GW/SW-003 - Fan Brycheiniog

No selfies today!

GW/SW-003 - Fan Brycheiniog

17/02/2013

The sun was shining when I headed for the summit of Fan Brycheiniog which was shrouded by a long bank of cloud. I had parked off the road as usual at SN856223 which can accommodate 5 or more cars and made my way WSW, skirting the South end of Llyn y Fan Fawr picking up the steep track that leads up to the summit.  Mal GW6OVD  had told me there was some snow on the track but the numerous deep foot holds made it a reasonably safe ascent. 

 No sign of the summit

By the time I’d reached the summit the cloud bank had gone but the extremely cold breeze made me set up the station in the cairn.  

Good foot holds

I was early on summit so I decided to call on 60m although I had only alerted for 40m so with a self spot I was up and running.

11:16z	G8TMV	5MHz	SSB	Colin
11:17z	G8MIA	5MHz	SSB	Andy
11:17z	G6ODU	5MHz	SSB	Bob
11:18z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:19z	G4IHT	5MHz	SSB	Robert
11:19z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:20z	G4WSB	5MHz	SSB	Bill
11:21z	G4RMD	5MHz	SSB	Frank

A ‘heads up for 7.118’ from Bill  G4WSB enabled me to get my first S2S with Terry G0VWP/p on G/LD-040 and great to hear the voice of Heather M6UXH working 2m in the background.

11:32z

G0VWP/P

7MHz

SSB

Terry s2s

A ‘7.121 QSY’ announcement and a spot from Bill I was quickly working an orderly pile up once more – thanks Bill. The summit was busy now and I waved to a number of walkers making their way to the trig.

11:34z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
11:35z	G8VNW	7MHz	SSB	Nick
11:37z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
11:37z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
11:38z	M0IBC	7MHz	SSB	David
11:38z	ON6ZQ	7MHz	SSB	Christophe
11:39z	DL8DXL	7MHz	SSB	Fred
11:40z	ON4FI	7MHz	SSB	Karel
11:40z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
11:40z	G4OBK	7MHz	SSB	Phil
11:41z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
11:41z	EI9GLB	7MHz	SSB	Jim
11:41z	G4GEW	7MHz	SSB	Peter
11:42z	ON1HQK/M	7MHz	SSB
11:42z	EA1HMT	7MHz	SSB	Ignacio
11:43z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	Michael
11:43z	EA1IPN	7MHz	SSB	Paco
11:44z	M3ZKT	7MHz	SSB	Marie
11:44z	DL4KCA	7MHz	SSB	Joe
11:45z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:45z	PA0B	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:46z	DK7ZH	7MHz	SSB	Manfred
11:46z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
11:47z	2E0BLL	7MHz	SSB	Mike

Despite several requests for a repeat of ‘sent signal report’ it was not forthcoming from one chaser.  There was another third party involved in giving ‘overs’ so I’m afraid I have not logged a contact for the DL chaser and made a comment to that effect on air. I will do my utmost to make sure a chaser gets the summit but there are limits...

 Llyn y Fan Fawr

I was aware towards the end of the pile up that there was some activity on 2m so as soon as the chasers dried up I had a quick scan down the 2m frequencies and found Viki  MW6BWA/p on GW/SW-009 Mynydd Troed. We exchanged 5/9 ‘both ways’ signal reports on both 2m and 70cms. If you hear Viki on 2m and you have the facility for 70cms then please give her a call on this band also – she’s working towards something? :) I now carry my Kenwood TH7 so that I can give Viki the contact.

11:50z	MW6BWA/P	144MHz	FM	Viki s2s
11:52z	MW6BWA/P	433MHz	FM	Viki s2s
11:55z	MW0JLA/P	5MHz	SSB	Rod s2s

Finishing with Viki I very soon had Rod in the log as RRT informed me that he was on 60m and calling from  GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse – job done and thanks both.

Inside the cairn

A quick call into the WAB ‘net’ to give them the square and the trig resulted in a quick run down the list and a Trig to Trig with Damian M0BKV. Thanks everybody.

11:58z	G7AFM	7MHz	SSB	Phil
11:58z	G4JZF	7MHz	SSB	Graham
11:59z	SM6CNX	7MHz	SSB	Dan
11:59z	DL7UCW	7MHz	SSB	Ben
11:59z	G4HPE	7MHz	SSB	Steve
12:00z	G0FEX	7MHz	SSB	Ken
12:00z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
12:00z	G0FVH	7MHz	SSB	David
12:01z	G7BGA	7MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
12:01z	G0GWY	7MHz	SSB	Geoff
12:01z	G4EST	7MHz	SSB	Charlie
12:02z	G6LKB	7MHz	SSB	David
12:02z	G1PIE	7MHz	SSB	Mark
12:03z	G4ZRP	7MHz	SSB	Brian
12:04z	M0GDJ	7MHz	SSB	Brian
12:04z	G3TPP	7MHz	SSB
12:05z	MM3PDM/M	7MHz	SSB	Peter
12:06z	M1TES/M	7MHz	SSB	James
12:06z	G4JJS	7MHz	SSB	Simon
12:08z	M0BKV/	7MHz	SSB	Damian t2t TP5263

I hadn’t brought my 2m dipole today as I was trying to save weight also knowing that Rod and Viki would be strong signals on just the Hand Held. Now I knew Pete G4ISJ/p would be out today on Black Mountain but he does not normally venture on to 2m. Today was my lucky day and we made the contact with 5/9 each way. With Black Mountain you can activate from one side of the path and be in G land and if you operate on the other side you are in GW. Pete obliged by crossing the path into GW for our s2s  – thanks Pete and looking forward to the next one.

12:20z	GW4ISJ/P	144MHz	FM	Peter s2s
12:30z	MW0PJJ/A	144MHz	FM	Phil

I packed up and gave a final call on 2m so it was nice to hear Phil MW0PJJ/A come back to me for a brief QSO. He was supposed to activate this summit last week with Mal and Andy but was not feeling too well.  All kitted up and ready to leave a couple of walkers came by so I asked one them to take a pic of me at the Trig – bit of a change from my ‘selfies’ :)

I arrived back at the car at about  14:30 and heard Viki calling from her second summit  GW/SW-015 Mynydd Llangorse. With 5/5 each way on 2m then a quick rummage in the rucksack I got the TH7 and we exchanged similar reports on 70cms – she was delighted.

 PyF and Corn Du

Thanks everybody for the contacts but it looks as if the weather is taking a turn for the worse over the next few days but as soon as it improves I have a couple of 8 pointers up my sleeve again.

73 Allan GW4VPX