Arnside Knott in Cumbria to activate the summit for Summit on the Air.

Hi Brian,

Feedback on the arnside sota activation as follows:

On 27th June Eight members Baz, Steph, Hughie, Frank, Dave, Steve, Andrew and Kathy of the group climbed the dizzy heights of arnside knott in Cumbria to activate the summit for Summit on the Air.  Andrews son also came up to help Andrew set up his global transmitting station.

The evening began with a fuelling stop at the arnside chippy 

(for readers Stateside especially in Oregon the local chippy is not a lady of the night but a place we can buy fried Fish and French fries) where we all met up Discussions took place on the best route up to the summit.  After the fish and chips we all set off with the sota gear. It didn't take long to reach the top and members who passed out at the top were later revived by the shouts of CQ SOTA. 

Our very own Last of the Summerwine, 

Hughies got the Blues and Baz has the backpack

The lady in pink is our very own Stephany.  If you have ever received a qsl card 

from Sands its our QSL Manager Stephany who will have sent it out

Left to right: Steve, Hughie, Frank, Dave

We started by setting up a fibre pole to support the first SOTA dipole antenna to the trig point and put calls out for any unsuspecting customers. Even the sheep replied to the CQ SOTA. We used a small handheld on low power and initially got some replies from local stations - one from across the bay near grange. In fact the guy was so close if we had good eyes we could have seen him across the water. It was nice to hear Some of the other members of the sands group that came back to our calls.

We used various sota dipoles to work on 2m,4m and 77cms and all worked really well. The contacts were very clear 5/9 except for one station. We managed to activate on all 3 bands. Some of the regular locals assisted in the activations by hopping to our next band.

Hughie our international radio operator and Baz (summit leader) had many good contacts and provided entertaining conversations. Steve gained his first experience on the use of 4m. Andrew set up his KX3 with a temperamental piece of wire that eventually worked as we were leaving the summit. Although Andrew did manage to get a contact on 20m.

Andrew making contacts with his KX3

Since buying the KX3 he has used on various holidays to Europe 

as well along with contacts all over the UK. 

During our shouts of CQ Kathy met up with some of her fellow walkers who asked the 2 usual questions. 

When we had enough of shouting CQ SOTA to all we tidied up and walked back down to arnside with the promise of a visit to the pub and see the sun go down.

Hughie on his way down from the summit 

Arnside Viaduct and Train Line

The sunsets at the end of a beautiful evening

As I close this entry of the Blog, I would like to thank Steve for the writeup and Barrie for the photography.  My job was easy, I just had to patch it all together. 

Plans are already afoot for the next activation from Hutton Roof  on Wednesday 3rd September