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