G/NP-031 Birks Fell

Second of the day

G/NP-031 Birks Fell

25/07/2015

We decided to leave the car in the car park at Buckden as it looked as if there were no parking spots near the route to the summit and also there were agricultural vehicles moving around bringing in the hay...looked like rain.

 My GPS track

 A full car park..heading off for Birks Fell...rain clouds on the horizon

 The track is well defined although boggy in places with the occasional stone slabs on the difficult sections...a 4.08km walk.  Looking across towards the summits of Ingleborough, Pen-y-Ghent and Fountain Fells it was evident that rain was on the way so a quick activation was called for. 

 Activating Birks Fell

The Trig at Birks Fell

We shared the first four contacts and I can tell you it was hard going as the 40m band was not in good shape. Once we had qualified I left Barry and gave a shout on 2m which brought that ever important s2s.

14:45z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	MAN
14:47z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	MIKE 3/3
14:49z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	PEDRO 5/2
14:50z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	MICK 3/3
14:52z	G4CFS	7MHz	SSB	GLYN 4/4
14:54z	G8VNW	7MHz	SSB	NICK 5/7
14:54z	ON6ZQ	7MHz	SSB	3/3
14:55z	DK1WI	7MHz	SSB	5/6
14:57z	G6PJZ/P	7MHz	SSB	5/7 ON G/NP-024
15:00z	M0JLA	7MHz	SSB	ROD 3/5
15:04z	G0LGS	7MHz	SSB	4/4

Barry’s Log

It was great to hear Andy G6PJZ/p calling from G/NP-024 (Hoove) and he was very soon in both our logs...so thank you Andy for that second s2s of the day.

14:46z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
14:47z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
14:49z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
14:50z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	Mick
14:54z	G6PJZ/P	144MHz	FM	Andy s2s
14:57z	G6XBF	144MHz	FM	Walt IO93fu
14:59z	M3NHA	144MHz	FM	Tony
14:59z	M6NHA	144MHz	FM	Sara
15:00z	G0TDM	144MHz	FM	John
15:01z	G6HMN	144MHz	FM	Ray
15:03z	G8VNW	144MHz	FM	Nick
15:04z	G0HRT	144MHz	FM	Geoff

My Log

I popped up my head from behind the wall and could see a nothing of the other summits due to the rain that was approaching rapidly. Time to pack up, get those water proofs on and head downhill....the rain arrived as we were leaving the summit.

Rain approaching in the distance

Odd how it clears up after your activation....Birks Fell distant..centre

 Downloaded this earlier as Birks Fell qualified me for my first Amateur Radio Portable Operators Club certificate – Portable Professional –Bronze Award

Thanks to all the chasers and especially the first four who worked so hard to ensure that we qualified the summit although as you can see we made a lot of contacts eventually...
Thanks everybody.

73 Allan GW4VPX and Barry M0IML

G/NP-009 Buckden Pike

Two summits today

G/NP-009  Buckden Pike

25/07/2015

Although we had a wonderful B&B in Gayle (Hawes) our landlady was quite adamant that breakfast was at 8:30am so our timing for the summits would not be as predicted.  

My GPS track to Buckden Pike

As we approached Buckden village we were trying to figure out where the car park was so I told Barry “I’ll pull in here as there are a few cars parked up there” ...guess what , we had arrived at our destination :)

 There is a ‘Pay and Display’ system in operation here so take plenty of pound coins (£4-full day).Thinking we would be late on summit we hastily kitted up and made our way through the gate and along the road up through Rakes Wood.  It’s a 3.7km walk over a mixture of grassy paths and freshly made up stone track with steps on the steep bits.

Heading up towards Rakes Wood

Looking back at the Car park

 Take a sharp right turn here

Well trodden path

My first four contacts

10:23z	G4OOE/P	144MHz	FM	Nick s2s t2t
10:36z	DL6KR	7MHz	SSB	Martin
10:38z	EI/G3RMD	7MHz	SSB	Frank s2s
10:40z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike

As we made our way up to the summit we could hear Nick G4OOE/p calling from G/NP-001 (Cross Fell).  A quick call to tell him we were on our way and he replied that he would wait for us to reach the summit....10 minutes later and Nick was in our logs with our first contact of the day and the all important s2s...thanks Nick

The summit of Buckden Pike

As there was some activity on 40m we decided to go straight on to this band so I spotted Barry and sure enough we soon qualified the summit including an s2s with Frank EI/G3RMD/p on EI/IN-067 (Knoacnarea)...thanks for calling us Frank. As soon as contact number four was in the log I moved to 2m whilst Barry worked the remaining handful of chasers...the bands were not in good shape...

Barry's Log

10:23z	G4OOE/P	144MHz	FM	NICK 5/9 ON G/NP-001
10:37z	DL6KR	7MHz	SSB	5/9
10:39z	EI/G3RMD/P	7MHz	SSB	FRANK 5/5 ON EI/IN-067
10:41z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	MIKE 3/4
10:43z	OZ7HPI	7MHz	SSB	4/2
10:43z	G8VNW	7MHz	SSB	NICK 4/7
10:44z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	MANUEL 4/2
10:46z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	5/3
11:17z	G6PJZ/P	144Mhz	FM	5/9 ON G/NP-006

I had a steady stream of chasers and it was nice to get Nick G8VNW (Threshfeld) on 2m for a change as well as the other regulars such as Mick M0MDA (Leeds),  John G0TDM (Penrith), Tony M3NHA/Sara M6NHA (Manchester) including Rob G0HRT (Southport). Now Andy G6PJZ/p had called us to say he was on the way up to 006(?) so it was with much laughter that eventually Barry and I had an s2s with him from G/NP-006 (Great Shunner Fell) ...the summit we had been on yesterday :)

My 2m log

10:45z	M0BKQ	144MHz	FM
10:48z	G6XBF	144MHz	FM	Walt
10:50z	G6PJZ/P	144MHz	FM	Andy
10:50z	M0XLT	144MHz	FM	Kevin IO83wx
10:52z	M0MDA	144MHz	FM	Mick
10:54z	M0MOL	144MHz	FM	Gareth
10:54z	G8VNW	144MHz	FM	Nick
10:55z	G0TDM	144MHz	FM	John
10:56z	M3LIU	144MHz	FM	Ian
11:00z	M6VGU	144MHz	FM	Kevin
11:03z	M3NHA	144MHz	FM	Tony
11:04z	M6NHA	144MHz	FM	Sara
11:18z	G6PJZ/P	144MHz	FM	Andy s2s
11:21z	G0HRT	144MHz	FM	Rob

 Barry on HF and my 2m set up on the right

The summit was quite busy and we had to answer a variety of questions as some of the visitors were quite knowledgeable about our activity.  As we were running a little late we decided to pull the plug and head downhill, the main topic of conversation being where would we park the car for the next summit?

Thanks everybody for the contacts including those s2s.

73 Allan GW4VPX and Barry M0IML