2EØJOE Joe's SOTA page



Bill G4KKI who is pictured below is a keen activator of summits and a serious QRP enthusiast. He has become a good friend of mine since I purchased of one of his excellent Slim Jim Antennas. He has a wonderful really interesting website which I think embodies the true spirit of Amateur Radio. G4KKI website

This picture was taken on the way up to the summit of Black Hill G/SP-002, on Sunday 5th March 2006. I left home at 0630 and picked up Ian GØPLX in Salford and we arrived at the parking spot about 0720. It had been snowing quite heavily during the night and the Pennine way track was not to be seen. We had to cross two frozen streams very carefully to avoid a drenching, and the snow got deeper as we climbed and towards the summit it was about 9 inches deep. The summit was frozen and windswept but there was a clear blue sky and it was sunny but the temperature was only -7 degrees in contrast to the -4 degrees where we parked the car.







This picture shows me operating as G4KKI/P from the summit of Black hill, on the same date as above. I am located at the trig point and the time would be about 09.30 GMT. The equipment I am using is an ex pmr hand held , Key Radio KP150L-T, 2 1/2 watts out put, The antenna is a G4KKI-Slim Jim mounted on top of an inverted walking pole. The strong wind was coming from behind me so I was sheltering as much as I could using the trig point.












This picture shows me on the way back down Ingleborough G/NP-005, on Sunday 26th Feb 2006, This was taken just below the summit at about 10:30am. I did this one with my Nephew Anthony, not licensed, we left home at 0550 and arrived at Chapel le Dale at about 0720, it was still dark when we set off on the climb up. It was bitterly cold but the wind was not very strong down in the lee of the mountain. We stopped just before the last steep climb up to the ridge and had a bite to eat and a drink. Then we pressed on up and it was very icy so we had to go slowly and deliberately. As we came up onto the ridge we were hit by the gale force winds blowing at speeds of up to 50-60mph and biting cold. It was here that we put on our windproof jackets. It was a hard slog into the wind to get to the summit shelter but it was still bitterly cold even in there. But at least we could sit down and were out of the 50 - 60mph winds with a wind-chill of -20c.










Me again operating from the summit shelter on Ingleborough on the same date as above 26th Feb. 60mph wind and wind-chill the same -20c.You can see how the slim Jim antenna is bending in the gale. As you can see I had to take my gloves off to operate the ptt switch and write in the log, my hands were both frozen and numb.