Tuesday 27 January 2015

GW/SW-013 -Tor y Foel



 A flurry of alerts...

GW/SW-013 -Tor y Foel - 27/01/2015
 
Having done MW-001 the previous day and looking at the weather forecast for the following  day I immediately alerted that I would be out on Tor y Foel near Talybont on Usk. This caused a flurry of  alerts for South Wales and beyond so it would be a good morning for s2s. As usual we all reached our summits close to our alerted time and quickly qualified the summits. I had taken my Kenwood TH-F7 handheld to give Viki her 70cms contact without having to resort to plugging my FT817 into the 2m dipole which works equally well on UHF and it was 5/9 each way.
10:21z
MW6BWA/P
144MHz
FM
Viki s2s
10:22z
GW6OVD/P
144MHz
FM
Mal s2s
10:26z
MW6BWA/P
433MHz
FM
Viki s2s
10:28z
G4ERP/P
144MHz
FM
Richard s2s

Towards Waun Rydd..from parking spot
A call of ‘Is this frequency in use’ on 7.118 brought an immediate response from Rod MW0JLA/p on Sugar Loaf and another s2s.  Now I hadn’t spotted myself so I called ’QRZ’ and was answered by ON5SWA who spotted me on Sotawatch – thanks Francois.  Barry M0IML/p soon appeared with another s2s and then I settled down to steady flow of regular chasers.
10:32z
MW0JLA/P
7MHz
SSB
Rod s2s
10:33z
ON5SWA
7MHz
SSB
Francois
10:34z
G4ZRP
7MHz
SSB
Brian
10:35z
G0HRT
7MHz
SSB
Rob
10:36z
M0IML/P
7MHz
SSB
Barry s2s
10:37z
G8MIA
7MHz
SSB
Andy
10:37z
G0TRB
7MHz
SSB
Roger
10:38z
G0TDM
7MHz
SSB
John
10:38z
2W0XOT
7MHz
SSB
John
10:39z
G8TMV
7MHz
SSB
Colin
10:40z
G3XQE
7MHz
SSB
Ken
10:41z
MW0KCB/P
7MHz
SSB
HNW061
10:41z
G0RQL
7MHz
SSB
Don
10:42z
G0VWP
7MHz
SSB
Terry
10:42z
M0NTC
7MHz
SSB
Gez
10:43z
M3FEH
7MHz
SSB
Karl
10:44z
G4OBK
7MHz
SSB
Phil
10:44z
M0KRP
7MHz
SSB
Rod
10:46z
GW6DGU
7MHz
SSB
Roy
10:47z
GM0AXY
7MHz
SSB
Ken
10:48z
MW6GWR
7MHz
SSB
Ricky
10:48z
EA2CKX
7MHz
SSB
Pedro
10:49z
GM4YMM
7MHz
SSB
Christine

After a brief QSO with Christine GM4YMM another batch of regulars rolled in and quite a few more European stations appeared. It was nice to get a contact with Sue G1OHH in Lancaster who was looking forward to Barry M0IML and myself visiting the summits in LD once again this year.  Mike G6TUH was late on band today as he had only just arrived back from taking  Bertie the greyhound for a walk :)

10:50z
G6TUH
7MHz
SSB
Mike
10:51z
G1OHH
7MHz
SSB
Sue
10:53z
2E0TVX
7MHz
SSB
Ray
10:54z
G6LKB
7MHz
SSB
David
10:56z
M0VFR
7MHz
SSB
Steve
10:56z
DL2EF
7MHz
SSB
Franz Josef
10:57z
ON4FI
7MHz
SSB
Karel
10:58z
G8VNW
7MHz
SSB
Nick
10:58z
GB2LBL
7MHz
SSB
Bob
10:59z
PA0B
7MHz
SSB
Rob
10:59z
DF5WA
7MHz
SSB
Berthold
11:00z
EA1CVZ
7MHz
SSB
Mike?
11:01z
G4FGJ
7MHz
SSB
Gordon
11:01z
2I0DJM
7MHz
SSB
Joe
11:02z
PE4A
7MHz
SSB
Peter
11:03z
DL8MLD
7MHz
SSB
Lutz
11:04z
G6ODU
7MHz
SSB
Bob
11:04z
GW8VUG
7MHz
SSB
Ian
11:05z
MW0BYS
7MHz
SSB
Bill
I ended my visit to 40m with a nice long chat with Bill MW0BYS who is back on the bands after having his antennas blown down in the recent gales that hit the coastal regions of Pembrokeshire.
11:17z
ON/PA0DLN/P
7MHz
SSB
Hans s2s
11:18z
ON/PA0SKP/P
7MHz
SSB
Sake s2s
GW4VPX/p and 'office'...out of the wind
Looking towards Waun Rydd
When I took my headphones off and looked behind me there were several onlookers so I took the next few minutes doing the usual SOTA presentation :) I was packing up and began to lower the pole when RRT burst into life so I could not resist a quick look to see who was on summit. With a quick s2s call and the help of a few chasers (thanks – you know who you are) Hans and Sake were quickly in the log with quite a few valuable s2s points to end the activation - thanks everybody.
Lord Hereford's Knob in the distance
I had implied in my alert that I would move on to another summit but it was getting late and it involved a long drive which would mean that I would not be in place on time for the rest of the ‘gang’.  I caught Mal on Fan Gyhirych on the way home thus helping to qualify the summit fairly quickly –nothing heard from Viki or Rod
The damaged monument
 On the A40 between Brecon and Llandovery there is a monument in a lay-by. I had threatened over countless years to stop and take a quick look – today was the day. Now this Pillar/Monument is to commemorate an accident involving a Mail coach (pulled by horses) which plunged to the ravine below.  The pillar has lost the top half of its column.  I’ve copied below part of what is written on the memorial.
‘This pillar is called Mail Coach pillar and erected as a caution to Mail Coach drivers to keep from intoxication and in memory of the Gloucester to Carmarthen Mail coach which was driven by Edward Jenkins on the 19 day December  in the year 1835 who was intoxicated at the time. Drove the Mail on the wrong side of the road and going at full speed or gallop met a cart. Permitted the leader to turn short round to the right hand. Went down over the precipice 121 feet where at the bottom near the river it came against an Ash tree when the coach was dashed into several pieces ‘

Thanks everybody for the contacts. Weather looks grim for the next few days so no SOTA for a while.

73 Allan GW4VPX

Monday 26 January 2015

GW/MW-001 - Plynlimon-Pen Pumlumon Fawr




£5 Parking fee

GW/MW-001 - Plynlimon-Pen Pumlumon Fawr

26/01/2015

Having pulled my alert for Tor y Foel a few days previously due to the weather I grabbed the opportunity to activate the highest summit in Mid-Wales as the forcast  looked really promising.
The mining track 
I duly paid my £5 parking fee at Eisteddfa Gurig and made my way via the old mining track towards the summit. Moving into the mist and off the track I passed numerous remnants of snow on the way up but what struck me was the force of the wind so I was happy with the protection of the very large cairn next to the trig point.
Snow on the path
I left two bottom sections of the fishing pole in the main tube due to the wind so the Band Hopper 2 dipole was quite low - it would be interesting to see how it would perform. Operating from within the cairn means that often the mobile phone signal is a bit iffy so I decided to give a call out on 7.118 and not use RRT.
The trig and cairn
Mike G6TUH and Barry M0IML had been waiting for me on the frequency so I was up and running immediately with excellent signal reports each way - thanks both.  Indeed, most signal reports were exceptionally good and the antenna was thankfully staying up despite the strong gusts of wind.

10:53z
G6TUH
7MHz
SSB
Mike
10:53z
M0IML
7MHz
SSB
Barry
10:54z
G1PIE
7MHz
SSB
Mark
10:55z
G6WRW
7MHz
SSB
Carolyn
10:55z
G0VWP
7MHz
SSB
Terry
10:56z
G4OBK
7MHz
SSB
Phil
10:56z
ON5SWA
7MHz
SSB
Francois
10:57z
MW0BYS
7MHz
SSB
Bill
10:57z
M0JLA
7MHz
SSB
Rod
10:58z
G8VNW
7MHz
SSB
Nick
10:58z
G6ODU
7MHz
SSB
Bob
10:59z
G4ASA
7MHz
SSB
Dave
11:00z
G0EVV/P
7MHz
SSB
David s2s
11:01z
G0TRB
7MHz
SSB
Roger
11:01z
M0NTC
7MHz
SSB
Gez
11:02z
GM4COX
7MHz
SSB
Jack
11:04z
EB2CZF
7MHz
SSB
Jose
11:04z
M3FEH
7MHz
SSB
Karl
11:05z
2W0XOT
7MHz
SSB
John
11:06z
G0RQL
7MHz
SSB
Don
11:07z
EA2CKX
7MHz
SSB
Pedro
11:08z
G4DDL
7MHz
SSB
Mike
11:09z
MW0YCC
7MHz
SSB
Alan
11:09z
M0BKV
7MHz
SSB
Damian
11:10z
2E0WDS
7MHz
SSB
Wayne
11:11z
M0TTE
7MHz
SSB
Simon
11:11z
GM4WHA
7MHz
SSB
Geoff

27 chasers made it into my log including a nice 'catch up' chat with Jack GM4COX and an s2s with David G0EVV/p on G/LD-021- Illgill Head thanks David.
Now this summit has a trig (WAB -TP5480 Plynlimon) so after the regular SOTA chasers dried up I called into the WAB net on 7.160. With Ken G0FEX as net controller I quickly ran down the list with 10 contacts in 8 minutes - job done - thanks once again :)

11:16z
G0FEX
7MHz
SSB
Ken
11:17z
M0HEM
7MHz
SSB
John
11:17z
G7AFM
7MHz
SSB
Phil
11:18z
G0GWY
7MHz
SSB
Geoff
11:19z
G6LKB
7MHz
SSB
David
11:19z
M0GDJ
7MHz
SSB
Brian
11:20z
MM3PDM/M
7MHz
SSB
Peter
11:20z
G4GHT
7MHz
SSB
Mike
11:21z
G4JJS
7MHz
SSB
Simon
11:22z
2E0GBK
7MHz
SSB
John
A quick call on 2m produced only one reply but after I had packed everything away and was ready to leave the summit Neil MW0ECX/p came booming in on the FT270 with an s2s from GW/SW-003 Fan Brycheiniog. A perfect end to the activation - thanks Neil.
11:35z
GW4XXF
144MHz
FM
Bruce
11:48z
MW0ECX/P
144MHz
FM
Neil s2s

Once again thanks for all the contacts - looking forward to the next one :)

73 Allan GW4VPX