SOTA – Activation of Watch Croft G/DC-007 on 01.11.2017

A short account of a SOTA-activation.

Lured by the nearby megalithic sites and standing stones, Brigitte, my XYL, and I decided not to go to Brown Willy as planned but to try Watch Croft. After getting some background from the accounts of Phil, G4OBK and others on the SOTA summits database, we set off from our holiday home in Blisland on a cloudy but dry Wednesday.

We parked at the Carn Galver engine house on the B 3306 and made our way up: first turning right from the car park going down the road for a bit and then entering the path on the left. We thought it an easy walk up to the summit. I stuck my 10 meter telescopic mast into the trig point, which made an excellent stand, and set up the 3-band dipole tying its ends to gorse bushes. As the center around the trig point is a rubble field I set up the open air shack just at the entrance where I could find a small open space with a bit of grass.

Conditions were good that day and I decided to try 40 meters first. After the self-spot a little pile up came back. Me not being used to sit at that end of a pile up, it took a little patience on your side – thanks for that! After 13 QSOs I wanted to QSY to 20 meters when a rather active dog turned the rig over. The owner followed not much later and I did some PR work for amateur radio and SOTA in particular. This took a while and understandably by that time Brigitte felt cold (and me, too) so we took down the antenna and packed up. A bit further up we visited Men-an-Tol and Lanyon Quoit before calling it a day and returning to Blisland. Thank you very much to all who called me! Brown Willy, and maybe one or two more, are on the agenda for the Easter holidays in 2018. Vy 73!