GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

The calm after Storm Doris

GW/MW-004 Pen y Garn

24/02/2017

With John MW0XOT/p heading out for the two summits above Nant y Moch reservoir I just had to get out and get a few summit to summits with him...turned out to be a better day than expected. 

On our way up

Setting up

Val and I were talking on the way up that we had not heard John TQE/p on the summits lately and it was ironic that he was the first in my log today as I heard him calling from Pegwn Mawr…thanks John..nice surprise s2s.

10:18z	GW4TQE/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s
10:22z	EI9GLB	144MHz	FM	Jim

Before venturing onto HF I gave Val a compass bearing so that she could go and  find her Geocache that we failed to find the last time due to the ice and snow…it was soon in her log :)  

Setting up a spot...good phone signal today

Well,  80m turned out to be a difficult band today with S8 of woodpecker noise (OTHR?) across the band and a whooshing noise.  I know I was near to one of the wind turbines which didn’t sound too healthy but  with chasers reporting high noise levels I put it down to the solar activity that we have had over the last few days…odd nobody else was hearing the woodpecker?  Nevertheless, good signal reports for those that made my log.

10:33z	G7BGA	3.5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
10:33z	G0FEX	3.5MHz	SSB	Ken
10:34z	G7AFM	3.5MHz	SSB	Phil
10:35z	G0VWP	3.5MHz	SSB	Terry
10:36z	G0RQL	3.5MHz	SSB	Don

60m had the same problem but to a lesser degree but I did mange a good few contacts.  Val had brought along an old plastic encapsulated fridge thermometer  which gave us an approximate reading of  4 degrees C in the cairn..it’ll be interesting to see what the temperatures  are on future activations…now to get a wind speed meter…..

Fridge thermometer

10:47z	G4FGJ	5MHz	SSB	Gordon
10:48z	G0VWP	5MHz	SSB	Terry
10:49z	G4IAR	5MHz	SSB	Dave
10:49z	G0GWY	5MHz	SSB	Geoff
10:49z	MORLC	5MHz	SSB	Roger
10:51z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:56z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
10:57z	G4OBK	5MHz	SSB	Phil
10:57z	G8VNW	5MHz	SSB	Nick
10:57z	G3OQD	5MHz	SSB	Martin

Shortly after I had finished on 60m up pops Adrian on Black Mountain GW/SW-041 for an s2s followed immediately by Rod JLA from Hereford City…thanks both.   

Waiting for John XOT/p...nice cup of coffee

We decided to have a cup of coffee and wait for John XOT/p who was attempting a new approach to the Nant y Moch two. We didn’t have to wait too long as he was soon calling from Drosgol GW/MW-008…thanks John.  I saw that Adrian had moved on to 60m and as HF was still up and running I gave him a call for an s2s on a different band and the last contact on Pen y Garn.

11:01z	GW4AZS/P	144MHz	FM	Adrian s2s
11:03z	M0JLA	144MHz	FM	Rod
11:19z	MW0XOT/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s
11:21z	GW6DGU	144MHz	FM	Roy
11:22z	GW4TQD	144MHz	FM	John
11:27z	GW4AZS/P	5MHz	SSB	Adrian s2s diff band

It was time for us to move as we had to get to Disgwylfa Fawr and hopefully another few s2s in the log.

Pen y Garn...see you next year...

My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  UK-MX 50M linear (for 817) and (4Ah LiPo),  3 band link dipole (60/40/20 (+15m extensions +80m loading coils),  (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts

73 Allan GW4VPX