I’ve recently completed some upgrades to my gravel bike and upon realising I’ve done little SOTA activity recently, thought I’d take the opportunity to attempt an activation at the next summit closest to me which is GM/SS-236 Corse Hill at Whitelee Windfarm.
Having cycled 60 miles the day prior I decided to load the bike onto the car and start from the Visitor Center car park. There are alternative ways to get to the summit that are closer, but this suited me better and allowed me to put the bike through it’s paces following the changes.
From where I set off, it’s around a 15 mile cycle there and back with just shy of 1,000ft of elevation. The terrain is certainly more suited to a mountain or gravel bike rather than a road bike or a hybrid with slick tyres. I tracked the ride and you can view the detail on Strava by clicking here if you wish.
I took me about 50 minutes to cycle up and slightly less going back down, walking from where I parked would take a couple of hours each way I’d say.
It was a pretty uneventful ride up and down. I did encounter many other cyclists on the way and at the summit whilst completing my QSOs. There are good views at the summit but nothing spectacular as there are trees and windmills around.
I took both my Yaesu FT-65 and Quansheng UV-K5 with me and used a combination of both to achieve 5 contacts while at the summit. Many thanks to Stuart MM7SWM who noted my alert and spotted me. The best QSO was a summit-to-summit (S2S) with Mark 2M0IIG who was at Allermuir Hill in Edinburgh. All contacts were on 2M FM, I received no response on 70CM.