Encouraged by the Trans Atlantic QSOs the previous day on Callow Hill, I set out to activate Brown Clee Hill again, one of the 2 SOTA Summits I can see from my house 🙂

After parking next to the phone box / library as normal, I kitted up and walked up the bridleway, being somewhat surprised to find 2-3 foot snowdrifts at the top!

Successfully circumventing these, and finding the bog at the top pleasantly frozen over 🙂 I eventually made it to the top.

View from the activation point towards Titterstone Clee Hill

I quickly setup the 44′ Norcal Doublet on the fishing pole and plugged it into the 817ND. Then…   I couldn’t find the cable to connect the rig to the 7AH SLAB.. Quickly remembering it was still lying on the hall floor back at home 🙁  GAH!!

It seemed that the internal batteries were fully charged in the rig, so I thought I’d give it a go, at 2.5W SSB, HF only, not wishing to take it all apart again, go home, return, and repeat the procedure!

I struggled to add a spot to sotawatch, adding ‘quick activation only 2.5W’ to it!

The rig managed to last an hour and a quarter (probably longer, but 2.5W wasn’t getting heard to most places) and 21 QSOs, including 2 Trans Atlantic ones again 🙂  One of whom called later, wanting to confirm that I was, in fact, running 2.5W!

Many thanks to all the chasers:

Struggling to get any more contacts, it was time to pack it all away, and negotiate the snow drifts back down to the comfort of the car!

Masts and the toposcope on Brown Clee Hill