G/SC-007 – Another wet one
After a long run of hot sunny days with temperatures up into the 30’s we were invited to a bbq with Peter in Westbury. I decided to bag Long Knoll whilst I was there as it’s only a few miles from his house. After no rain for nearly 2 month unbelievably the forecast was for wind and rain!
Parking is a bit of a problem for this walk unless you park elsewhere and make it a longer day. There is room for one car on the verge at ST 801 378. We took this option and parked there before heading up the path onto Long Knoll itself. The route up is very obvious and an easy climb with only about 90m of ascent to the top.
About a third of the way along are the remains of an old shelter which was fortunate as just as we approached this spot the rain came down really heavily, and with the wind blowing it was coming at us almost horizontally. We sheltered behind the wall whilst it passed, whilst sat there I checked access back into the Swindon repeaters which were coming in at 5/9. After a short QSO with Rob G4XUT the rain abated and so we continued on towards the summit trig point.
At the top it didn’t take long to set up the station. There is a very useful fence right next to the trig point which made a good support for the antenna. I soon had the required four contacts in the log and went on to complete another ten contacts for a total of fourteen. Coverage was good ranging from Cowes to the South and up into Shropshire to the North with a couple of contacts into South Wales to the West and another into Witney to the East. The highlight of the trip was adding Peter M6XPE to the log as the fourth contact qualifying the summit. It was Peters first SOTA chaser point and his first QSO since passing his foundation exam.
The return back to the car was by the same route we came up along and we just managed to reach the car before the rain started again in earnest.
Journey Details
Date – 28th July 2018
Postcode – BA12 7HN
Parking – ST 801 378
Radio – Kenwood TH-D74 + 50W PA on 2m
Antenna – 2 ele yagi
Band – 144 FM
Contacts – 14
SOTA points – 1
Group – Myself and Belinda
Log G/SC-007
Walking Route Summary
