GW/MW-021 (Crugiau Merched)

Chasing s2s with MW0IML

GW/MW-021 (Crugiau Merched)

15/Jun/2015

With Barry M0IML on his last summit of his visit to South Wales I decided to activate Crugiau Merched GW/MW-021 and get an s2s with him.  

GW/MW-021 (Crugiau Merched)-  My GPS track

I had my wife Val as company today and after parking the car at the lay-by at SN729464 we made our way down to the chapel of Bwlch y Rhiw, through a gate below the cottage and then another leading towards the summit. 

Walk down the small lane on the other side of white line

Bwlch y Rhiw

The gate below the cottage-not a PRoW!

 We enjoyed the rather stiff climb up the zig-zag path onto Creigiau Ladis which leads onto the plateau and eventually Crugiau Merched, a total distance of 1.61Km.  On our way up a couple of Red Kites came to investigate but despite taking a large number of pics with the camera only one was suitable for the blog.....I have great difficulties using the 3” LCD viewing window against a bright blue sky on full zoom...you can never beat a good old TTL view finder (Through The Lens.)

Red Kite

A look at RRT and I could see that Barry was already on summit (GW/SW-011 Sugar Loaf) so I quickly erected the linked dipole on the cairn next to the trig (TP2659) making full use of the mound of stones for protection against the wind.

Val, Antenna and Trig (TP2659)

The s2s on 40m was over all too quickly and wishing Barry a safe journey back to Kent I notified the chasers that I would QSY lower only to be told by Barry that Mike G6TUH had found me a frequency...thanks Mike.  I was immediately into a very large pile-up and it was obvious that I would not have to visit the WAB net either as familiar call-signs were very evident in the melee....great stuff :)

09:19z	MW0IML/P	7MHz	SSB	Barry s2s + TP6243
09:24z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
09:25z	G4OBK	7MHz	SSB	Phil
09:25z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
09:26z	M6KVJ	7MHz	SSB	David
09:26z	G4JZF	7MHz	SSB	Graham
09:27z	G0HRT	7MHz	SSB	Rob
09:28z	G3VXJ	7MHz	SSB	Bob
09:28z	G0BFJ	7MHz	SSB	Brian
09:29z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB	Bill
09:29z	G0TRB	7MHz	SSB	Roger
09:29z	MM3PDM/M	7MHz	SSB	Peter
09:30z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
09:30z	2W0XOT	7MHz	SSB	John
09:31z	M0BKV	7MHz	SSB	Damian
09:32z	G4CQR	7MHz	SSB	Dave
09:32z	GW6PBW/P	7MHz	SSB	John
09:33z	G0FEX	7MHz	SSB	Ken
09:34z	GM1VUT	7MHz	SSB	Charlie
09:35z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
09:35z	G7AFM	7MHz	SSB	Phil
09:36z	G8MIA	7MHz	SSB	Andy
09:36z	2E0FGQ	7MHz	SSB	Nick
09:37z	M0GDJ	7MHz	SSB	Brian
09:40z	G4GEW	7MHz	SSB	Peter
09:42z	M0HEM	7MHz	SSB	John
09:42z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
09:44z	G7NLA	7MHz	SSB	Colin
09:48z	DJ5AV	7MHz	SSB	Michael

I had Alerted that I would also be on 60m so I quickly changed the links but it took many, many calls before Dave G0ELJ picked me up followed quickly by Brian G4ZRP and Don G0RQL. Don put up a spot for me but there were no takers......has 60m fallen out of favour with SOTA chaser or is it just band conditions??

09:53z	G0ELJ	5MHz	SSB	Dave
09:56z	G4ZRP	5MHz	SSB	Brian
09:58z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
10:20z	DL/G0EVV/P	7MHz	SSB	David s2s

Having been given the ‘heads up’ I ended the activation with an s2s with David DL/G0EVV/p over on DM/NS103 Wilseder Berg ...thanks David.  Thanks everyone for all the contacts, spots and ‘heads up’. 

The large plateau of Crugiau Merched with Pen y Fan and the Brecon Beacons in the distance 

Incidentally,  I’ve signed up with ARPOC Amateur Radio Portable Operators Club (see link on this blog..have a browse) so I may ask you for your Locator so that I can claim an award.

As band conditions have been a little ‘iffy’ over the last week my activations have been suspended in favour of catching up with the jobs that had piled up during our visit to Skye e.g . weeding etc :(   As soon as conditions improve I’ll be out and about again but until then.....

73 Allan GW4VPX