Saturday, 7 March 2015

GW/SW-008 - Cefn yr Ystrad




Slightly warmer than of late...

GW/SW-008 - Cefn yr Ystrad



07/03/2015

Well it finally looks as if Spring has finally sprung down here in West and South Wales. I'll put it another way... the temperature has gone up and the sun is shining as I type this report. 
Pontsticill Reservoir
I parked the car below the reservoir at Pontsticill and made my way up passing under the bridge which carries the Brecon Mountain railway. Now the approach to this summit is quite varied as you hit the moorland. This time I made my way along the track towards the Inscribed stone then took to the high ground hitting the faint track which leads along the ridge over-looking the quarry and to the East of it.  I then took another faint trail which enables you to approach the trig from the North and avoiding all the sink holes of which there are many..........!
Out of the wind
There was a strong wind on the summit but it was slightly warmer than of late but nevertheless I dropped down into a dip slightly below the Trig to be comfortable.  RRT just would not work for me today and my first self-spot disappeared somewhere.  I opened up on 5.398.5 Mhz and called for quite a while until Don G4OWQ took pity on me and answered my calls. It was not until Brian G4ZRP responded that I felt that things were going my way nevertheless only 5 contacts and then with no more callers I announced I was going onto 40m.
11:56z
G4OWQ
5MHz
SSB
Don (GW)?
12:03z
G8JUT
5MHz
SSB
Steve
12:07z
M0HRT
5MHz
SSB
Rob
12:10z
G4ZRP
5MHz
SSB
Brian
12:13z
G6JVX
5MHz
SSB
Bert
The cairns and Trig
 Slow start on 7.118 Mhz again but then Dave G4SQA called in beginning a run of WAB Trig and Square chasers calling in. Suddenly it was evident that a spot placed by G4ZRP (thanks Brian) had also kicked in and I soon had a steady run of regular SOTA chasers in the pile-up including a Trig to Trig with Steve G1INK/p thanks Steve.

12:15z
G4SQA
7MHz
SSB
Dave
12:15z
G0FEX
7MHz
SSB
Ken
12:15z
G0BFJ
7MHz
SSB
Brian
12:16z
G4STP
7MHz
SSB
Tony
12:17z
2W0XOT
7MHz
SSB
John
12:18z
SM6CNX
7MHz
SSB
Dan
12:19z
MW3UDA
7MHz
SSB
Gareth
12:20z
ON6ZQ
7MHz
SSB
Christophe
12:20z
G6TUH
7MHz
SSB
Mike
12:21z
M0IML
7MHz
SSB
Barry
12:21z
GM4WHA
7MHz
SSB
Geoff
12:22z
MM3PDM/M
7MHz
SSB
Peter
12:22z
GM0FGI
7MHz
SSB
Tom
12:22z
G6LKB
7MHz
SSB
David
12:23z
DL2EF
7MHz
SSB
Franz Josef
12:23z
G0RQL
7MHz
SSB
Don
12:23z
MW0URC
7MHz
SSB
Glenn
12:24z
ON4VT
7MHz
SSB
Danny
12:25z
G1INK/P
7MHz
SSB
Steve t2t TP0713
12:25z
EI2KJ
7MHz
SSB
Adrian
12:25z
DL3JPN
7MHz
SSB
Steffen
12:26z
PA0B
7MHz
SSB
Rob
12:26z
M3FEH
7MHz
SSB
Karl
12:27z
EB2CZF
7MHz
SSB
Jose
12:27z
G4JZF
7MHz
SSB
Graham
12:28z
F2YT
7MHz
SSB
Paul-Joel
12:28z
G8VNW
7MHz
SSB
Nick
12:29z
G4GEW
7MHz
SSB
Peter
12:29z
DL3HXX
7MHz
SSB
Lothar
12:30z
G4AZS
7MHz
SSB
Adrian
12:30z
M0JLA
7MHz
SSB
Rod
12:31z
G3SZG
7MHz
SSB
John
12:32z
M0MDA
7MHz
SSB
Mick
With a few 'final calls'  and no response I had a quick listen on 20m but this was full of contest stations. My attention turned to 2m as I thought I heard Bill G4WSB/p calling...my QRZ brought a response from Mal GW6OVD/m on his way to GW/MW-010 Gwaunceste Hill..... a brief and fluttery QSO and an apology from me that I would be homeward bound when he reached his summit :(

12:43z
GW6OVD/M
144MHz
FM
Mal
Many layers even in the sun :)
I was disappointed that I missed a few s2s today, one of the main reasons was that RRT was not behaving and that I had not brought the 2m dipole to the summit relying on the handheld for contacts. Jonathan GW2HFR/p had left two messages on the spots for me so that added to my disappointment when I eventually scanned the spots on Sotawatch when I arrived home.

Although a large number of WAB chasers had called in earlier I decided to give a call into the 'net' on the off chance that some had missed my square and Trig. As usual I was run down the list quite quickly which included a 'heads up' that Wayne 2E0WDS/p was on G/SE-006 .......... thanks for that one.
12:49z
G0FVH
7MHz
SSB
David
12:50z
G7AFM
7MHz
SSB
Phil
12:51z
GM0VWZ
7MHz
SSB
Sam
12:51z
G4NUJ
7MHz
SSB
Ken
12:52z
M0HEM
7MHz
SSB
John
12:52z
G4PDF
7MHz
SSB
Bob
12:53z
G7BGA
7MHz
SSB
Geoffrey
12:53z
G1PIE
7MHz
SSB
Mark
12:54z
M0YMA/M
7MHz
SSB
Andrew
12:55z
G3OKA
7MHz
SSB
John
12:56z
G4EST
7MHz
SSB
Charlie
12:56z
2E0HPI/P
7MHz
SSB
Carl NZ29
12:59z
2E0WDS
7MHz
SSB
Wayne s2s

On my way back I decided to leave the track at the end of the quarry and found a steep but easy descent down on to the other track which leads past the 'Inscribed Stone' . This might be my route up the next time but that will have to wait until 2016.......

 Thanks everyone for all the contacts and I hope to be out with Mal GW6OVD on Tuesday for a couple of summits making the most of the final few days of the Winter bonus.

73 de Allan GW4VPX

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