G/SE-007 Crowborough

Monday 7 September 2015

Equipment:

FT-817 5 Watts, 4.2Ah LiFePO4, 60m/40m/20m linked dipole, 7m sotapole and a palm paddle.

Crowborough G/SE-007

Todays activation had been on the cards for sometime.  About 3 months ago Mrs CFS booked to have her eyebrows done in Brighton which meant I would get a couple of hours free to do an activation in the local area.  Originally my plan had been to do Ditchling Beacon SE-006 however, having added that to my SE Tour of the 6 July 2015 I had to think of an alternative.  Crowborough is one of those hills that stands out on its own and not particularly easy to lump with other hills to make a worthwhile day out, so it made perfect sense to activate that one on this quick visit to Brighton.  Crowborough also has the advantage of being a ‘drive-on’ summit therefore making it easy to activate when time is of the essence.

Having dropped the XYL off at her parlour I headed off to Crowborough.  Following the lead of Richard G3CWI and Phil G4OBK I parked up at the Golf Club in the Visitors car park (TQ 506298) and found a footpath into the woods behind the car park.  Once in the woods a suitable clearing was located and the station quickly set up.  After a self-spot I started on 60M SSB and got a good 6 QSO’s in the log.  Once the band went quiet I opened the links for 40M and self-spotted.  I had just put out a couple of Cq’s when I heard a ‘twang’ and looked up to see half the dipole part company with the tee piece.  I considered carrying out a repair on the aerial but was also aware of the time and the fact that I had an hours drive back to collect Mrs CFS.  So the decision was made to pack up and head for Brighton.

My apologies to those that wanted a QSO from Crowborough on 40M, I will be back there next year for her repeat appointment and will complete what I started then.

73 Glyn