It’s another one of those limbo days, where I’m not at work but the rest of the household are out doing their normal weekday things. After so many years of family and working life, I have to remind myself that it’s actually possible to just go out and do something—no need to bring anyone, or to plan in advance. You can just go. And so I did.

This is Talbot Heath, part of the Bourne Valley Site of Significant Scientific Interest (GB-3625, GFF-0315).

December isn’t really its time to shine. At the lower levels, near the river, the black mud sloshes around black birch tree roots ready to trip and slip the unwary. Up on the hill, the brambles and gorse are slowly trying to reclaim the narrow paths, and the better views are largely framed by the 1980s housing estate you see above. But when summer comes around again, you’ll find snakes and lizards here, and a constant buzzing in the air.

As I’ve mentioned before, on most POTA visits I arrive thinking there won’t be much of interest to share, and as always I end up seeing something or remembering some bit of local history that changes my mind. Today was no exception, because the southern end of the park is dominated by… these.

This tower and its neighbour (plus a lot of antenna wire) comprise the last remaining medium-wave AM broadcast transmitter in the area, Fern Barrow.

The actual barrow it’s named for is a Bronze Age bowl barrow, fenced off for its protection and sadly almost unreachable due to the surrounding scrub. Sadly, it’s quite unimpressive to behold, but it’s a neat bit of history. It’s located directly behind the transmitting station.

This ancient site is believed to have once been capable of transmitting BBC Radio Solent. (Haaa, see what I did there)

The transmitter is still active, serving the region with our last remaining MW station, Radio 5 Live on 909 kHz. So of course, I picked somewhere further up the heath to the north to start setting up my own antenna.

The vast majority of the open space on Talbot Heath is covered by ankle-high heather and gorse, which I try to avoid setting up in so as not to distub hiding or hibernating creatures. The tempting grassy fields to the east are sadly also out of bounds, as they are part of Highmoor Farm, the last of the six farms founded by the Talbot sisters—my home is built on land that once belonged to another of them. (My local history tour is available for the price of one pint per person 😉) Denied those nice empty fields, I wandered around for a while looking for a suitable out-of-the-way place for a portable radio station.

Then I spotted this tiny patch of grass through a hole in the furze.

Through the arch is about ten square metres of grass, enclosed on all sides, and this view.

I had a sudden flashback to my days of playing Guild Wars, like I just found a totally out-of-the-way vista point I’d never seen before. There’s nothing there except just enough space to stand, and see what you can see.

Of course, there was also just enough space for a JPC-12 vertical antenna, 5m ground radials, and a camp chair.

This is a new park on POTA, and I don’t just mean that it hasn’t been activated before. It’s so new they hadn’t taken the wrapping off yet. I asked Paul, M7CUW (one of our local POTA mapping representatives) if it could be considered for the programme at around 1400 yesterday. By 1700 it was on the system, and there I was at 1000 the following day, set up and ready to activate. (How good is that?! Thanks Paul!)

By now, it feels like the actual radio bit is the boring bit of these reports. I followed the usual pattern of starting off hunting a few park-to-park contacts on the 20 metre band to get back in the swing of things, followed by calling CQ and working my way through the pileup. A QSO with KI5MM in Texas near the end was a nice surprise, which at nearly 7500km became my second-furthest DX on 20m SSB.

The calls dropped off after an hour, and I went back and forth between thinking I should try 10 metres, and thinking I should go home. In the end I did stick around for another 15 minutes of trying 10m, but it just wasn’t working for me today. EA8CWA from the Canary Islands was the only taker after several minutes of calling CQ. After that I scanned around the band a bit, and picking up a strong signal from A61AH I tried to call in for my first QSO with the United Arab Emirates. However, it seemed he couldn’t hear me, and with the weather remaining cold and damp, I decided to call it quits at that point.

Still, 56 in the log isn’t so bad. Another activation in the log for GFF-0315, and a good start for new POTA park GB-3625.

Many thanks to all my contacts this morning. See you on the air next time!