GW/SW-011 (Sugar Loaf)

 Poor band conditions today!

GW/SW-011 (Sugar Loaf)

07/May/2015

A nice day had been forecast with a chance of the occasional shower of rain. Having talked about activating  Fan Brycheiniog  I decided that Sugar Loaf would be a better option today as I would also pick up 2 points for my efforts.   

Sugar Loaf - Pen y Fal

It was a group outing today with my XYL Val, Len and Gwyneth visiting this summit for the first time. The showers kept away and we had good views of Pen y Fan, Cribyn and the nearby Ysgyryd Fawr (SW-016 ) as we made our way to the summit.  

Ysgyryd Fawr GW/SW-016 distant..left 

On my way up I had been monitoring  the WAB Yahoo group site and reports were coming in that the bands were not in good shape. Setting up on the NE side of the summit which gave considerable protection from the cold wind I listened and scanned  on 40m which resulted in an s2s with Hans on DM/NW-195 Kompass....thank you Hans for hearing me amongst the chasers (5/5 each way).

 GW4VPX/p - scanning the 40m band

I moved up to 7.125 and sent a spot via RRT resulting in Peter MM3PDM/M coming back to me immediately for a trig 2 trig and 5/5 each way....thanks Peter .

10:51z	DL/PA3FYG/P	7MHz	SSB	Hans s2s
10:56z	MM3PDM/M	7MHz	SSB	Peter t2t TP3877
11:00z	EI2KD	7MHz	SSB	Rodney
11:02z	PA0B	7MHz	SSB	Rob
11:02z	G0VWP	7MHz	SSB	Terry
11:03z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
11:04z	M0JLA	7MHz	SSB	Rod

It was hard going with only another 5 regular chasers making the log then silence despite repeated calls. I moved up to the WAB net but could not hear anybody apart from Papa Delta Mike so a change of links and I was soon calling on 60m. 

 

 A busy Summit - interested people looking and listening :)

Brian G4ZRP came up almost immediately then 5 more with reports that they could not hear me on 40m but could hear others working me. Bill G4WSB never made it into the log as he called and disappeared and despite repeated calls on my behalf he never replied ..such were the conditions  

11:20z	G4ZRP	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:23z	GM7KFS	5MHz	SSB
11:24z	G4JZF	5MHz	SSB	Graham
11:27z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
11:31z	G3ZPS	5MHz	SSB	Steve
11:35z	G4ISJ	5MHz	SSB	Pete

With no more callers after Pete G4ISJ I checked to see if the others were nice and warm saying that I would give a call on 2m then pull the plug. I gave a call out on the Yaesu FT270 which resulted in two replies so thank you both.

11:37z	G7ADZ	144MHz	FM	Mark
11:39z	GW0JTU	144MHz	FM	Alan

Trig pic

As we made our way down and well out of the activation zone Caroline MW3ZCB/p came up on 2m with a ‘CQ SOTA’ call from Garth Hill GW/SW-034 so a quick reply and she was in my chaser log...if only :)

 Heading back down to the Car Park

Thanks for the contacts everybody and despite poor conditions I was happy with 15 hard earned contacts in the log including that s2s...let’s hope things improve soon....finally, thanks Len for all those extra pic:).

73 Allan GW4VPX