Bardon Hill - G/CE-004 SOTA (2023)

Summits on the Air Activation Report

Activation Date: Saturday 13th May, 2023.
Activator(s): Richard M1HAX.
Summit: Bardon Hill, Central England, England.
Summit ID: SOTA reference G/CE-004 (1 point).
Summit Height: 280m elevation, 172m prominence.
Summit Location: Lat./Long. 52.71442, -1.31928. Maidenhead Grid IO92ir.
Distance: 3.3km travelled with 120m of ascent.
Difficulty: SAC Grade T1.^(?)
Elapsed Time: 1h (including operating).
Weather: 15°C, light breeze, cloudy.
Radio Equipment: Yaesu FTM100D, MFJ-1714, Zippy 4200mAh 4S LiFePo4.
Callsign Used: M1HAX/P.
Contacts: 7 (2m FM).

Trip Notes

Bardon Hill, the highest point in Leicestershire at 278 meters, offers views of distant landmarks like the Malvern and Shropshire Hills, Derbyshire summits, and Lincoln Cathedral on clear days. Near its summit are two radio masts, one of which provides the NOW Leicester DAB radio service. The hill is a 13.1-hectare biological Site of Special Scientific Interest and part of the eroded remains of a volcano. It adjoins Bardon Hill Quarry and features a trigonometrical point at its peak.

This small hill can be approached from most directions, excepting the quarry to the south west. I parked on Greenhill Road in Greenhill to the north of the hill. A short walk through a housing estate leads into wooded ground where a path network leads to the summit. The walk to the summit is around 1.7km using mostly mud footpaths. This route is likely to be challenging in very wet conditions. Approaching the summit there is signage regarding quarry blasting preventing access - this should be researched to confirm access before visiting.

Approaching the radio mast there are a couple of obvious path options to proceed to the summit. At the summit of Bardon Hill, a trig point sits atop a small rocky mound. The steep drop-off towards the quarry offers good radio take-off.

While operating my SOTA station from the summit I made several interesting contacts including GB4TRO (Pubs on the Air special event station), MR5AML (Royal coronation prefix), and M/VK6EH (Australian operator using a remotely controlled station in the local area).

After exhausting the contacts available on VHF FM, I followed the muddy trails back to the car. Although small this is an interesting Marilyn summit with pleasant woodland walking opportunities.

Photos

Below are some photographs taken during my activation of Bardon Hill on Saturday 13th May, 2023.

Walking Route for Bardon Hill

The interactive map below shows my GPS track taken to the SOTA activation zone for Bardon Hill. The G/CE-004 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 7 amateur radio contacts operating as M1HAX/P from G/CE-004 Bardon Hill on Saturday 13th May, 2023 (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 Bardon Hill:

• Sotl.as Summit Page for G/CE-004 Bardon Hill.
• Hill Bagging UK Summit Page for Bardon Hill.
• Google Maps Page for Bardon Hill.
• Wikipedia entry for Bardon Hill.

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