Small, busy town parks aren’t my favourite POTA spots, but GB-4194 Pinecliff Gardens is the last of them that I’d never activated in my town—its time had come to get checked off the list.

I’ve actually been here for POTA before, as it’s almost exactly the location I picked for my previous activation of GB-1728 Poole Bay Cliffs. But GB-1728 was relatively new then, and GB-4194 Pinecliff Gardens wasn’t in the system at all. (It’s kind of crazy that the number of POTA references in the UK has doubled in the last six months!) Returning now in late March saw the place in a much nicer light, and this time I’m pleased so say I did not have to activate from the car!

View of Poole Bay looking west from the cliff-top gardens

We sat on the clifftop and ate fish & chips, then walked down to the beach via the zig-zag and back up again, looking for lizards. We saw 13 in total, basking themselves on the warm grey stones before scuttling back into the undergrowth. The cliffs are a good place to find them, and this a good time of year, with the sun beating down strongly and Spring in the air.

A Common Lizard at Pinecliff Zig-zag. (I left the good camera at home, again…)

After half an hour or so of that, it was on to the radio. Pinecliff Gardens is primarily a wooded area with only one real open space, at the western end where picnic tables are intermingled with large wooden play sculptures of an ant, a beetle, and of course, a lizard.

I set up at a picnic table and called CQ on 20m, but found it very hard going, with poor band conditions this afternoon. It took another full half hour to get 10 in the log, after which it was nearly time to head home.

Nearly, because week 13 of the 52-week Ham Challenge is to make a QSO from an unusual place and post a picture. Since starting to do outdoor radio activities I have given myself high expectations for what counts as an “unusual place”, and I was running out of time to find anywhere truly special.

However, I bet not a lot of people have made a radio contact from the back of a giant wooden ant, so I hope that qualifies!

Ham Challenge week 13 successful.

Many thanks to my contacts during this brief activation. See you on the air next time!