chaser points. Even at this, I had missed several of the activations that had taken place. Particularly pleasing DX were Frank G3UQK/M on Black Combe G/LD-030, and Peter GW0FIM/P on Fan Brycheiniog GW/SW-003. Thanks to the following stations, all worked on 2m FM, the first two with 2.5 watts, the third and fourth with 500mW as my battery began to wane:
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