This was the third summit of the day, the first two being G/SC-008 (Win Green) and G/SE-001 (Walbury Hill). When I arrived, the town was smothered in thick fog and the winter sun was low on the horizon. Getting here was not difficult, I typed “Dundry Down Carpark” into Google Maps, and that brought me to the carpark at the trail head, just a bit uphill from the town church. Coordinates for the carpark are 51.399084N, 2.639259W.
Getting onto the trail that leads towards the summit required clambering over a relatively low gate with the help of a convenient step at its base.
From there, it is a matter of picking a convenient place to set up shop – the whole area is very flat, so the activation zone is huge. I had initially anticipated tossing my antenna into a tree to the west of the fence that runs along the west side of the trail, but I realized as I walked that this was private property. So, I wandered around for a while amongst some curious sheep and a couple commercial antennas.
I saw only a few other folks on the trail, and as I wandered off into the field, I lost sight even of them. The area is bordered by low stone walls and wire fences with posts. It would be very easy to tie a pole to one of those posts and be out of everyone’s way. I found a spot where a large tree hung over the fence, and I tossed my end-fed antenna into its branches, with the other end tied to a post for support.
I don’t recall any interference from the commercial antennas on site, but I worked quickly because it was damp, and rapidly getting both colder and darker. I had seven QSOs on 20m and one surprise QSO with Germany on 10m just before I shut down for the day and headed to a hotel.