March 144/432MHz

It all started on Saturday morning when I was packing the landrover for another long night in the back of the the beast. knowing to well it was going to be cold I went to the shed to find the grubby old double douvet to wrap myself in. When I found it the dam thing was damp. Oh well I suppose I can hang it out to air it. Anyhow I packed the landy and set off to the garage to get some fuel. Just pulling into the garage and who was to call me but the very well known Kevin ( M0XLT ) from Gargrave. I told him I would be five mins and then sorted out the fuel. Genny filled and spare can also landrover I jumped back in to set off. 15mins late because I was supposed to be meeting the farmer at 12noon. I then gave kevin a shout and he informed me that the weather was not going to be good but 25mph winds are not to bad. He also told me there was a lift on VHF. I drove from Skipton , North Yorkshire to Gargrave then up to Malham in the Yorkshire Dales. When I arrived at the Farm it was a resonable day. The sun was about and it was quite dry so the trip up to the summit was going to be a dream.

After speaking to the farmer for way to long ( Nice Chap ) I set off across his fields in the direction he told me best to go. Not knowing what was ahead I was in full spirit and ready for a great contest. I set off south through his fields via Great Close then followed Gordale Beck NE till I got to the Byway which he told me to follow North. I arrived at the first gate which was a squeez to get through in the beast of a landy and started to climb. I had not noticed at this point the sun was not shining anymore. My head was to much into listening to G6MZX with his wife Joan on Pen-y-ghent doing SOTA and consentrating on my driving as it was getting increasingly rocky and slippy but its nothing I am not used to after all myself and M0GGR (Tyke) know what the word OFF ROAD realy means and its not in the form of a BMW 4x4 with road tyres that never gets dirty oh no.... Anyway. I continued to the next gate and found after that I was supposed to take a left and start to climb which was a mix of grassy rocks. To cut a long story short it was a challenge in its self just getting to the summit. There was quite a few axle twisters and diff crackers. The bogs did not pose much threat but the sink holes did so I took great care in looking out for them. There are a few photos in MY PHOTOS section which may give you an idea of what it was like.

The Genny was pumping away and the power supply on my first call went to G7SKR at 15:21 which was a bit late to start but thats just tough. He came back to me that the Audio was bad and soon as he told me I thought the radio screen did not look normal so I must have found that the old monster of a power supply did not like the genny or vise versa.... Not to mess about I changed over to the wagon battery and attached the 6amp charger. I went back to G7SKR and told him my problem after that we was off.

Once on the top I found that the wind was getting up and cold. There was a slight haze in the air and the report came over the radio from some guys on the west coast that it was raining very hard and also coming our way so then G6MZX and his lovely wife Joan was off to get down Pen-Y-Ghent. I found when setting up the Antennas it was not possible to have both on the same pole and have them work so I had to put the 2M antenna at the top due to it being the most busy band. The wind by now was starting to get strong so I needed to winch them up rapid. After 10mins I noticed that being right at the top of the hill was maybe not the best idea due to the wind being so strong. I moved the gear and reversed down the back side of the hill so I had some shelter from the wind. I pointed the Landy into the wind so it would not bash it about alot and if I needed to I could also drop the antennas back down. In a matter of the next two mins the FOG had arrived just like a bright white blanket had been thrown over me. Started to feel like I was in that film (An American Werewolf in London 1981) where they go walking out onto the moors and that bloke in the pub says "STICK TO THE ROADS , DONT GO OFF THE TRACK."  Anyway the wind by this time was quite strong and the thought came to mind that it was alot more than the stated Met office's 25mph.... Yeh Right !

Well that night I was realy not a happy chappy. The winds had got up so bad I was worried and not alot of things bother me but it was bad, Very bad. 2E0BLZ down in Accrington was reporting to me that the wind was gusting on his weather station at 78mph. Well I was at 1742ft and the wind had changed its direction and come round the hill a bit so it was hitting the Landrover side on and also the antennas are fastened to the Landy not the ground. The time was 23:25 when 2E0BLZ told me about the wind speed. I think most ppl who talked to me that night got a report about the wind speed. I was very worried at this point and the only option I had was to let the antennas fall to ground because the chance of me bringing tham down slowly was no option at all. I was chatting with TYKE ( M0GGR ) when some realy strong gusts came by this time the radio was moving about on the shelf so I had to rope it down. Thats the FT857 with rubber feet that was jumping arround on the table so I think you may have the picture. There was no option for me to go take shelter outside because of the lay of the land so my option was to ride it out. After a worried chat with tyke and some nice helpfull tips I got my 20ton ratchet straps and big pins to tie the landy down to the ground as you may see in the pics. ( There are more photos in MY PICS ). The straps worked to a point and gave me a bit more piece of mind. By 1am the winds had got to a maximum and I was starting to hold on. I thought the scafold pole may brake at this point which I would be happy for , at least it would not be acting like a huge pry bar on the landy. The metal pannels on the landy was flapping and the roof was resonating just like the very loud humm which the antennas made. At one point I was speaking to tyke and I could hardly hear him with the radio turned full up. Tyke could hear the noise behind me funny enough. If I was to give it a 1 to 10 scale of scary things in my life that has to be a 5th.

G7SKR GM4AFF G1ONK G4FOH EI3GE G3OHC G8BNE G6MZX G4BEE G1EVR G3XAN 2E0UOG M0GGR G0OPH G4BDO/P G0VZJ GW0GPQ G7DZP G3MDG/P G8HDS M0ONQ GM4PPT G0AJJ GM4GUF GM4SDQ GM4JR GM8GAX G4DEZ PE1EWR G0VHF/P PA0WMX M0JDK G4EGU G4RYV M3SMK M0WYB GW1YQM G8EOP G4CPA ON4WY 2E0ZCL G1SWH G0WTD ON4MCL G2BOF MXOBCQ/A PI9CM PI4GN M0XLT M6AXL G4FUR/P M0PNN G4LMX G3CKR 2E0BTX M3SBY G4JNN 2E0SWW M3RDZ M3ZEG 2E0BLZ G6LKB G7COD M3UOG M6GBR M3ZPJ M0PIE G8ZRE 2E0RFX 2E0PIE M1DHA G4OWG MM0GPZ/P G1AOZ G3MDG/P OQ4U DF0MU G6XLL G4BLH G4CPS G8ADD/P M0ICK/P G4ONK G0VOF GW0PEB/P G0BWC G8HXE GM6JNJ M0BAO/P G4ATX G0UWK G4JLG M3GNS G8HAV G4LBHF6CBH 2E0JJD/P G4XPE G8MNY G3WGQ/M M3VYD M2F G4AFS M9T G0SPA 2E1SKA GW0PEB/P G4WDL M5AEH G4RQJ/PG3VUS G0HWK G8GJO G3BNE G1WAP G8LZE M5ADF G0TVB/M G8FMC M5BFL .

THANK YOU TO ALL IN THE CONTEST AND ALSO A BIG THANKS TO ALL THE BRAVE PORTABLE STATIONS.

2E0XLG

CHRIS