G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill SOTA activation

Jump to G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill Details of Activation and Logbook.

Cleeve Hill

Cleeve Hill is the tallest of the hills that belong to the Central England group of hills in the Marilyns list of relative hills of Great Britain. At 330M (1,080’) it is also the tallest point in the Cotswolds and Gloucestershire.

The summit of G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill is located on Cleeve Common, a large flat plateau, which results in the views from the trig point being pretty dismal. The car park, adjacent to the communications towers, is actually in the SOTA activation zone. However, rather that turning right (east) on entering the common and walking towards the trig point, I always turn left (west). This gets me further anway from anny interference3s caused by the transmissions from the towers, but also affords me much better views whilst I am operating. Whilst not as spectacular as those from my earlier activation in the day, Worcestershire Beacon, the views are still commanding to the north, west and south. On a good clear day, the Severn Road Bridge, near Bristol, can be clearly seen.

Historically, the western end of the plateau was home to an Iron Age hill fort. Today, in addition to the communications masts, you will find a gold course at the edge of the western end. The common is also used by local farmers for sheep grazing and there is barely a square foot that does not contain sheep poo. I always take a lightweight seat with me rather than sit on the ground on this summit.

At the foot of Cleeve Hill is the spa town of Cheltenham. I lived in Cheltenham in the early eighties and found the people to be great and very welcoming to outsiders. I have fond memories of Cheltenham, not least of which is that it where I met my long-suffering wife over forty-three years ago.

Details of my G/CE-001 activation

Callsign used
G7LFC

Activation Date
1st August, 2026

Weather conditions
Sunshine and clouds, 22 degrees C, gentle breeze.

Equipment used
Icom ID-51 handheld transceiver, spare Icom BP-272 batteries, DX Commander telescopic mast, SMA/BNC adaptor, SOTA Beams 2m/70cm Yagi antenna, Alpkit Vagabond stool, 16lb mallet, and Fjallraven Singi Hip Pack 10.

Software used
SOTA Goat app and HAMRS Pro logbook on my iPad Air M1.

Bands, modes and power used
2m using 5w of FM.

Station setup
The station was set up quite a bit west of the summit’s trig point, away from interference from the transmitter masts and to afford me better views. Way in the distance, south of my activation point, I could just see the motorway bridges over the Avon carrying traffic to and from Wales. The digital zoom picked on my phone them out quite well.

As with the other two SOTA activations undertaken earlier in the day (G/WB-009 Worcestershire Beacon and G/CE-003 Bredon Hill), the 16lb mallet I’d taken with me proved to be a must-have. There being nowhere to strap the DX Commander telescopic pole to, I had to guy it. After months of little-to-no-rain, the ground was pretty hard – no chance of pushing the ground pegs in with my big size-elevens today.

How did the activation go?
This was my third, and final, SOTA activation of the day. Earlier in the day I had activated both G/WB-009 Worcestershire Beacon and G/CE-003 Bredon Hill.

Once I’d reached the summit of G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill, everything was in place fairly quickly including my Vagabond stool purchased from Alpkit. This is a highly recommend piece of kit as it is extremely light (less than 425g) yet strong enough to support my 17 stone (110KG-ish) weight – you barely notice you’re carry it. I do like Alpkit products, as you’ll probably be aware if you read my reports regularly – they do offer extremely good value for money allowing me to purchase great quality products I wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford.

Once on the air, and beaming south towards Bristol, the summit was activated within ten minutes. All four stations were pretty local to Cheltenham and were, in the main, stations I’d worked before from this summit (and the previous two summits of the day). One station commented on the last three encounters we’d had and remembered speaking with my young son (M3LFC) back in 2005. David would have been ten then and not long had his license. When I retorted that David was now 31, we both quickly stopped reminiscing as it was too painful.

There being nowhere more stations waiting for me on the working channel, I did put out one last call on the calling frequency, but nobody came back. It was Saturday evening, after all, what more could I expect. For me, it was also past seven o’clock and I had a 1 hour (plus) return trip to Coventry to make. So it was, with regrets, started to pack away.

I did have a visitor whilst I was packing up who asked me how many contacts I’d had. He was aware of another activator who’d be on the summit the previous week who was “working the world”. So the locals are clearly becoming aware of what amateur radio is – that’s one of SOTA’s objectives ticked off for this area.

Pros and Cons
There are some great contacts to be had from this location as there are major conurbations both to the north and south – a beam is highly recommended. Having said that, there are numerous radio amateurs in Cheltenham you can work with a rubber duck on your handheld transceiver and they very often let each other know there is a SOTA station looking for contacts.

The summit is extremely accessible and can probably be activated even if the operator uses a wheelchair. Certainly, at the moment, the ground is very hard and can be easily traversed by almost anyone. The car park adjacent to the communications towers is inside the activation zone, so whilst you cannot activate the summit from within your vehicle, it does make the job a lot easier.

The only negative that I can think of for this site is the amount of sheep poo on the ground – I often operate whilst sitting on the ground. So do bring your own seating along.

Observations and lessons learned
G/CE-001 Cleeve Hill is an easy to access summit by all – just bring your own seat.

GW/NW-064 Logbook