From the smallest local SSSI, to the largest! Completing the trifecta of local heathland areas that I recently asked to be added to Parks on the Air, this is Canford Heath Site of Significant Scientific Interest (GB-3623, GFF-0315). It’s one of the largest protected heathland areas in Dorset, and it’s home to the usual array of flora and fauna such as heather, gorse, dragonflies, snakes and lizards. It used to be much bigger, but a post-war building boom resulted in the southern half being given over to the construction of a housing estate, and in the subsequent decades the north-western part was also given over to a landfill site. So not a glamorous location, but there are still 344 hectares left of managed heath for nature-lovers and dog walkers to enjoy.

Panorama looking south from Canford Heath

We headed up to the viewpoint towards the south-east of the park, which offered a good chance of dry-ish ground. Folks had already set up a block of wood there to sit on and enjoy the scenic view of housing and industrial estates, so at least we had a six-inch-high seat rather than just the picnic blanket on damp stony ground.

With my daughter and logging assistant along for the ride, I suggested taking the dipole antenna that takes two people to put up, and working 40 and 20 metres with it. However, she was more keen to take the vertical and give 10 metres another try after her previous success, so that’s what we went for in the end.

When you look the other way, you can pretend the rest of Poole isn’t there.

As usual though, we started on 20 metres. On the hunting front, one park-to-park contact with Romania was all we could manage—other activators on 20m in Europe were too close to us, while the North American stations weren’t getting through. So, we switched to calling CQ and self-spotted, and by the time we reached the end of the pileup we had 26 in the log.

The sky was slowly darkening, and I was on the fence about whether we should bother with switching to the 10 metre band. My last three activations had been rubbish on that band, so I didn’t hold out that much hope for today. But we adjusted the antenna anyway, and gave it a shot.

And wow am I glad we did.

Working through a big pileup is a full-brain activity for me, and it’s usually not until I get chance to read through the log later that I can pick out the highlights of who we were actually talking to. We got a further 27 in the log on 10 metres, including one with SU8FEB (my first QSO to Egypt) and my third-furthest SSB call to N5SLY nearly 7500km away in Texas (RST of 11 both ways, but we got there in the end).

Some idiot with a radio

Many thanks and Merry Christmas to all our contacts this afternoon. See you on the air next time!