It was another 5am get-up on Tuesday 29th October 2013. For our planned visit to Win Green G/SC-008, Jimmy had arranged a joint activation with SE region manager David G3RDQ.  We drove away from Bournemouth in darkness, and Jimmy took care of the directions. About 45 minutes later, we were driving up the by-way to the car park on Win Green Hill. From here it is a very short walk of two or three minutes to the trig point and small wood on the summit.

       

While it wasn't as windy as a couple of mornings earlier on the Purbeck Hills, there was still a stiff old breeze. But the temperature had plummeted after the storm and it was jolly cold! Jimmy had I spent some time assessing best sheltered operating positions before setting up. It was the 12m GP for me as usual, and the SOTAbeams MFD for Jimmy.  Just before we went QRV, David G3RDQ arrived on summit, about 30 minutes earlier than we were expecting him. So it was meet and greet and natter for a while, and then QRV while David set up his linked dipole for 30m, 17m and 12m.

       

Propagation on 12m was definitely to the east at this time. First in the log was Oleg UX4LL in Ukraine. I was then intrigued to work an unusual prefix when UF0A called. It turns out that this was Russia, but probably an all-time new prefix for me. More Russians and Ukrainians followed into the log, as did Finland and Romania. But the real thrill was getting my CQ calls answered by no less than four JA stations, all with enormous signals, and reporting 599 back to me as well! Great fun!

       

I ended up with 14 QSOs on 12m, all but one on CW, and the single contact on 12m SSB with Alex UA1CDA. Jimmy, who had up until then just managed one QSO on 2m FM, hopped on to also work Alex on 12m SSB before returning to 2m FM to break a local QSO and get three more calls.

       

David had been busy on 30m CW, but with me breaking down switched for his own go on 12m. Jimmy and I needed to get back to Bournemouth to check out of the holiday accommodation and collect Marianne and Liam for the journey back north. So we left David to the summit and the 12m band, but it had been a real pleasure to meet him.  A very enjoyable three activations, and a very enjoyable little break away.