GW/NW-011 Arenig Fawr

2m FM alive and well on the mountains

GW/NW-011 Arenig Fawr

15/07/2015

It was a 7:30am start from home to make sure that we were ‘on summit’ by my alerted time.  Just Val and myself today making the journey to North Wales and it would be interesting to note the travel times as further NW summits are planned hopefully avoiding the need to use too many Bed & Breakfast.  As we started out it was obvious that it was going to be a glorious day with suntan lotion a priority.

Arenig Fawr in the centre with Craig y Hyrddod on the left

 My GPS track

There are a couple of routes  to take up to the summit and I opted for the one suggested by Barry M0IML which is also the same as the GPX track by Simon G4TJC on the SOTA mapping project  http://www.sotamaps.org/tracks.php  ...thank you both. We parked at SH82293926 (room for 2 cars on grass verge) and made our way along the track to SH816390 to the ladder stile.  

Along the track

Don’t cross the stile but head ESE, following but keeping to the left of the stone wall (boggy bit to begin with) all the way up Craig y Hyrddod then along ridge following  the fence and remnants of fence poles/stone wall to the summit.

Follow the wall and fence to the summit of Craig y Hyrddod

Nearly there :)

Follow the fence line..summit distant -right 

As we got closer to the summit it was evident from the 2m ‘chatter’ that there were many activators on the mountains today and I had a brief contact with Karen and Neil on a WOTA (Wainwrights on the Air).  Also a quick call to Viki to say we were nearly on summit as she was hinting that Rod and her were about to leave their summit... all the early contacts were on the basic FT270 set up as I really didn’t have a chance to put up the 2m dipole on the summit as s2s contacts came in quickly although I managed to get it and the HF dipole up during a lull in proceedings at about 11:50...

11:30z	MW6BWA/P	144MHz	FM	Viki s2s
11:32z	G0HRT/P	144MHz	FM	Rob s2s t2t also
11:38z	M0HQO/P	144MHz	FM	Peter s2s
11:44z	G3TQQ/P	144MHz	FM	s2s
11:45z	G4OOE/P	144MHz	FM	Nick s2s
12:00z	MW0JLA/P	144MHz	FM	Rod s2s
12:01z	MW6BWA/P	433MHz	FM	Viki s2s

GW4VPX/p on HF....Arenig Fach-right

Finishing with a 70cms contact with Viki using the FT817 I was conscious that Barry would be hovering somewhere on HF waiting to get an s2s with me.  I put a spot on Sotawatch using RRT and within seconds Bill G4WSB was calling me but we failed to complete the contact despite us both trying to repeat signal reports for quite a while....sorry Bill.  Both Don and Barry made it into the log but also reporting that the bands were not in good shape. ...despite repeated calls no other chasers were heard.

12:09z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don IO70uv
12:11z	M0IML/P	5MHz	SSB	Barry s2s

Trig and commemorative plaque to American airmen..showing signs of wear :(

Change of links and I spotted for 7.118 not realising that Nick G4OOE/p had also spotted at more or less exactly the same time...confusion.....thankfully not as Mike G6TUH came in and offered to spot me a little higher up so I announced a QSY and we were in business...thanks Mike.  Eleven chasers ( mainly EU) made the log including an s2s with Terry GM0VWP/p on GM/SI-006 (Goat Fell)...thanks Terry.

12:18z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
12:19z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
12:20z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois
12:21z	2E0ZBE	7MHz	SSB	John
12:22z	PA0SKP	7MHz	SSB
12:23z	GM0VWP/P	7MHz	SSB	Terry s2s
12:24z	PA0B	7MHz	SSB	Rob
12:24z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
12:24z	MM3PDM/P	7MHz	SSB	Peter
12:26z	PA9M	7MHz	SSB	Marcel
12:27z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro

 Now 2m was very busy and by now Karen and Neil were on another WOTA summit and both were kind enough to give me chance to get an s2s with Bob G6ODU/p on G/LD-050 Gummer’s How which overlooks Lake Windermere...thanks everyone.  I moved on to  145.500 and gave a few calls and it was nice to get a few coming back to my CQ including Jim EI9GLB (County Wexford) and Tony and Sara (Manchester)...thanks for the spot Tony.

12:51z	2E0TDX/P	144MHz	FM	Neil on LDW-028
12:52z	2E0XYL/P	144MHz	FM	Karen on LDW-028
12:53z	G6ODU/P	144MHz	FM	Bob s2s
12:56z	EI9GLB	144MHz	FM	Jim
12:57z	G4OYX	144MHz	FM	Dave
12:58z	M3NHA	144MHz	FM	Tony
12:58z	M6NHA	144MHz	FM	Sara
12:58z	2E0SEY/P	144MHz	FM	Jake
13:01z	2E1DTR	144MHz	FM	Brian

 Looking towards Snowdon

A quick cup of coffee and a sandwich (Val had finished a long time ago) then a change of links to 20m which produced a good run of chasers.  Manuel EA2DT (Pamplona)was so excited to get me his log as he had just come in from work, switched on and found me calling CQ SOTA...always nice to get you in the log Manuel.  Another happy chaser was Ed DD5LP as my summit points had pushed him over his 5k chaser points...well done Ed.  It was also nice to speak with Nick 9H3DD (Malta-M1DDD his UK callsign) and another highlight of my visit to 20m was an unexpected contact with Matthew KA1R (Stateside) with 5/5 each way. For those not familiar with Radio Amateur callsigns here is a quick run-down of some the countries contacted (for 40m and 20m).....Spain, Malta, Belgium, Austria, Bulgaria, Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Russia, Poland, Czech Republic and USA. Thanks everyone for the 20m contacts.....no linear today just 5 watts from the FT817....great stuff :)

13:15z	OE3KAB	14MHz	SSB	Karl
13:15z	OE5HDN	14MHz	SSB	Heinz-Dieter
13:16z	DF5WA	14MHz	SSB	Berthold
13:16z	SP9AMH	14MHz	SSB	Mariusz
13:16z	OK1SDE	14MHz	SSB	Borek
13:17z	EA2DT	14MHz	SSB	Manuel
13:18z	OE6GND	14MHz	SSB	Gerhard
13:18z	HB9MKV	14MHz	SSB	Rudi
13:19z	KA1R	14MHz	SSB	Matthew
13:20z	HB9CIC	14MHz	SSB	Josef
13:21z	DD5LP	14MHz	SSB	Ed
13:22z	LZ2LH	14MHz	SSB	Ivan
13:23z	RV9DC	14MHz	SSB	Sergei
13:24z	9H3DD	14MHz	SSB	Nick
13:25z	DK9CR	14MHz	SSB	Hans

 Looking towards the Lleyn peninsula

Looking North from Arenig Fawr

A few ‘final calls’ and I was back on 2m to pick up another s2s with Fred G4MWA/p on G/LD-007 (Fairfield) followed by a qso with Mike G4BLH, Karen and Neil on yet another Wainwright and ending with an s2s with Derek 2E0MIX/p on G/LD-006 (Pillar)

13:27z	G4MWA/P	144MHz	FM	Fred s2s
13:35z	G4BLH	144MHz	FM	Mike
13:36z	2E0TDX/P	144MHz	FM	Neil on LDW-023
13:37z	2E0XYL/P	144MHz	FM	Karen on LDW 023
13:44z	2E0MIX/P	144MHz	FM	Derek s2s

And finally...Congratulations to Karen 2E0XYL on reaching the magic 214 Wainrights activated for WOTA...already a Mountain Goat for SOTA...what next? (www.wota.org.uk)

Back up to NW next week hopefully so fingers crossed for a nice day but until then 73 and thanks for visiting the blog.  

Allan GW4VPX