GW/NW-038 Moel Ysgyfarnogod

A change in the weather?

GW/NW-038 Moel Ysgyfarnogod

10/10/2015

It took Val and I about two and half hours to reach the parking spot as described to me by Barry M0IML and the description by Gerald MW0WMLon  http://sotawatch.org/article.php?summit=GW/NW-038&id=11528 . Their instruction to the summit were very accurate and we didn’t put a foot wrong so thank you both.  It’s 3.39Km to the summit with the real summit not being visible until you are within a few 100m of it but once you reach it there is a wonderful vista towards North Wales and the Snowdonia range of mountains. The ‘Rhinogs’ had been on the plan for some time and formed part of our view from many summits during the summer...we had arrived for summit number one.

My GPS track 

From the parking spot..turn right at the farm..summit behind the telegraph post

The track..summit directly ahead but hidden 

One of two gates on the track

Bear left at the plantation

Final push towards the summit from the gated hole in the wall

Keep Foel Penolau on your right

Before I had finished connecting the FT817 to the linked dipole Wayne and Jonathan were calling from their respective SOTA summits and with Kieran, Doug and John followed in rapid succession ...I qualified the summit in 5 minutes. Thanks everyone.

11:25z	2W0WDS/P	144MHz	FM	Wayne s2s
11:25z	GW2HFR/P	144MHz	FM	Jonathan s2s
11:27z	M6AIF/P	144MHz	FM	Kieran
11:28z	2E0JBQ	144MHz	FM	Doug
11:30z	GW4ZPL/P	144MHz	FM	John

 Bothy bag deployed..cold wind on top

A text from Barry saying that he was on G/SE-015 Cheriton Hill meant I quickly plugged in the 817 and he was soon in the log handing over the frequency to me after a final call...thanks Barry.  It was a struggle as QSB was very rapid and reports had to be repeated quite a few times :)  Jonathan popped up again from GW/NW-066 Garn Boduan with a report that 40m was not in good shape including many contest stations.

11:44z	M0IML/P	5MHz	SSB	Barry s2s
11:47z	G7BGA	5MHz	SSB	Geoffrey
11:48z	G8ADD	5MHz	SSB	Brian
11:50z	M0YDH	5MHz	SSB	David
11:56z	M0MDA	5MHz	SSB	Mick
11:57z	GW2HFR/P	5MHz	SSB	Jonathan s2s diff band
11:58z	GM0GOV	5MHz	SSB	Fred

I self-spotted and Christophe came back almost immediately followed by Manuel. It was amazing that Juerg on F/JU-004 Crêt de la Goutte and I managed to get an s2s with the QRM that had now set in so thank you Juerg for the many repeats  and eventually the s2s :)  After an exchange of signal reports with Pedro I was ‘stamped upon’ and that ended my visit to 40m.

12:11z	ON6ZQ	7MHz	SSB	Christophe
12:12z	EA2DT	7MHz	SSB	Manuel
12:14z	F/HB9BIN/P	7MHz	SSB	Juerg s2s
12:16z	EA2CKX	7MHz	SSB	Pedro

Towards Rhinog Fawr

I then had a listen on 20m and found the contest in full swing so I decided  that an official visit to 2m was in order. With a spot up on Sotawatch I began calling with Wayne once again replying and requesting that I spot him on HF...I responded to his request (good phone signal today) and went back to calling on 2m...no takers? By now it was getting cold so thoughts were turning to pulling the plug and comments that our run of nice weather was coming to an end and winter woollies and thermals would have priority from now on.

Snowdon in the cloud...Moel Eilio centre

The cairn, the Trig TP4870...looking towards Porthmadog and the Lleyn Peninsula

With RRT informing me that Gerald had arrived on GW/NW-022 Moel Eilio I gave him a call with 5/9 reports both ways..... I could see his summit:) ...thanks Gerald. Now Phil G4OBK was spotted on 40m but by the time I had arrived on his frequency he had gone but I did manage to pick up Francois ON5SWA who was still there.

12:26z	2W0WDS/P	144MHz	FM	Wayne s2s again
12:47z	MW0WML/P	7MHz	SSB	Gerald s2s
12:50z	ON5SWA	7MHz	SSB	Francois

 Gerald's summit..Moel Eilio..to the right of centre

As I was dismantling the office we had a quick chat with another hill walker then once fully kitted up we checked the GPS and went in search of a Geocache....found it...filled in the log and left something in the box...I think this is Val’s new hobby when on a summit :)

My activation set up:-  (HF) Yaesu FT817 (5 watts) (4Ah LiPo),  4 band link dipole (60/40/20+15m), (VHF) Yaesu FT270 (5watts) into a ‘cable tie’ dipole.. Antenna support - 7m Fishing pole.

Thanks everyone for the contacts and spots.

73 Allan GW4VPX