On the 28th June 2015, myself Martin G7MRV and Bob M1BBV, will be walking the route of the old Dirgers paths across the North Yorkshire Moors, between Osmotherly in the west and Ravenscar on the East coast.
We are doing this to raise money for MAG, the Mines Advisory Group, who work in some of the poorest and most war ravaged countries providing essential landmine and Unexploded Ordnance awareness education, landmine and minefield clearance, and UXO disposal. Their work returns land to the population for safe agricultural and educational use.
I have set up this blog to record not only the details of the walk, but to document our pre-planning, training, and fundraising. In the coming days, we will write here about our efforts, post pictures, and link to information about MAGs work.
You can support us in this endeavor by simply clicking and making a donation on our Just Giving page, here -
https://www.justgiving.com/MB-LykeWake2015/
Where you will see a running total of our donations. Myself and Bob do not ever see nor handle the money! Anything you donate goes direct to MAG! If you are UK based, please also sign up for Gift Aid, as that adds another 2.5% donation!
To find out more about the work of MAG, please follow this link
http://www.maginternational.org/
where there are stories, pictures and videos. There is also information on just what your donation can help them do!
As strenuous and long as the walk may be, we are planning to make it just a little more interesting, by also carrying a VHF radio and activating the two summits along the route as part of the amateur radio Summits On The Air (SOTA) program!
http://www.sota.org.uk/
Anyone who works our station as part of SOTA, or indeed any amateur radio station that works us during the walk, or any listeners who provide a reception report of hearing us, can claim a special QSL card to confirm the contact - On receipt of a donation of course!
For more details of the walk itself, look here - http://www.lykewake.org/route.php
So, who are we? -
Martin G7MRV. Ex- KOYY(LI) reservist, Senior Network Operator for Digital Television with Arqiva. Hillwalker, Radio Ham, Astronomer, general jack of all trades. SOTA activator.
Bob M1BBV. Ex-7RHA. Hostel manager for the YMCA. Fitness freak, Bouncer, Boxer,
new SOTA activator
The photos above were taken on a recent training walk on Kinder Scout. Im carrying an ex-military RT-320 HF manpack weighing in at 12kg, which Bob used to activate the summit for SOTA.
Myself and Bob grew up on the same street, getting into many scrapes and situations we shouldnt have! A common comment from between us after an expedition is "well, we didnt die again!". Bob spent so much time hanging around with me that he calls my mother his second mum!
Our target for this walk is £500, but we would love to go further!
My employer has agreed to match whatever we raise, up to our target. So if we hit the mark, Arqiva will add another £500 to the total! So lets make sure we get there!
Along with long distance training walks and SOTA activations, myself and Bob are putting in lots of extra walking and running training for this. A positive advantage of which is for me losing the belly ive acquired over the last 10years working in a control room!
Much more to follow, including photos from training walks, and details of the preparations for the radio operation
oh, and the link again! - https://www.justgiving.com/MB-LykeWake2015/
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