High Vinnalls Hike - G/WB-012 SOTA (2020)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Sunday 5th July, 2020.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: High Vinnalls, Welsh Borders, England.
Summit ID: SOTA reference G/WB-012 (1 point).
Summit Height: 375m elevation, 248m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 52.34722, -2.76782. Maidenhead Grid IO82oi.
Distance: 3.0km travelled with 141m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 1hr 55m (including operating).
Weather: Feels like 18.3°C, 31 kph W wind, 54% humidity.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FT891, Linked Dipole, Zippy 8400mAh 4S LiFePo4. Yaesu FTM100D, MFJ-1714, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4.
Callsign Used: M1HAX/P.
Contacts: 34 (40m SSB, 2m FM).

Trip Notes

High Vinnalls is a hill situated in Herefordshire, England, often associated with the Shropshire Hills. Found within the parish of Pipe Aston, near the town of Ludlow, this scenic hill is encompassed by the picturesque Mortimer Forest.

The hill is one of five 1-point hills in the Welsh Borders area which I would attempt to activate in a single day.

Easy road access to the north leads to a spacious gravel car park some 140 metres below the summit. A network of paths wind through the Mortimer Forest. There is a clear and easy track to follow for about 1.5km to the top of the hill.

Within the SOTA activation zone was a wooden bench which was used as a base to operate from. A DX Commander fibreglass pole was used to erect the HF dipole.

Enjoying the views for about an hour, I collected a number of radio contacts. One notable contact was with Jan Petersen OZ4OZ/MM who was operating from the Royal Arctic Line Tukuma Arctica ship. Jan’s ship was on the way to Iceland.

After packing away the equipment, I retraced my steps back towards the car, correcting a minor unnecessary detour made half way along the ascent. A very pleasant hill to walk, but one I am unlikely to make the trip to activate again.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of High Vinnalls on Sunday 5th July, 2020.

Walking Route for High Vinnalls

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for High Vinnalls. The G/WB-012 summit area is marked on the map with a blue pin icon.

You can download the route shown above as a GPX file suitable for use with most GPS devices. This file is provided for information only, to support your own walk planning and research (it may contain navigation errors, detours and/or safety hazards). The route downloads provided here are governed by the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 licence.

Station Log

I logged the following 34 amateur radio contacts operating as M1HAX/P from G/WB-012 High Vinnalls on Sunday 5th July, 2020 (all times shown are UTC):

In the notes field I will usually log the other operator’s name and the signal report they provided. In accordance with the Summits on the Air rules, I do not make a log entry where a complete exchange of callsigns and signal reports was unsuccessful.

Additional Information

The following resources may be helpful to walkers, mountaineers and SOTA activators interested in High Vinnalls:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for G/WB-012 High Vinnalls.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for High Vinnalls.
• Google Earth view of High Vinnalls.
• Wikipedia entry for High Vinnalls.

If you found this content valuable, why not Buy Me a Coffee?