Radio Tales from West Wales and beyond...: Yr Aran GW/NW-019

Our last today

Yr Aran GW/NW-019

27/09/2015

Another glorious day as we left Ty Mawr B&B and headed up the Rhyd Ddu track towards Yr Aran.

My GPS track

Looking back towards Llyn Cwellyn and Rhyd Ddu

Looking back...The Nantlle ridge, Rhyd Ddu and Mynydd Mawr

A long way from Rhyd Ddu now

Yr Aran under the glare of the sun..cracking day :)

The Rhyd Ddu path to Snowdon eventually turned off to the left leaving us to follow a miners track towards our summit with plenty of photo opportunities and remains of the long gone slate mining industry.

Remains of the slate mining industry with the Nantlle Ridge as a backdrop

Now Barry M0IML had told me that to avoid the difficult rocky climb alongside the wall at SH60515208 I would need to cut across between the two lakes at the first ladder stile SH60165214... worked for us....thanks Barry.

The ladder stile with Yr Aran behind

It’s a stiff old climb to the top of the summit but following the wall and the well trodden path makes it an easy task :)

Snowdon and Y Lliwedd taken on our way up

Nearly there Val

Everybody had told me about the iron post on the summit and I duly made use of it for my pole using my really light weight bungees - I always carry a pair of these with two lengths of thin nylon cord so that they can be attached to a trig point as well.

Setting up on the post.....now where do these bits go?

The post...with Moel Siabod in the distance

I was straight in with an s2s with Gordon on GW/MW-023 Carneddau ...thanks Gordon. I then gave a call on 145.500 getting Bob, Sean and John through some unknown interference. However, David on GW/NW/040 Tal y Fan came booming in and another s2s was in the bag.... David and I had some very successful s2s contacts over the three days...Diolch Dai.

11:10z	GW0EWN/P	144MHz	FM	Gordon s2s
11:13z	MW0RHD	144MHz	FM	Bob
11:14z	MW3PZO	144MHz	FM	Sean
11:15z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John
11:16z	MW0YDH/P	144MHz	FM	David s2s

GW4VPX/p on HF with Snowdon behind

Another self-spot and 60m worked reasonably well with regular chaser/activators calling in to get the summit and for a brief chat....a wonderful 10 minutes.

11:20z	G7BGA	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
11:21z	G4ZRP	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:22z	EI9GLB	5MHz	SSB	Jim
11:23z	MW0YDH/P	5MHz	SSB	David s2s diff band
11:25z	GW6DGU	5MHz	SSB	Roy
11:26z	G0TDM	5MHz	SSB	John
11:28z	GW2HFR	5MHz	SSB	Jonathan
11:30z	G4RQJ/P	5MHz	SSB	Rob s2s

Towards Cardigan Bay

I sent a self-spot via RRT and had a nice run of regular chasers on 40m but had a feeling that some were missing and as the band was once again open I thought that something was amiss. I gave several ‘final calls’ at 11:43 then a text to Barry M0IML asking why had he not called me? Various polite expletives came back....I replied with a frequency and he was there with a promise of another spot which resulted in another run of regulars including an s2s with Rob RQJ/p (and Audrey) on G/LD-040 Lingmoor Fell...thanks everybody.

11:37z	G4AFI	7MHz	SSB	Andrew
11:38z	G4TQE	7MHz	SSB	John
11:38z	M0MDA	7MHz	SSB	Mick
11:39z	G0HRT	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:39z	PA7ZEE	7MHz	SSB	Geert
11:40z	G4OOE	7MHz	SSB	Nick
11:40z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
11:41z	EB2CZF	7MHz	SSB	Jose
11:41z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:41z	G4TJC	7MHz	SSB	Simon
11:42z	G0TRB	7MHz	SSB	Roger
11:42z	G4APO	7MHz	SSB	Roger
11:52z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
11:56z	M0JLA	7MHz	SSB	Rod
11:57z	GM4WHA	7MHz	SSB	Geoff
11:58z	G3RDQ	7MHz	SSB	David
11:59z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
12:00z	G4ZRP	7MHz	SSB	Brian
12:03z	G0TDM	7MHz	SSB	John
12:03z	G3TQQ	7MHz	SSB	David
12:04z	M0IBC	7MHz	SSB	David

I gave a call for Gerald MW0WML/p to see if he and Sue had arrived on Ynys Enlli but nothing heard...so a quick chat with John ZPL/p then a text to Gerald to see what his ETA on summit would be...he replied so with a relaxing few minutes to spare I picked up an s2s with Colwyn on GM/WS-230 Meall a'Chrathaich then changed the links ready for 20m...thanks Colwyn.

Snowdon and Y Lliwedd from summit

With Gerald calling from GW/NW-072 Mynydd Enlli on 2m I immediately replied and being first in his log we had a brief chat especially about his wet journey across to the island :) ..... I left him to his pile-up and moved on to 20m...thanks Gerald and Sue. I had a good run on 20m including Matthew KA1R once again and Robert AC1Z. A surprise call from Stephan F/DD6DO/p on F/PE-125 Montagne de la Frau brought another s2s to my log...thanks Stephan. It was a short lived visit to 20m as there were no more replies to my calls...thanks for the contacts everybody.

12:15z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John
12:31z	MM0YCJ/P	7MHz	SSB	Colwyn s2s
12:37z	MW0WML/P	144MHz	FM	Gerald s2s
12:43z	OK1SDE	14MHz	SSB	Borek
12:45z	F4FWO	14MHz	SSB
12:47z	OM1AX	14MHz	SSB	Vlado
12:48z	OE6GND	14MHz	SSB	Gerhard
12:48z	EA2DT	14MHz	SSB	Manuel
12:49z	OE8SPW	14MHz	SSB	Paul
12:50z	HB9MKV	14MHz	SSB	Rudi
12:51z	F/DD6DO/P	14MHz	SSB	Stephan s2s
12:51z	OE7FMH	14MHz	SSB	Franz
12:52z	KA1R	14MHz	SSB	Matthew, MA USA
12:52z	OE7WGT	14MHz	SSB	Karl
12:53z	SA5ATV	14MHz	SSB	Jan
12:54z	AC1Z	14MHz	SSB	Robert NH USA
12:55z	OH6KSX	14MHz	SSB

Nantlle ridge from summit

I decided to move back on to 2m to end my visit to the summit as I felt that maybe I missed a few chasers earlier on. This resulted in 5 contacts ending with a surprised Roy from Cardigan noting the clarity of my audio and signal strength:) One of the Irish stations asked me why I moved so far away from the calling frequency to 145.300..my answer....when you are on the top of a mountain the frequencies around 145.500 are usually busy hence the big frequency shift...works most of the time :)

13:02z	EI9ED	144MHz	FM	Ronald
13:03z	EI4CI	144MHz	FM
13:05z	GD3ZZN	144MHz	FM	Martyn
13:07z	MI0YCK	144MHz	FM	Declan
13:08z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy

A quick look back at Yr Aran on our way back

My activation set up:- (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo), 4 band link dipole (60/40/20+15m), (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and spots.

Retiring to the Cwellyn Arms for an evening meal we made a decision that we would call back in Beddgelert on the way home in the morning as we both wanted to see Gelert’s Grave...interesting piece of folklore http://www.beddgelerttourism.com/gelert/ ...really enjoyed the visit.