With the fifth and final RSGB Backpackers contest coming up, I fancied a try at a new hilltop, and with it one of my last chances to get some more 2m SSB contacts in the log for the 2026 SOTA challenge. The logging assistant decided to cycle around the island on the Isle of Wight Randonnee, so I headed over with him, and took the opportunity to hit up the local SOTA summits.

The island has only two: G/SE-012 Brighstone Down and G/SE-008 St Boniface Down. The latter has bags of open space, while the former is completely wooded, so St Boniface was the obvious spot for the contest itself. But since we’d come over on the 0650Z ferry, I had plenty of time to spare before the 1000Z contest start, and decided to hit up Brighstone first.

0845-0900Z: Brighstone Down

I parked in Jubilee car park, from which it was a short and easy ascent up the side of the hill, pausing for a chat with the farmer on the way. The path then turns north into the trees, and walkers will need to pick their route carefully if they want to find the trig point—it is where the peak is shown on OpenStreetMap, but it’s well off the track and the overgrown path to it is not easy to spot. The trig point itself has precious little antenna space, so I set up in a clearing in the woods nearby. Equipment for this activation was my new IC-705, 6Ah battery, and JPC-12 vertical.

Bringing the JPC-12 was a good choice, as while the forest was probably sparse enough that I could manage the 40m dipole, it wasn’t worth the risk of getting it tangled and stuck. I went for the 20m band, which was running very long at that time of the morning, and so with only 10 Watts to play with it was a slow start. My contacts ranged from Austria to Finland.

With five in the log after fifteen minutes, I decided to pack up and head out. Despite it being a relatively quick walk from the car park to the summit, time was still ticking on and I had yet to buy my lunch, meaning I was likely to miss the start of the contest already.

1100-1400Z: St Boniface Down (Backpackers Contest)

By the time I’d navigated the island’s winding roads and scores of cyclists, found a space in the car park atop St Boniface down, found an activation spot, realised I’d forgotten my antenna and gone back to the car, returned to my spot, then set up, it was 1100Z (1200 local time). I’d not just missed a small part of the contest but a whole hour.

I picked a spot at the east end of the down, having plenty of space to play with. Thanks to a new Sotl.as feature which shows the extent of the 25m altitude activation zone, I knew I had my pick of spots just about anywhere, and chose what looked like the highest and most out-of-the-way place I could.

For the contest I continued using the IC-705, which with its waterfall display and pre-recorded voice messages proved a huge improvement over the FT-817 I’d used for the previous Backpackers. I was intending to keep using the FT-817 for a good while, until VHF Field Day with the club made me realise how nice having a waterfall was when contesting. Now I think the poor old 817 might be getting sold before long…

On the antenna side, my Arrow 4-element Yagi returned to service, along with the 5m pole I had bought ahead of the last 145 Alive. I left the 6Ah battery disconnected, trusting the internal battery in the IC-705 to deliver the 5W I was limited to in the contest.

Yet again I was dishing out serial numbers far lower than most of my QSO partners, even most of the backpackers, so there’s a very strong chance I’ll end up coming last again. However, my 33 contacts was a definite improvement on the 16 I managed last time, probably thanks to the pole more than anything else.

A sunny start to the contest turned overcast, but the rain held off bar a few occasional spots, the wind stayed light and the temperature stayed warm. It still felt like summer for a while up on the hill, but I’m sure this will be one of the last activations of the year that I do carefree in a t-shirt, before thoughts turn to jumpers and coats as autumn blows in from the sea.

A number of stations described Scotland as booming in to them, but sadly they weren’t to me. However, being right on the south coast with a clear shot over the Channel was its own advantage, and I was able to work a number of European stations. My best DX of the contest was TM3A in grid square JN36bp, a distance of 432 miles.

By getting 33 in the log on 2m SSB here, I’d also more than doubled my points for the 2026 SOTA challenge. Having missed three out of five Backpackers, been bumped off a summit once and had technical issues with the FT-817, I’d not had many opportunities to get points towards this challenge, and today could well have been my last big opportunity.

1430-1500Z: St Boniface Down (Bonus Activation)

I’d promised Raph F4LUB that I’d try 40m after the VHF contest was done, so I headed back to the car to swap equipment, and paid a visit to the other end of the hill to bag a bunker, B/G-1181 Ventnor ROTOR Radar site, which I assume is this odd triangular building.

I only had 20 minutes or so on the air here before I had to leave and pick up my very tired cyclist (in the pub, of course), so 15 QSOs was the total here. It was nice being able to use a spotting service again after the contest which didn’t allow them, and go back up to 10W with the external battery. In relatively short order I worked a number of regulars including a couple of park-to-parks and a bunker-to-bunker.

1715-1800Z: The Needles

After a long cycle and a pint in my son’s case, and three activations already done in mine, it would have been tempting to head for the ferry and home. But having a car on the Isle of Wight was a rare opportunity not to be passed up—I think this was actually my first time driving on the island. We could go wherever we wanted, and have a quick walk to stretch tired legs along with one last chance to hop on the radio.

The ferry schedule prevented a walk along Tennyson Down, but we instead walked up and over the Needles headland and just onto West High Down. I’d requested B/G-2836 High Down Rocket Test Site be added to Bunkers on the Air after our last Isle of Wight rove, so it was high time we headed back and activated it.

I was a little worried about whether we’d make it to Bunkers’ 25 QSO requirement, given we had only 10 Watts at our disposal and the 40m band was getting steadily more crowded as evening wore on. However, I needn’t have worried. With the ability to self-spot, setting up next to the Coast Path at the Needles provides a POTA 5-fer, along with three bunkers, a WWFF park, a castle and of course the lighthouse. Once we’d found ourselves a free spot on the band, the QSOs came thick and fast, and we had another 28 in the log before it was time to pack down and head home.

81 QSOs was the total for the day, across 6 POTA parks, 2 WWFF, 4 bunkers, and the rest. It’s not an impressive achievement, but I can finally say I’ve activated every SOTA summit on the Isle of Wight as well as Dorset, so new summits to activate are going to involve going significantly further afield. Total time for the rove today was just over 9 hours, with around three and a half of them operating, and one spent in the pub!

Thanks to all my contacts today, and especially those who helped me reach a new high for the Backpackers contests. Catch you on the air on the next time!