Dacre Castle G-522 Activation 27/08/13

Dacre Castle Activation

Well up this morning at 0600 hrs and first of all sorted out the new Miniature Schnauzer with her breakfast and ablutions etc. A really beautiful morning with blue cloudless skies and a good WX forecast for the rest of the day up here in the northwest of England. Once sorted myself out and breakfast eaten, flask and butties made up and placed in cooler box plus lots of cold drinks, car all packed and leaving home at 0745 hours I was soon heading for the A6 out of Blackpool and M6 northbound.

Off at Junction 40 and soon on the A66 road to Dacre with thoughts of previous excursions to Blencathra a SOTA summit nearby. Turning off the road after a couple of miles at the Dacre signpost it was all downhill till I reached the village. Once entering the village and after passing the Horse & Farrier pub on the right I was soon turning left onto the public right of way over the cattle grid by the side of a couple of cottages and then shortly passing the castle and moat on the right of the footpath before parking on the grass verge at the front of the castle. Point to note is that their is plenty of room to park up and set up a wire dipole if required. Although the castle grounds are private, the grass verge is on the public footpath side.

Initially set-up on 40M SSB and was straight into the Worked All Britain (WAB) net and managed to qualify the castle with all but one QSO.

Callsigns worked:

GS4WAB/M Dave 59 59+ 7.160 NG82
EI2KD Rodney 55 51 7.160
ON2WAB Peter 57 58 7.160
GM4NFI Dave 57 59 7.160 NN07
GM4LTH/P John 56 53 7.160 NF97
GS4WAB/M Dave 57 58 7.160 NG72
GM8AGM Martin 59 59+ 7.166 Aberdeen
GX1RCD Ben 59 56 7.173 Dartmoor
GS4WAB/M Dave 57 57 7.160 NG53
DL7UCW 56 56 7.160

Equipment used:

Yaesu FT-857
Prowhip 20/40m vertical

12V 80AHr Battery
Car ramp plate
50W


Conditions were very poor today on 40M in a southerly direction with most contacts being north of the border thanks in the main to the members of the WAB net.


All photos of the activation are shown in the 'Photo Gallery' on the main CASHOTA website plus the CASHOTA Northwest England Group Forum and the CQportable website.

Thanks also to Chris M0DOL for allocating the batch of castle references.

QSY to Brougham Castle for the second activation of the day.

73's

Ian 2E0EDX