Radio Tales from West Wales and beyond...: GW/NW-012 Cadair Berwyn

Reasonable band conditions today

GW/NW-012 Cadair Berwyn

06/08/2015

It was pouring with rain when we left home at 7:30am but trusting in the weather forecast our arrival at the Tan y Pistyll car park (£3 for the day) would coincide with sunshine and clear skies. Well not quite but we were happy that it had stopped raining and it looked a lot brighter than when we left home. Our intention was to activate the summit then on our return visit the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall some 200m from where we parked the car (SJ0739 2950).

My GPS track

Tan y Pistyll restaurant and car park

Gateway to the summit

It’s a 4.17km walk from the car park starting with a short stiff climb then easing off to a series of ascents interspersed with either flat or slightly down hill runs and following a fence for most of the way to Moel Sych where you head NE following another fence to the summit (boggy in places)

Follow the fence (looking back)

Moel Sych...follow the fence towards the summit

Best to avoid...my GPS tracks wobbles a bit here :) .. not as bad as it looks today

Misty as we approached the summit..soon clears :)

Cairn and Trig in the distance...I set up nearer the Trig but within both activation zones

I had heard John G4TQE/p calling from G/WB-003 Stiperstones so a quick call to tell him that I’d be ‘on summit’ in ten minutes resulted in an s2s on arrival....thanks John. By now the weather had changed completely and the sun was shining but we did have to find shelter from the stiff breeze that was blowing with a slightly chilling effect.

S2S :)

A self-spot via RRT for 60m to begin with brought a good run of regular chasers with reasonable signal reports so thanks everybody including Don RQL who was in the middle of lunch :)

11:42z	G4TQE/P	144MHz	FM	John s2s
12:00z	G0RQL	5MHz	SSB	Don
12:01z	GI4ONL	5MHz	SSB	Victor
12:02z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
12:04z	G6TUH	5MHz	SSB	Mike
12:06z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick
12:06z	GW6DGU	5MHz	SSB	Roy

I couldn’t believe my ears when I heard Mal calling CQ SOTA from Mynydd Sylen and we quickly exchanged reports...thanks to John MW0XOT for making Mal aware that I was calling him (didn’t know Mal was out). Fingers crossed I would get him on his next summit a little later in the day. With the linear plugged in I was away on 40m after another self-spot with a real good run of chasers from the UK and Europe.

12:11z	GW6OVD/P	144MHz	FM	Mal s2s
12:12z	GW4XXF	144MHz	FM	Angus
12:18z	G6TUH	7MHz	SSB	Mike
12:19z	G4WSB	7MHz	SSB
12:19z	M0IML	7MHz	SSB	Barry
12:21z	EI3GYB	7MHz	SSB	Michael
12:21z	GW6DGU	7MHz	SSB	Roy
12:22z	GW2HFR	7MHz	SSB	Jonathan
12:24z	MW0XOT	7MHz	SSB	John
12:25z	EI9GLB	7MHz	SSB	Jim
12:27z	G0FEX	7MHz	SSB	Ken
12:28z	G4OIG	7MHz	SSB	Gerald
12:28z	M3FEH	7MHz	SSB	Karl
12:29z	G0TDM	7MHz	SSB	John
12:29z	DF5WA	7MHz	SSB	Berthold
12:30z	GM4WHA	7MHz	SSB	Geoff
12:30z	G0TRB	7MHz	SSB	Roger
12:30z	MW0YCC	7MHz	SSB	Alan
12:31z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro
12:31z	G4OBB	7MHz	SSB	Des
12:32z	M3MPD	7MHz	SSB	Larry
12:33z	G0RQL	7MHz	SSB	Don
12:34z	PA7ZEE	7MHz	SSB	Geert
12:35z	MM0MUN	7MHz	SSB	Eddie
12:37z	G6ENN	7MHz	SSB	David ..qrp
12:38z	G0ELJ	7MHz	SSB	David

Llyn Lluncaws from the top of Cadair Berwyn

A quick link change, a self-spot and 20m brought an interesting run of chasers although a QSO started up a few minutes into my visit to the band so apologies if I had to call a few times for a repeat of callsigns.

12:57z	9A4ZZ	14MHz	SSB	Den
12:59z	DL2HWI	14MHz	SSB	Dietmar
12:59z	SP9AMH	14MHz	SSB	Mariusz
13:00z	LZ1ZC	14MHz	SSB	Ben
13:01z	S56IHX	14MHz	SSB	Marjan
13:01z	DK1DVM	14MHz	SSB	?
13:02z	EA2LU	14MHz	SSB	Jorge
13:03z	OE7FMH	14MHz	SSB	Franz
13:03z	IZ4TNM	14MHz	SSB	Mario
13:04z	I4XFY	14MHz	SSB	Roberto
13:06z	IK2XDF	14MHz	SSB	Gianpaolo - Paul
13:06z	SP9DPM	14MHz	SSB	Dariusz
13:07z	DL1DVE	14MHz	SSB	Thomas
13:07z	DD0VE	14MHz	SSB	Ralf
13:08z	RC7M	14MHz	SSB	Victor
13:08z	S56LXN	14MHz	SSB	Bojan
13:09z	UX1IM	14MHz	SSB	Oleg

Towards Snowdon from Cadair Berwyn

Time for a quick coffee and a sandwich then I told Val that I would finish the activation with a brief visit to 2m..we had been on summit for well over an hour. A quick call on 145.500Mhz brought Bill G4EHT to the log and my first entry for the Gold ARCOP award (signal reports and locator exchange needed for this award + photographic evidence). I’m glad I visited 2m as some had missed me on 40m. Even though Mike G4BLH had put up a spot for me there were no more takers after Tony and Sara so I set about taking down the HF antenna leaving 2m till last..good move...Mal was soon calling from Mynydd Betws and another s2s was in the bag...thanks Mal.

13:15z	G4EHT	144MHz	FM	Bill IO92cq
13:19z	2E0LMD	144MHz	FM	Anne
13:21z	M1CNL	144MHz	FM	Peter
13:22z	2E0LKC	144MHz	FM	Peter
13:24z	G4BLH	144MHz	FM	Mike
13:25z	M6UKC	144MHz	FM	Paul
13:28z	M3NHA	144MHz	FM	Tony
13:29z	M6NHA	144MHz	FM	Sara
13:35z	GW6OVD/P	144MHz	FM	Mal s2s

On our way down..Cadair Berwyn distant centre

We made our way off the summit with the intention of calling at the top of the Pistyll Rhaeadr waterfall...I did manage a few pictures but I’m not very good with heights especially sheer drops!! We made our way down, had a cup of coffee and I took some nice pictures from below the waterfall:)