Wendover Woods was actually more accurate for my activation on 9th December 2017.  For I wasn’t on Haddington Hill itself, but on the adjacent Aston Hill, which is easily within the AZ.  I'd enjoyed my chats on 2m FM during the long drive through the day, especially the last one as I approached the Isle of Sheppey.  I worked Kevin G0PEK, SOTA/WOTA activator and father of the famous Lauren 2E0HLR, who had recently gained the Intermediate licence. 

There was some issue with my Palm Cube.  Each activation when I got it out of the bag it seemed to be sending ridiculously fast, and no resetting of the low/high speeds, calibration or even full reset could rectify it.  It sometimes started behaving correctly after a few minutes.  But not today, so I have separated all the bits in case some moisture got in and it needed an airing.

Therefore, it was 20m SSB today. George N1GB came straight back to the first call, but then I was struggling. I answered CQ calls from CT7AEQ and an EA9 which was nice. I tried some calls on 2m FM with the handheld but wasn’t surprised not to be answered, even though there was some activity about. I gave the CW another try, and while it was still too fast, it was manageable, and a US station gave me my qualification. Then a further 90 mile drive onto my gig.  I wrote this report from possibly the coldest dressing room ever - brrr!