Winter Hill, G/SP-010 - 456m ASL - SD 659 149 - OS Explorer 287 - 1 SOTA point          

Friday 6th March 2020 - Gun G/SP-013, Winter Hill G/SP-010, Billinge Hill G/SP-017 & The Cloud G/SP-015

After my very late night - getting in at 0100 UTC after Gun G/SP-013 - I was amazed to find myself wide awake and full of energy shortly after 4am!  However, I was - and my thoughts immediately turned to grabbing an activation of Winter Hill before work!  That would mean driving north to beyond Bolton for the summit, and then back down the M60 and M61 through rush hour traffic, to get to the school in Timperley before 8.15am.  I decided that was feasible and went for it - a bit mad really!

I banked everything on achieving four QSOs, including at least one C4FM contact, on my handheld, and quickly!  The summit of Winter Hill was tranquil yet atmospheric under the early dawn light.  The first four contacts came steadily if not quickly, and I was delighted that Gary M0XGS was the person to call in for QSO #5 - for I happened to know that Gary had C4FM capability in order to give me the Digital Voice 2020 Challenge multiplier for this summit.

That meant I was away by 7am, and even had enough slack time in the bag to call into a cafe in Bolton for breakfast before completing the drive to work.  After work, still in the mood, I would head north again, this time to Billinge Hill G/SP-017.